Enable or Disable Content Filtering

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Topic Last Modified: 2012-07-23

By default, in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, content filtering is enabled on the Edge Transport server only for inbound, unauthenticated messages from the Internet. These messages are handled as external messages.

Looking for other management tasks related to anti-spam and antivirus features? Check out Managing Anti-Spam and Antivirus Features.

Prerequisites

Review Understanding Anti-Spam and Antivirus Functionality to understand the general strategy for configuring all anti-spam agents so that they work together efficiently for your organization.
Read Understanding Content Filtering.

Use the EMC to enable or disable content filtering

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Anti-spam features" entry in the Transport Permissions topic.

Open the EMC on the Edge Transport server.
In the console tree, click Edge Transport.
In the work pane, click the Anti-spam tab, and then select Content Filtering.
In the action pane, click Enable or Disable as appropriate.

Use the Shell to enable or disable content filtering

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Anti-spam features" entry in the Transport Permissions topic.

This example enables content filtering.

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Set-ContentFilterConfig -Enabled $true

This example disables content filtering.

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Set-ContentFilterConfig -Enabled $false

Use the Shell to enable or disable content filtering for internal and external messages

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Anti-spam features" entry in the Transport Permissions topic.

Note:
You can't use the EMC to enable or disable content filtering for internal and external messages.

This example enables content filtering for external messages.

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Set-ContentFilterConfig -ExternalMailEnabled $true

This example disables content filtering for external messages.

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Set-ContentFilterConfig -ExternalMailEnabled $false

Note:
By default, content filtering functionality is enabled for external messages.

This example enables content filtering for internal messages.

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Set-ContentFilterConfig -InternalMailEnabled $true

This example disables content filtering for internal messages.

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Set-ContentFilterConfig -InternalMailEnabled $false

Note:
As a best practice, you should not filter messages from trusted partners or from inside your organization. When you run anti-spam filters, there's always a chance that the filters will detect false positives. To reduce the chance that filters will mishandle legitimate e-mail messages, you should enable anti-spam agents to run only on messages from potentially untrusted and unknown sources.

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-ContentFilterConfig.