SOHOLogics

Ham is Back on the Menu—Bon Appetit!

By: Christy Osborne

Spam and malicious emails got you down? Starving for a reprieve? Look no further, Spambayes will protect your email account by destroying harmful spam.

In last month's newsletter, we explored the benefits of SpamBayes for Microsoft Outlook users. This program searches through your Outlook folders to eliminate spam and while keeping good emails, known as ham. Now, let's learn how to train SpamBayes to search and destroy spam while leaving the ham of your email account untouched.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook. Locate the Spambayes item menu, and click the SpamBayes drop-down box, then, select SpamBayes Manager.
   
   
   
   
2. Once the Manager window appears, select the Training tab.
   
   
   
   
3. Next, select the Browse button for the Folders with known good messages, and select the folders that generally contain good messages. Then, do the same for the Folders with spam or other junk messages. You must select at least one folder for each.
   
   
   
   
4. Then click the Start Training button. The Training session will run, scoring the messages within the selected folders. Afterward, the program will record a scoring of the messages and find the spam and ham--a.k.a. the good, the bad, and the ugly--of your mailbox.

Two other options are located below within the Incremental Training field. These configuration tactics are long-term, allowing SpamBayes to learn the differences between spam and ham as you move emails between folders.