Background Information on Districts Email Filter Several years ago HCISD implemented a hardware solution called - Barracuda, to help eliminate spam and viruses for our District. On average the Barracuda Firewall can receive 15,000 emails per day with the majority being spam related emails. These e-mails are all obvious spam or junk mostly pertaining to selling watches, diet pills, pornography, and prescription drugs.  Even more critical than junk and spam are the viruses that are being blocked by the filter.  If these viruses were able to get through, we would have many problems on the district network down to every individual computer. The attacks are now very minimal. What is SPAM? E-mail spam, also known as unsolicited bulk email or unsolicited commercial email, is the practice of sending unwanted e-mail messages, frequently with commercial content, in large quantities to an indiscriminate set of recipients. Spam is a real problem. The issue with anti-spam filters is that they can block legitimate email as well. Assuming that your email to other places is working, it's quite possible that that's what you're seeing. Legitimate email typically gets erroneously blocked for a couple of reasons: either our Barracuda Firewall thinks your email looks too much like spam, or it thinks that you're sending it from an address that is or has been accused of being a spammer. Click here for more on SPAM Which types of attachments are not allowed through the Districts Email filter? Executable files and compressed files are not allowed through district e-mail because viruses can be easily hidden in these types of files. File Extension types not allowed include: bat, cmd, exe, gif, rar, scr, tif, and zip Why didn't my email get through the District 1. First step is to see that the recipients email address is correct. If it is then move on to the second solution. 2. Eight times out of 10, email that gets blocked is the result of pictures with a file type .gif embedded in the email. Usually, they are either background pictures or logos and other pictures in the signature file of the user. If we unblock these images, we will get flooded again by spam and viruses. We usually ask the end user to delete the pictures or backgrounds and try again and the email gets through with no problem. See example 3. The email's total file size was larger than 4MB. The attachment is larger than 4MB. The email contains a .zip, or .exe attachment. What can you do? When you have a user that isn't able to send email to the District, first ask them if they have any pictures or logos in their email. If they do, ask them to delete them and try again. If this fixes the problem, then nothing further is needed. If a user is sending an email with a picture that is of the file type .jpg, then the email will go through. Backgrounds and pictures in our emails that are just aesthetic and not part of the communication just take up valuable server space. Did you know that Region I and the City of Harlingen both use the same Barracuda? This is something that quite a few school districts use and therefore will be around for a while. If you have tried these solutions and simply can't get through, have the user send an email to: hcisdemail@yahoo.com and we will find a solution. We will check this account every day and fix each problem as we find it. We will then send you and the individual an email confirming that a solution has been found. If you have any questions or concerns please email me, Javier Araiza Jr., District Webmaster, or call me at 430-9535.