Building common transport rules in the Exchange Online Control Panel

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This article will be showing you how to build some of the more common transport rules in the Exchange Online Control Panel.  With Transport Rules correctly configured, you can perform actions such as redirecting a message or adding recipients, rights-protecting messages, and rejecting or silently deleting a message.

  1. Log into the Microsoft Online Portal, and navigate the Exchange Online Control Panel (ECP)
  2. Change the view so you are managing the entire organization, and not just your individual mailbox
  3. On the left, select Mail Control and make sure you are viewing the Rules tab
  4. Click the New button to start building a new transport rule
  5. In the steps below, we’ve outlined how to build 3 of the more common transport rules that often confuse IT Admins:

a.      Block mails that contain attachments from external sources

i.       In the New Rule window, click More Options

ii.       Select If > Any attachment is larger than or equal to…

iii.       Enter 0 for the Attachment Size Limit (KB) and click OK, and this will catch all attachments

iv.       Click Add Condition and select The sender is external/internal

 v.       When prompted, choose From: Outside the organization

vi.       Lastly, under Do the Following, select Block the message and Reject the message and include an explanation

vii.       Enter an appropriate message for why you’ve decided to block external attachments and click OK

viii.       Name the rule, save it and verify it is enabled in the Rules list

b.        Redirect mail with specific words

i.       In the New Rule window, click More Options

ii.       Select If > The subject or body includes any of these words

 iii.       In the Specify words or phrases window that appears, enter the words or phrases you want to catch

iv.       Lastly, under Do the Following, select Redirect the message to… and select the people or groups you want the mail forwarded to from the People Picker

c.         Add disclaimer to all external bound emails

i.       In the New Rule window, click More Options

ii.       Select if The sender is external/internal

iii.       When prompted, choose From: Outside the organization

iv.       Next, under Do the following, select Apply a disclaimer to the message > Append a disclaimer

v.       When prompted, enter the text to display in the disclaimer

Name the rule, save it and verify it is enabled in the Rules list

 

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