I currently use MailWasher Pro to filter spam. Unfortunately it's not
sufficient. It doesn't act as a proxy, so as a result I still see spam
when I get email if the spam arrives in between the time I process the
mail with MailWasher Pro and the time I download the mail with Eudora
Pro.

It also doesn't do anything automatically, so if I check my mail on my
pda then the account will be filled up with spam. I'd like a solution
that continually pulled email from the account and did whatever it's
supposed to do.

Incidentally, I have a variety of aliases to a single email account,
but almost all spam is sent to two of those addresses. However, I
can't cancel those two because one of them is the real address that
the aliases point to, and the other is one that I still get valid
email at. So, it would be cool if I could have spam filtering turned
up high for those addresses, but much more careful on the other
addresses. I don't know if that's possible because the headers for
most spam is faked, so it's sometimes impossible to determine which
address the mail was actually sent to.

TO SUMMARIZE:
  I'm using Win2k with Eudora Pro.
  I want the spam filter to act as a proxy that Eudora can connect to.
  I want it to work continually so I can use web email and not see much spam.

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Request for Question Clarification by aht-ga on 22 Mar 2004 18:00 PST

I too use Mailwasher Pro, and I too use a local mail proxy between my
mail client (Outlook Express in my case) and my POP3 server(s). So, I
can actually answer your question based on my own configuration, if
you can clarify something for me:

- are you looking for freeware solutions, or are you willing to accept
shareware solutions that have some cost involved?

- how many mail servers do you interface with, and what type of
servers are they (POP3, IMAP, Exchange, Domino, etc.)?

Thanks,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

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Clarification of Question by mxnmatch-ga on 22 Mar 2004 18:04 PST

Shareware is fine if it's the best solution.

I always use pop3 except when I use my pda. On my pda I use webmail.

At the moment I only connect to one pop3 account, but I don't want to
rule out the possibility of using multiple ones in the future.

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Request for Question Clarification by aht-ga on 22 Mar 2004 21:29 PST

mxnmatch-ga:

I was re-reading your question before answering it, and I realized
that I missed one of your requirements. Namely, the last one, about
wanting the solution to work even when you are not at your computer,
so that you can benefit from its assistance even when using webmail or
your pda.

For this last part, you already have one of the best solutions
available, Mailwasher Pro. It's a matter of using the best available
filter settings, and configuring the program to suit your needs.

May I approach the answer in the following way, instead?

1. Provide you with a couple of options for anti-spam proxies that
work with Eudora to provide positive spam fighting even after
Mailwasher has done its job;

2. Provide you with links to Mailwasher filters that can be configured
to automatically remove the majority of your spam automatically, even
if you are not at the computer; this will help with fighting spam when
you are using webmail and wireless mail through your PDA.

Would this form of answer be acceptable to you?

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

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Clarification of Question by mxnmatch-ga on 23 Mar 2004 23:03 PST

Sure, that sounds good. I've heard that the best solution is SpamBayes
or something like that, but that it requires Linux, so that's probably
not an option since I don't want to set up a separate server right
now.

mxmatch-ga:

Thanks for this opportunity to help you with your question.

As I mentioned above, I will answer this question in two parts:

1. Suggestions for e-mail proxies that will intermediate between your
e-mail client (Eudora) and your POP3 server.

2. Recommmendations on how to get the most out of Mailwasher Pro, to
provide maximum protection against spam when you are using webmail
and/or your PDA.



=========================================

E-mail Proxies
--------------

First, I will refer you to a good resource on this topic, PC
Magazine's list of anti-spam tools:

http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,4148,4795,00.asp

As you will see from their ratings, the most highly rated product is
Norton's AntiSpam 2004. It works relatively seamlessly, looking at
your outgoing mail as a good indication of what mail is acceptable to
you.

In addition to Norton AntiSpam 2004, though, I am going to suggest
that you take a look at two other products, SA Proxy Pro and
Spamihilator.

SA Proxy Pro used to be free; in fact, I still use an earlier version
of the program that was released as freeware (sadly, no longer
available for download). Its current version, though, is worth the
price because it makes good use of the open-source Spam Assassin
anti-spam database that is among the most popular anti-spam (and
therefore most up-to-date) databases available. Open-source
server-based applications running on Linux power many of the anti-spam
solutions in academic and corporate environments; the SAProxy client
lets you take advantage of the sheer volume of detections that are
used to update the Spam Assassin database.

You can read more about it, and download a trial version, here:

http://www.statalabs.com/products/saproxy/overview.php


The other application I will suggest you look at is a freeware program
called Spamihilator. While Spamihilator uses Bayesian filtering just
like SAProxy Pro, it does not tap into the Spam Assassin database.
This means that you need to train it a lot more than with SAProxy Pro.
However, there are quite a few plugins available for this free program
to allow you to begin approaching the utility of SAProxy Pro. When
used in conjunction with Mailwasher Pro, Spamihilator may be
sufficient for your needs.

http://www.spamihilator.com/

Both programs (SAProxy Pro and Spamihilator) come with relatively
clear installation instructions for integrating them with your e-mail
client.

=========================================

Mailwasher Filters
------------------

To make best use of your investment in Mailwasher Pro, I recommend
that you download and configure the latest set of Mailwasher filters
available here:

http://www.w5hq.com/MailWasher/
http://www.computercops.biz/postt3584.html

After you follow the instructions contained in the downloadable text
file at the first link, you can configure these filters in Mailwasher.
You will note that, in Mailwasher Pro 3.4, you are able to control
quite precisely how each filter operates. One setting in particular
that you will be interested in is the radio button selection between
processing the filter actions when you click the "Process Mail"
button, or processing them automatically right away.

What I suggest you do, is enable the filters that you think will help
you the most, then go a few weeks with the radio button in each of
these filters set to the "Process Mail" setting. After a while, you
will develop a sense of comfort that some of the filters are not
giving you false positives. For these, you can go in and set them to
process automatically. You can also set the actions to include Delete.
Since this will then delete the message from the server, you will no
longer be able to access or see the affected messages through any
interface, webmail and wireless PDAs included.

Obviously, I strongly urge you to take your time before turning on any
of the filters to automatically delete messages. For myself, the only
filters that I have set to automatically delete are the ones for Virus
attachments. Sure, there are probably others that have not had a false
positive on over six months; however, I'm paranoid about losing valid
mail, and I tend not to get that much spam these days (as in, it is
now less than 50% of all incoming mail across all my aliases, thanks
greatly to Mailwasher Pro's bounce capabilities I think).


I hope that this helps you. Please let me know if you would like
clarification to any part of this answer.

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

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Clarification of Answer by aht-ga on 23 Mar 2004 23:54 PST

One more thing... you mention that you have several aliases pointing
to one physical account, and that it seems the bulk of your spam is
coming into the physical address and one of the aliases.

You can, and should, create a filter that looks for these addresses in
the To: and CC: fields, to handle them differently. Depending on
whether the valid mail coming to these addresses is being sent by
friends, or automated systems, you should be able to set up filters to
look for key-phrases or specific senders (such as mailing lists) for
incoming mail on those accounts, and to reject everything else as
spam. A bit drastic, perhaps, but then again, it is easier to train
your friends and mailing lists to use a different address, than it is
to convince the spammers to remove the address from their spam lists!

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Clarification of Answer by aht-ga on 24 Mar 2004 15:53 PST

mxnmatch-ga:

You may have already noticed that Mailwasher Pro 4.0 was released
today. This upgrade brings with it a few more capabilities for spam
management, including the opportunity to subscribe (for $7 a year) to
the FirstAlert! service, a network of other MailWasher Pro users who
help to identify spam as soon as it is released into the wild,
allowing subscribers to automatically eliminate it. I participated in
the beta trial of FirstAlert; I found that it was only useful when
used in conjunction with all of the other techniques I have mentioned
above, and in conjunction with the SpamCop and ORDB databases. In
fact, I found that I was flagging new spam for FirstAlert, more often
than spam was being flagged for me by FirstAlert.

The rest of the updates to Mailwasher Pro 4.0 make upgrading (free for
registered users) a worthwhile activity. However, you are still best
off applying the techniques and filters I described above.

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher