I typically work with server based spam filters but have recently gotten queries from some about what to use for a desktop based filter. I don't know anything about them.

Suggestions? What features does the one(s) you use utilize?

TIA

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I've had very nice results using SpamBayes. It doesn't use a canned set of filters, but instead trains on the user's mail. One can train it quickly if a lot of "good" and "bad" e-mail ("ham" and "Spam" in their parlance) is already on hand. Alternately, one can start from scratch and let it learn as it goes - telling it for each message whether it is Spam or not. I did it that way, and don't remember it taking all that long to become useful, but the user shouldn't expect an instantly Spam-free inbox that way.

It's very, very rare now for it to classify a Spam message as legitimate, and I've never (to my knowledge) had it classify a legitimate message to me as Spam. On the average, I still get several messages a day that it classifies as "unsure", and it continues to train on those when I tell it whether they're Spam or not. It all depends on how successfully the spammers are finagling the content of the messages to try to squeeze them through.

I use the version that plugs directly in to MicroSoft Outlook. Other versions are available (see the link), but I have no experience with setting them up or using them.

Believe it or not, I've had quite a bit of success recently with using the "unsubscribe" option that 98% of the spam has in the body of the e-mail. My spam count has dropped noticeably in the last two weeks and it's certainly not objectionable. Naturally, it won't work on the true spam that does not follow proper protocol regarding the Can-spam act.

Gmail. Multiple accounts for different purposes. Change address if you get on too many spam lists.

Only one person uses a spam filter?

Changing email addresses will work, but most folks who use email as part of their daily business activities are understandably reluctant to do this.

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I only use SpamBayes at work. My e-mail address there has remained unchanged for 8 years or so. Said address is also present on at least one publically-available web page (maybe more), so it's not particularly isolated from address "harvesting". Add to that some of the shenanigans way back when that involved collection of information from the address books of victims, and it's no surprise that I still have spam coming in - between 200 and 300 messages a week, perhaps. With SpamBayes, it's just not a problem for me at the desktop level.

For personal use, I have a Yahoo account that I've used for over 3 years. I use the address freely (have never used "throwaway" addresses), and have never used a spam filter on the account. Somewhere along the way, it finally must have found its way to some spammers, but it still only amounts to a handful of junk messages per day - so small an annoyance that I can't be bothered to do anything about it.

Since almost all of my spam is being sorted automagically, I don't see much of it. After reading your post, I just took a look at the junk folder to see what's been deposited there since I emptied it yesterday.

What I see is 33 junk messages, not a single one of which has any sort of "unsubscribe" link or instructions.

Brian, you are obviously getting a higher class of spam than I am!

Thanks! I'll check out Spambytes. Yahoo does a very good job at filtering junk mail.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

That is a viable but risky solution. Sometimes folks receive this info and then say, "ah a real address! Lets add this one to the for sale list list." it's also potentially a very high maintenance kind of solution.

The folks who've asked about this get hundreds of junk mail per day. In once case, the address used was about 2 days old, and the person used it only to sign up for a law review list. Following that (starting literally the day after) he started getting what is currently about 800 junk mail addresses per day.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

To clarify, on my Yahoo account, I don't even have their "SpamGuard Plus" enabled (though I do have the account configured to block all HTML graphics).

After all this time, I still don't get enough junk mail on that account to bother me.

Ok I'm a Nerd, I have an Exchange Server running, using Trend Micros VScan and Spam Blocker there.
Once it hits the desktop Outlook 2003 and it's built in Spam filter seems to do a good job.

Note I get probably 100 to 150 legit emails daily (I'd bet more) and maybe one or 2 are stuff that should have been stopped.

Although I admit that 25% of the emails that get through never get opened, another 25% get a quick peek, 25% get a scan, and the final 1/4 do get read.
I get a lot of tech and trading stuff.

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KLK, MCSE

1990 500SL

I was always taught to respect my elders.
I don't have to respect too many people anymore.

I use microsoft outlook, and it has a "junk mail" setting that seems to work well enough for me. Additionally, if that doesn't catch it i have a folder called "spam"(i beleive set up by my Mcaffee virus protection), that catches the rest. So far no emails have gotten through that are spam, and only one or to have been put into spam that arent. Working very well in my book compared to the 10 plus messages of "enlarge your penis NOW" that i used to get.
Ryan

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83 300SD.......sold
96 integra SE....sold
99 a4 quattro....sold
2001 IS300.......sold
2002 330i.........current.
2004 highlander limited....current.