SOLUTION · INBOUND

Inbound FilteringA spam filter that works before mail reaches your server

Inbound filtering is the inspection of email sent to you before it reaches your server; think of it as a spam filter that sits in front of your server. A suspicious message never enters your inbox: it waits in quarantine, sits in the panel with the reason it was held, and you release it with one click if you want it.

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Direction: Inbound only
Setup: One step: MX record · ~5 minutes
Checks: Reputation · recipient · SPF/DKIM/DMARC · content · virus
Outcome: Deliver · quarantine · reject
Starts at: $49 USD / mo

WHAT GETS BLOCKED

What does the spam filter stop before it reaches your inbox?

Unsolicited bulk mail

Advertising, newsletters and bulk campaigns, filtered by combining sender reputation with a content score.

Phishing and fraud

Fake invoice, shipping and payment notices, bank impersonation and CEO-fraud attempts.

Viruses and ransomware

Malicious attachments, files hidden inside archives and macro-bearing documents, caught by signature and behaviour scanning.

Spoofed senders

Messages impersonating your domain and look-alike domains, detected via SPF, DKIM and DMARC records.

An email message carrying a malicious attachment and a warning sign

INSPECTION ORDER

What does the spam filter put an email through, in order?

The order is deliberate: cheap checks run first and expensive analysis is applied only to messages that survive them. That lowers load and speeds up the decision.

An inbox before filtering: rows of spam and phishing subject lines — The input to the chain: unfiltered inbound traffic. The six checks beside it sift through this.

Connection and IP reputationSMTP handshake

The sending server’s IP reputation, reverse DNS record and known blocklist status are evaluated during the first handshake. Known bad sources are rejected before the message body is even received.

Envelope and recipient verificationRecipient check

Whether the recipient address really exists on your server is verified. Bulk attempts against non-existent mailboxes (dictionary attacks) stop here and never reach your server.

Sender authenticationSPF · DKIM · DMARC

SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are checked. Spoofed senders impersonating your domain and look-alike domains are caught at this stage.

Content and phishing analysisAI-assisted

Subject, body, links and sending behaviour are scored together. Separate rules run for Turkish-language phishing patterns such as fake invoice, shipping and payment notices.

Attachment and malware scanningVirus · ransomware

Attachments are scanned by signature- and behaviour-based engines, including files inside archives. Risky file types can be blocked according to your organisation’s policy.

Decision and deliveryLogged

All collected signals combine into a single decision: deliver, quarantine or reject. The reason for the decision and its timestamp are logged.

THE DECISION

Every message ends in one of three outcomes

Deliver

Clean messages are forwarded to your mail server. If it is temporarily unreachable the message is queued and retried, never lost.

Quarantine

Suspicious messages are held before they reach your inbox. They are listed in the panel with sender, subject and reason; you release them with one click or whitelist the sender.

Reject

Clearly malicious messages are rejected at SMTP level; the sender gets an error and nothing is written on your side. The rejection is still visible in the panel.

A stack of email marked as spam and separated before reaching the inbox — Quarantined and rejected messages: they never enter the inbox, and the record stays in the panel.

SETUP

A single DNS record is enough

No software is installed and your mailboxes are untouched. You point your domain’s MX record to MXGate and inbound traffic is inspected from that moment on.

DNS · MX RECORD example

# Replace your domain’s MX records with MXGate
ornek.com.  IN  MX  10  mx1.mxgate.com.tr.
ornek.com.  IN  MX  20  mx2.mxgate.com.tr.

# Add to your SPF record for sender authentication
ornek.com.  IN  TXT "v=spf1 include:spf.mxgate.com.tr ~all"

Host names and priority values are provided for your account, and the technical team applies them with you during setup. If you also want to send outbound email through MXGate, see outbound filtering.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about the spam filter and inbound filtering

What is inbound filtering?

Inbound filtering is the inspection of email sent to you before it reaches your mail server; it is a business spam filter running in front of the server. Messages are examined for sender reputation, authentication records, content and attachments. Clean ones are forwarded to your server, suspicious ones are quarantined and clearly malicious ones are rejected.

Are a spam filter and inbound filtering the same thing?

Two names for the same job, with different scope. A classic spam filter usually sits on the mailbox or on top of the mail server and runs after the message has entered the server. Inbound filtering is a spam filter that runs in front of the server, at MX record level: the message is inspected before it ever reaches your server, so unwanted traffic never loads your server and the quarantine decision is made outside it.

Do I need to install software on my server?

No. Inbound filtering is enabled with a single DNS change: you point your domain’s MX record to the MXGate servers. Your mail server, mailboxes and existing settings stay exactly as they are.

How do I recover an email that was blocked by mistake?

Quarantined messages are listed in the per-domain panel with sender, subject and the reason they were blocked. You can release them with one click, whitelist the sender or permanently relax the rule. Rejected messages are logged in the same panel.

Will my incoming email be delayed?

No. Inspection happens in real time on our servers and typically takes under a second. Because the data center is in Turkey, there is no added latency for domestic traffic. If your server is temporarily unreachable, messages are held in a queue and retried at regular intervals.

What is the difference between inbound and outbound filtering?

Inbound filtering inspects the email sent to you and protects your inbox. Outbound filtering inspects the email leaving your server; it stops compromised accounts from sending spam and protects your IP reputation and delivery rate. Used together, the two directions provide complete coverage.

Last updated: 10.09.2026 · Source: MXGate platform data, 2026