SOHOLogics

Tackle Spam with Spambayes (1of2)

By: Christy Osborne

Spam is no longer mystery meat in a can—now it’s an annoying pop-up that interferes with your online experience!

Spam is no longer mystery meat in a can—now it’s an annoying pop-up that interferes with your online experience! Have no fear; with SpamBayes for Microsoft Outlook, you no longer need to suffer through a deluge of irritating messages.

What is SpamBayes? SpamBayes is an intelligent spam filter and message classifier for Microsoft Outlook. It categorizes and then sorts all incoming messages into three groups: “good” (ham), “spam,” and “unsure.” This is great for you because now you can enjoy un-interrupted email reading. SpamBayes is particularly beneficial because it is for lack of a better explanation, smart, because the application learns from your incoming messages as you go. Download SpamBayes today and make your messages oink, to do so, look below.

1. Go to:spambayes.sourceforge.net/windows.html.
2. Click download the installation program link.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the Save button, and then open the spambayes-1.0.4.exe download and click OK.
   
   
   
   
4. Work through the Setup Wizard, making sure to select the Microsoft Outlook Addin component.
   
   
   
   
5. Click Install and then Finish.

Now it’s time to play with your new toy! When you open up Microsoft Outlook, the SpamBayes Installation Wizard will appear. The SpamBayes Wizard will configure the process and commence filtering your mail. When stepping through the SpamBayes Wizard, you will have two options:

• “I will pre-sort some good and spam messages, and configure SpamBayes later” option, which allows the application to learn as it goes. If you choose this option, SpamBayes will consider all mail items unsure, and each item will be used to train. With this choice, SpamBayes will take longer to become effective, but on the upside, it will rarely make mistakes.
• “I will pre-sort some good and spam messages, and configure Spambayes later” option, allows you to pre-sort your mail into two folders. One folder would contain examples of good messages, and another would contain examples of spam. SpamBayes will then process all these messages gathering the clues it uses to filter mail. With this option, SpamBayes will be immediately effective at correctly classifying your mail. After training your SpamBayes, do you still feel as though it’s lying down on the job? If your application incorrectly classifies incoming messages or lets Spam slide, click the Delete as Spam button located on the toolbar to make the message 'spam' or 'good.'

There you have it. You'll be on your way to catching all those pesky spam messages instead of having them show up in your Inbox. Stay tuned for part two which will talk about some of the more advanced features SpamBayes has to offer for your evil spam problems.