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When the mail server sends an "Over Quota" warning it means your mail account has exceeded (or will soon exceed) the default email account space limitation of 500MB . If the issue is not addressed and the quota is reached, you will not be able to send mail and new mail addressed to you will be returned to the sender.

While the best strategy to avoid getting close to the quota is to be vigilant about managing your mail on a daily basis, if you get an "Over Quota" warning, and are using outlook , follow the suggestions below for some relatively quick relief, otherwise, login to your webmail and delete the messages manually

Suggestion #1: empty your trash

In Outlook, right-click the Trash folder and select Empty "Trash" Folder from the popup menu. In Webmail, right-click the Trash mailbox and choose Empty Trash.

To have Outlook automatically empty the trash every time you exit the program, click Tools, select Options, then click the [Other] tab. Check "Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting", then click the [OK] button.

Suggestion #2: delete copies of mail already sent

Most of us don't need to retain a copy of every message we've sent. To delete all sent mail in Outlook, open the Sent mailbox, click Edit, Select All, then hit the [Delete] key. In Webmail, click the Sent mailbox to open it, click the checkbox at the top of the checkbox column to select all messages in the mailbox, then click the Delete button.

To delete some, but not all, sent mail, open the Sent mailbox and select individual messages before deleting. To select a range of messages, click the first one in the range then shift-click the last one. (Hold the [Shift] key and click the message.) To select multiple individual messages, control-click each message. (Hold the [Ctrl] key while clicking each message.)

Note that every time you send an attachment to someone, a copy of the attached file is created in your Sent folder. Sending multiple versions of the same document to colleagues can quickly add up to a lot of unnecessary files in your Sent mailbox. An easy strategy for quickly cleaning up your mail account is to delete the attachments in your Sent mailbox. (Remember—the originals already exist somewhere else.)

If you need to save sent messages, consider how long you need to retain them, then sort the mailbox by date and use the range selection method above to easily delete messages that are no longer needed. If you need to retain all sent messages, consider archiving them on your hard drive instead of leaving them on the mail server. (See Suggestion #6 below.)

Suggestion #3: get tough where it will count the most

The biggest bang for your cleanup buck will come from weeding folders with lots of mail. To identify the mailbox folders with the most content in Outlook, click Tools, select Mailbox Cleanup, then click "View Mailbox Size." After a few minutes of calculation, a list of all folders and their sizes will appear. Although most people prefer to clean up each folder individually (see the next suggestion), a more general clean up can be done by using Find items older than [xx] days or Find items larger than [xx]MB. (And after using one method, use the other.) When the list appears, review it and move critical emails to another folder before clicking Edit, Select All, then hitting the [Delete] key. If you want to archive messages, DO NOT use the "AutoArchive" method that's offered. Instead, refer to the manual archiving instructions in Suggestion #6.

Suggestion #4: pick a reason...any reason

You can usually find some criteria to aid in deleting messages, e.g., old stuff, large messages, messages with a common subject line, all those "just saying hi" messages from family members, etc. To identify messages ripe for deletion, open any mailbox in Outlook and click on a column heading to sort its messages by that criterion. The default column that Outlook sorts by is "Received", but you can also sort by "From", "Subject", "Size", or whether the message has an attachment that you might want to save to a local or network drive.

In Webmail, mailboxes can be sorted by To/From, Subject, and Date, but the Advanced Search feature allows you to find messages based on just about any criterion, including presence of an attachment, age, and message size. No matter how you identify messages for potential deletion, use the selection techniques in Suggestion #2 to select multiple messages before deleting.

Suggestion #5: get rid of attachments

Attachments tend to be in file formats that take up lots of space. Getting rid of unwanted attachments or multiple copies of attachments can free up lots of space really quickly. (And really, how many photos of Grandpa Bill and the kids do you need?) To get rid of an attachment and its message, just delete the message. To retain the message but delete the attachment, open the message in Outlook, right-click the attachment name in the header of the message, and select Remove from the popup menu. When prompted to save the changes, click the [Yes] button.

If you want to retain an attached file but don't need its message, save the attachment to a local or network drive. To do so in Outlook, open the message and right-click the attachment name in the header of the message. From the popup menu select Save As..., browse to the location where the file is to be saved (e.g., My Documents\Email Attachments), then click the [OK] button to save the file.

In Webmail, open the message then click the Download link off to the right of the attachment filename. Save the file to your preferred location.

After saving the attachment, delete the message so the attachment is removed from the mail server.

Suggestion #6: archive it

Archiving mailbox folders provides a way to keep message contents and still view them in Outlook, but only on the computer to which you archive them. Archived folders reside on the computer's hard drive, not on the mail server, and do not show up in Webmail (or the folders appear to be empty). To archive a folder in Outlook, click on File, select New, then click Outlook Data File..., and choose the option "Office Outlook Personal Folders File." It’s important to NOT change the default save location (...\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook ). Name the file the same as the mailbox folder and click the [OK] button. In the "Name: " field use the same filename given to the Outlook data file.

Archived folders will appear below your list of email folders. To move the messages from the mailbox folder into the archive folder, open the mailbox folder, click Edit, then Select All. Click Edit, Move to Folder, select the archive folder, and click the [OK] button.

Suggestion #7: get some help

Call your IT tech support and to schedule an appointment with him to help you in this matter. They usually can help you figure out the best approach for managing your mail.

In order to adjust your spam filter go to the following link :

http://www.solution21.com/home/login.htm

and enter your full email address and password in the "Email Login" section.  (refer to How to check your email online)

Click on Permissions and make sure 'spam filter management' is set to 'Yes'.

Then click on 'Spam Filter' button

1. If you wish to adjust the spam filter's sensitivity, type the desired value in the The score that a message must receive to qualify as spam box.

SpamAssassin performs a number of different tests on contents and subject line of each message. As a result, each message scores a number of points. The higher the number, the more likely a message is spam. For example, a message containing the text string "BUY MEDICATION AT LOW PRICE!!!" in Subject line and message body scores 8.3 points. By default, the filter sensitivity is set so that all messages that score 7 or more points are classified as spam.

When your users receive lots of spam messages with the current setting, to make filter more sensitive, try setting a lesser value in the The score that a message must receive to qualify as spam box; for example, 6.

When your users are missing e-mails because your spam filter thinks they are junk, try reducing filter sensitivity by setting a higher value in the The score that a message must receive to qualify as spam box.

2. Specify how to mark messages recognized as spam.

To include a desired combination of symbols or words to the message subject, type it into the Add the following text to the beginning of subject of each message recognized as spam box. If you do not want the spam filter to modify message subject, leave this box blank. If you want to include into the subject line the number of points that messages score, type _SCORE_ in this box.

3. If you do not want  to receive e-mail from specific domains or individual senders, click the Black List tab, and then add the respective entries to the spam filter's black list:

To add entries to the black list, click Add Addresses. If you have a list of entries stored in a file, click Browse to specify it, and then click OK. Otherwise, select the From List option, and type the e-mail addresses into the E-mail addresses box. Place each address in one row, or separate addresses with a coma, a colon, or a white space. You can use an asterisk (*) as a substitute for a number of letters, and question mark (?) as a substitute for a single letter.

For example: address@spammers.net, user?@spammers.net, *@spammers.net. Specifying *@spammers.net will block the entire mail domain spammers.net. To save the entries you added, click OK, then confirm adding, and click OK again.
To remove entries from the black list, under the Black List tab, select the entries and click Remove Selected. Confirm removal and click OK

4. If you want to be sure that you  will not miss e-mail from specific senders, click the White List tab, and then add e-mail addresses or entire domains to the spam filter's white list:

To add entries to the white list, click Add Addresses. If you have a list of entries stored in a file, click Browse to specify it, and then click OK. Otherwise, select the From List option, and type the e-mail addresses into the E-mail addresses box. Place each address in one row, or separate addresses with a coma, a colon, or a white space. You can use an asterisk (*) as a substitute for a number of letters, and question mark (?) as a substitute for a single letter.

For example: address@mycompany.com, user?@mycompany.com, *@mycompany.com. Specifying *@mycompany.com will add to the white list all e-mail addresses that are under the mycompany.com mail domain. To save the entries you added, click OK, then confirm adding, and click OK again.
To remove entries from the white list, under the White List tab, select the entries and click Remove Selected. Confirm removal and click OK

Once finished with setting up the spam filter click OK (if spam filter is off, you will see 'Switch On' button, so click the Switch On icon, and then OK.

Now all the incoming mail will be filtered on the server side. By default, spam filter does not delete spam mail, it only adds the "X-Spam-Flag: YES" and "X-Spam-Status: Yes" headers to the message, and "*****SPAM*****" text string to the beginning of Subject line of each message recognized as spam.

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Why should I call my ISP for outgoing mail

If you are having problem sending out email from a mail client such as Outlook, Outlook Express or Thunderbird when attempting at home or the office, it is possible that your ISP is blocking the outbound SMTP port (Port 25).

Many ISPs are blocking what is called "Port 25" which is the port used to send e-mail. All e-mail sent via the Internet is routed through the port 25, the channel used for communication between an e-mail client and an e-mail server.

They are doing this to cut down on the amount of spam that is sent from their networks. Even though port 25 blocking became an industry standard, however, some ISP still keep it open or filter it over time.

The ISPs that block port 25 require their SMTP server to be used instead of the remote SMTP server.

While we highly recommend using your ISP for outgoing server, you have the ability to get around this blocking temporarily by specifying a secondary port in your e-mail client. For instance, you can set Outlook/Outlook express to use port 587 for SMTP, this will then use port 587 to send the message to the server.

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