How to Set Up and Manage BoxTrapper Filter

BoxTrapper is a powerful, user-managed spam filter that requires email senders not on your approved list to respond to a verification email before their message reaches your inbox. This article will walk you through setting up BoxTrapper, managing whitelists, blacklists, and logs to maintain a spam-free inbox.

• What is BoxTrapper?
• Enabling BoxTrapper
• Whitelists, Blacklists, Ignore Lists
• Adjusting Logs

What is BoxTrapper?

BoxTrapper is a user-managed filter that limits who can send you mail by requiring any sender that has not been added to your approved list of addresses ('whitelist') to reply to a verification email before you can receive their mail. BoxTrapper returns a confirmation email to senders, who must reply before their email is delivered to your email address. A verified address is added to your whitelist.

Alternatively, any email address you send to is automatically added to your whitelist. 

Enabling BoxTrapper

BoxTrapper can be accessed by following the steps below:

1. Log in to your Account Login Links.
2. Once logged in, find and click the Hosting tab on the left side of your Account Manager dashboard.
3. Choose the Hosting Package name you want to manage under the All My Hosting Packages section. 
   • If you have multiple Hosting packages on your account, click the MANAGE button on the Hosting package you want to manage.
   • If you only have a single Hosting package on your account, you will be rerouted to the Hosting Overview page. 
4. Click on the cPANEL button under the Quick Links section.
5. Click the BoxTrapper link under the EMAIL section.
   When accessing BoxTrapper from your cPanel, you will be presented with a list of each manageable email account:
   • Manage to enable/disable the trapper
   • Edit the whitelist
   • Ignore list and blacklist settings
   • Customize your verification and blacklist messages
   • Set up forward lists
   • Review the mail logs to see what emails are not being delivered

Whitelists, Blacklists, Ignore Lists

The whitelist is a list of content that will be allowed into your inbox after the address has confirmation.

The ignore list is a list of users or subjects whose email you do not wish to receive. (These messages will not receive any notification or reply.)

The blacklist is a list of content you do not wish to receive in email. The sender of blacklisted content will also receive a warning message of your choice.

Adjusting BoxTrapper Logs

BoxTrapper logs can quickly grow to a considerable size, depending on the amount of traffic your email account is receiving. You can help address this by setting how many days BoxTrapper will keep the mail logs on the server:

1. Click on Boxtrapper Spam Trap under Email Management.
2. Click Manage next to the email address you want to adjust.
3. Click Configure Settings.
4. Type a new number into the third text field, "How many days should logs and messages in queue be kept?" and click Save.

This must be done for each user, as each user's settings are independently managed. 

Summary

BoxTrapper filter helps keep your inbox clean by allowing only verified senders. By managing whitelists, blacklists, and logs, you can maintain a secure and spam-free email environment. Enable BoxTrapper in Bluehost’s cPanel to start managing your email filters more effectively.