support :: portable spam filter faq

support > setup menu

These commands are also available through the pulldown menu beside the Options button.

See also Customize the Menubar and Toolbar.

options...

The Options command opens a dialog presenting 5 tabs with options for controlling the operations of Chrysanth Mail Manager.  (Clicking the Options button is the same as opening the Setup Menu and clicking Options...)

• options - general

  Tray Icon: If selected, tray icons appear in the tray area of the Windows taskbar.

  Sound: If selected, sound will be played when the the defined email conditions are triggered.

  Automatically run upon log in: If selected, Chrysanth Mail Manager will automatically run each time you log on to your Windows.

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• options - mail

  In the "Schedule" pane, if you turn on "Check mail at every __ minutes", select a value that is greater than the length of time it normally takes for the Check Mail process to complete.

  To switch automatically to your regular mail program after using Process Mail, select "Launch email client after processing". Processing deletes from the server any junk emails you marked for deletion; therefore, this is the best time to switch to your mail program and download mail, before any additional junk emails can come in.

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• options - action

  Mail identified as junk email, or that has come from a blacklisted address or domain, can be marked automatically for deletion and/or to be bounced. (Bouncing sends a special message to the sender indicating that your email address does not exist.) Sometimes legitimate mail is falsely identified as spam; therefore, you may prefer not to have it marked automatically for deletion until you have tweaked various options and are confident that false positives will be rare.

  Normally, even when mail is marked automatically for deletion you can still verify it by looking through the Mail list, before clicking Process Mail. However, if you turn on Auto Processing (see the next item), email marked for deletion may be gone before you get a chance to check it.

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• options - auto process

  When Auto Process is selected, mail is automatically processed when Check Mail finishes checking for email on the server. Since the primary action of Process Mail is to delete unwanted mail, this function is a bit risky.

  Use Auto Process with caution. If combined with options on the Action tab to mark certain mail for deletion automatically, Auto Process will delete that mail from the server before you can check it out on the Mail list. Fortunately, there are several options letting you specify which kinds of mail are auto-processed and which are not.

  After you have used Chrysanth Mail Manager for a while, you will notice that certain ways of identifying unwanted mail are always on target. This is when it makes sense to use Auto Process.

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• options - history

  Set the number of days for which records are kept in the History and Mail Log.

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accounts...

Chrysanth Mail Manager automatically imports your default mail accounts during installation. You can add or modify the handling of your mail accounts through Setup->Accounts.

By default, mail is managed at all of your mail accounts. You can adjust this in the Account Setup dialog.

If you have multiple mail accounts, you may wish to change the names used for them on the Mail list. For example, suppose you have one account called "mail.myoffice.com", and a second account called "mail.athome.com". To simplify display on the Mail list, select an account in the Setup Accounts dialog, then click the Properties button. As indicated, you can type in a new account name, such as "Work" instead of "mail.myoffice.com", or "Home" instead of "mail.athome.com". This name-change is only reflected in Chrysanth Mail Manager, and does not affect the account itself or its use by your email program.

Advanced properties in the Properties section should only be changed if you're sure of what you're doing.

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email list...

Chrysanth Mail Manager lets you set up two lists of email addresses, one called a Friends List and one called a Blacklist. Mail from someone on either list is identified as such on the Mail list, making it easier to see at a glance what you want and what you don't.

• email list - friends list

  The quickest way to build your Friends List is to import all of the addresses in your Windows Address Book. Click the Import button and Chrysanth Mail Manager will do this automatically.

  To add a single address to the list, type the address in the Email field and click Add.

  To remove an address from the list, click the red "X". To move it from the Friends List to the Blacklist, click the black "B".

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• email list - blacklist

  If you have ever told your regular email program to put someone on the Blocked Senders list, you can use that information here. Click the Import button and Chrysanth Mail Manager will import addresses from the Blocked Senders list to your Email Blacklist.

  To add a single address to the list, type the address in the Email field and click Add.

  To remove an address from the list, click the red "X". To move it from the Blacklist to the Friends list, click the green "F".

  By default, mail from a Blacklisted address is automatically marked to be Deleted and Bounced. You can change this in Setup->Options, on the Action tab.

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domain list...

The domain of an address is everything to the right of the "@" sign. Since dozens or even millions of addresses can be based on a single domain, mail management is simplified when many addresses can be recognized as good or bad based on nothing but the domain they're from.

Chrysanth Mail Manager lets you set up 3 lists of email domains: Friends, Blacklist, and Neutralized. Mail from either a Friend or Blacklisted domain is displayed as such on the Mail list, making it easier for you to see at a glance what you want and what you don't.

• domain list - friends list

  To add a domain to the Friends List, type in everything to the right of the "@" sign in an email address, and click Add.

  Tip: You can also do this when perusing the Mail list. Select the email whose sender-domain you wish to add to the Domain Friends List, then open the Email Menu and select Add Domain to Friends List.

  To delete a domain from the list, click the red "X". To move it to the list of Blacklisted domains, click the black "B". To move it to the list of Neutralized domains, click the blue "N".

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• domain list - blacklist

  To add a domain to the Blacklist, type in everything to the right of the "@" sign in an email address, and click Add.

  Tip: You can also do this when perusing the Mail list. Select the email whose sender-domain you wish to add to the Domain Blacklist, then open the Email Menu and select Add Domain to BlackList.

  To delete a domain from the list, click the red "X". To move it to the list of Friend domains, click the green "F". To move it to the list of Neutralized domains, click the blue "N".

  By default, mail from a Blacklisted domain is automatically marked to be Deleted and Bounced. You can change this in Setup->Options, on the Action tab.

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• domain list - neutralized list

  The Neutralized List is a list of domains that you wish to protect from Blacklisting. Examples are hotmail.com and yahoo.com, which are used for millions of addresses and much legitimate mail. As long as these are on your Neutralized list, you cannot accidentally Blacklist them.

  To add a domain to the Neutralized List, type in everything to the right of the "@" sign in an email address, and click Add.

  Tip: You can also do this when perusing the Mail list. Select the email whose sender-domain you wish to add to the Domain Neutralized List, then open the Email Menu and select Add Domain to Neutralized List.

  To delete a domain from the list, click the red "X". To move it to the list of Friend domains, click the green "F". To move it to the list of Blacklisted domains, click the black "B".

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dnsbl servers...

DNSBL stands for Domain Name System (or Server) Blackhole List. Another term that is sometimes used is RBL, for Realtime Blackhole List, which means the same thing. A Blackhole List is a list of open mail relays that are exploited by spammers to do their dirty work. By keeping updated lists of such relays, DNSBL Servers are an important weapon in the battle against spammers. When email is checked against a DNSBL Server, there are two possible responses: NOT on the list (meaning it's probably not a junk email), or IS on the list (meaning it probably is a junk email).

Note that these results are probable at best. Some junk emails are not sent out through known open relays, so a DNSBL Server can't help. You can fight that junk email with other weapons in Chrysanth Mail Manager, namely Blacklists of email addresses and domains, as well as filters.

At the same time, sometimes a DNSBL Server will wrongly identify an email as coming from a spammer. It's important to keep this in mind as you peruse the contents of the Mail list, since otherwise you could lose legitimate mail. Some DNSBL Servers are "aggressive", quick to identify a certain domain with spamming activity. Others are "conservative", only listing domains that are never used for legitimate mail. An aggressive DNSBL Server could return numerous false positives, reducing its usefulness.

To protect your mail from DNSBL false positives, use the shields provided by Chrysanth Mail Manager, namely Friend lists of email addresses and domains, as well as filters.

As you can see by selecting Setup->DNSBL Servers, Chrysanth Mail Manager comes with a built-in list of DNSBL Servers, of which three or four are pre-selected. You can play around with trying different Servers and not others, observing how performance varies. If you have determined that a certain DNSBL Server is always right when it identifies junk emails, you may want to flag it as Trusted. This comes into play if you use the Auto Process option in Setup->Options: for safety, you can specify that mail marked for deletion should not be deleted automatically unless it was identified by a Trusted source.

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filter...

Filters are rules that you can set up either to filter out junk emails or to protect legitimate mail that might otherwise be marked as junk email. If you have set up filters in your regular mail program, you know already how to use Chrysanth Mail Manager's Filter dialog. If not, follow the examples below and you'll see how easy it is and how useful filters can be.

Before we start, let's consider the effect of using filters. First, any mail that is caught by a filter (and therefore identified as either junk mail or good mail) is immediately added to the Mail list, without any further testing with DNSBL Servers. This makes for faster performance. Second, filtered items in the Mail list are clearly marked as such, with the word Filter in the Status column (instead of Spam, Normal, Friend and so on), along with the name of the filter in the Reason column. This helps you see at a glance what's waiting in your mail.

For our first example, we'll set up a filter to identify mail that you want to receive. Open the Setup Menu and select Filter, which opens the Filter dialog. We're making a new filter, so click Add or the instruction "Click here to add new filter". This opens the Filter Conditions dialog, where you will name the new filter, describe it, create the rules making up the filter (in other words its "conditions"), and go on to set its properties and how to display it in the Mail list.

For this example we'll suppose you contribute to a newsletter about beer called The Beer Letter. When people respond to your articles in the newsletter, their messages have a Subject line that begins "[Beer-L]". Often they are strangers and won't necessarily be on your Email Friends list, so sometimes their mail could be wrongly identified as junk email. This is a common scenario.

In the Filter Conditions dialog, start by naming the filter you'll create. In the Filter Name field, type "Beer"; this is what will appear in the Reason column next to "Filter" in the Status column. Then go to the Description field and type in "Feedback from the Beer Letter".

To set up rules for your filter, click Add or the instruction "Click here to add new condition". A new line appears saying, "Subject contains <?>". Notice that each element is separately underlined: if you click on "Subject", a box opens with various options, such as "Header" or "To". If you click on "contains", a box opens letting you switch to "does not contain". But for our example "Subject contains" is exactly what we need, so we'll just click on "<?>".

Now a new dialog opens, Filter Values, letting you specify what the filter should look for. In this case we want it to look for "Beer-L" in the Subject line of messages. Type "Beer-L" in the entry field, click Add, then click OK. This returns you to the main Filter dialog, where you could add additional rules if you wanted, or simply proceed to the next step: Properties.

Click on the Properties tab to define how the filter should operate. The first option is the Legitimate Mail box. By default this box is checked, and we'll leave it that way since we want Beer Letter mail to be protected. The next option is Filter Application, which defines when you want the filter to be applied. Click the arrow to see the three choices, and select whichever you wish.

Here a brief explanation is in order. A filter can be applied before testing with the Email Friends or Email Blacklist, or after them but before the Domain Friends and Domain Blacklist, or after all four. Remember, as soon as an email is identified by any test - a filter, an email address list, a domain list, or a single DNSBL Server, in that order - then testing stops on that email. Suppose there are certain people whose messages about the Beer Letter are abusive or junk emails. One solution is to Blacklist them and have the filter applied after your Email Lists; the other is add more rules to your filter, and catch them there. (In this case the first solution would likely be best.)

The final step in creating a new filter is to click on the Display tab. Since the Beer Letter filter is for legitimate mail, the default color for the Status and Reason flags will be blue on white. To change these colors, click on the foreground or background box to open its color-selection dialog.

Having finished defining the Beer Letter filter, you'll find yourself back in the main Filter dialog.

Now let's set up a different kind of filter - one that catches junk email and marks it for deletion.

Once again, click on Add or on the instruction in the filter list box. This time, we'll create a filter for junk email that promises to save us money. At the same time, we'll make sure our filter doesn't affect mail from friends. Name this filter "Scam" and give it an appropriate description. In the Conditions tab, click on "<?>" again, and this time type in several common words, like "money", "save", "cash", "credit", "mortgage", "earn", and so on. Press Enter or click Add after each word or phrase you want to test for. (Notice that in the Words list, each new word is preceded by "or", which is underlined. If you click on "or" you'll see that you can optionally change it to "and". "Or" means that finding either one satisfies the test, while "and" means that both must be found together.) After entering a few money-words, click OK to move to the next step.

Click on the Properties tab as you did with the Beer-L example. In our new example you're creating a filter for junk email, so this time, click the Legitimate Mail box to remove the checkmark. Notice that by default, non-legitimate mail is automatically marked Bounce and Delete. Once again, pull down the Filter Application list, and this time select "After Email List, before Domain List" or the one below it. This choice ensures that if you receive a message from someone on your Email Friends List, it will be identified as such and will not even be tested by this filter. In other words, a friend could send you a note about money he owes you, and it would not be marked as junk email.

To conclude the creation of the Scam filter, click the Display tab to decide how it should appear on the Mail list. By default, filters for non-legitimate mail are flagged in orange on white. As with the previous example you can choose whatever colors you like.

Now you have created two filters, one for good mail, one for bad. Back in the main Filter dialog, you can delete them using the Remove button, or change them into filters you really need by selecting one and clicking the Properties button.

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hashcash...

Hashcash is a denial-of-service counter measure tool. Its main current use is to help hashcash users avoid losing email due to content based and blacklist based anti-spam systems. A hashcash stamp constitutes a proof-of-work which takes a parameterizable amount of work to compute for the sender. The recipient can verify received hashcash stamps efficiently. For more information about Hashcash, please visit the official hashcash website.

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