Reducing Unsolicited IM for Lync Server 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2011-02-21

The Intelligent IM Filter application helps protect your Microsoft Lync Server 2010 deployment against the most common viruses with minimal degradation to the user experience. The Intelligent IM Filter provides the following:

• Enhanced URL filtering

• Enhanced file transfer filtering

Use Intelligent IM Filter to configure filters to block unsolicited or potentially harmful instant messages from unknown endpoints outside the corporate firewall. You configure filters by specifying the criteria to be used to determine what should be blocked, such as instant messages containing hyperlinks and files with specific extensions.

Before you deploy the Intelligent IM Message Filter application, you should understand how filtering options are applied when messages are routed from one Lync Server 2010 server to another. The way these filtering options are applied is consistent, regardless of whether the servers are located in a single organization or across organizational boundaries. This consistency applies to the way that the customized notice, and warning texts are inserted into messages and sent across servers.

The recommended filtering option is to allow instant messages with hyperlinks but require the Intelligent IM Filter to disable the link by inserting an underscore before it. If you choose this option, you have the additional option of composing a notice to users that appears at the beginning of each instant message that contains a hyperlink.

A second filtering option is to allow instant messages with unmodified hyperlinks. If you choose this option, you have the additional option (recommended) of composing a warning to users that is inserted in each message.

A third option is to block all instant messages that contain hyperlinks. If you choose this option, the server sends a warning to the user. You must write this warning.