MailWasher

(these are preliminary notes only) also see oe6.htm

It would be best to never see get the virused SPAM, so you don't have to filter them
with your spam filters or message rules.    

As far as I am concerned this should be your primary approach:
  Check with your ISP to
  see if they have filters that you can  implement.   The problem with the ISP doing
  it is that they may filter out good emails or newsletters.  The big newsletters
  may not be much of a problem, but your club newsletters might be, so you
  would have to make sure that they are not deleted.   

In addition use your own message rules in your mail browser and
use additional filtering such as MailWasher if you don't have your email
browser continously getting messages.


MailWasher has an advantage over Outlook Express Message Rules in the following:
 -- can pick off any string in the headers
 -- can pick off any string in the body, not just visible text
 -- easier to work work with but of course

MailWasher has an advantage in identification
  -- identifies the filter that catches the email and identifies it as such
     on the list of emails (sender, subject, received, etc.); whereas in OE you have to put it
     into separate folders and/or use color (colored text does not show up well on laptops).

MailWasher, additional advantages
   -- You can access the files from  Help, About  and modify the text of rules etc., in addition
       to normal facilities.


MailWasher is downloaded  from   http://www.mailwasher.net

There are some filters that you can download
     
http://www.mailwasher.net/faq.php#_Q._Filter_download 

   note the asterisks or plus signs -- you have to customize them, 
   or nothing will come through to you. 


This rule will identify  many viruses:  Entered at  Ctrl+I

Title:  TVqQ virus
Rule:  If the Body contains "TVqQ" then mark the message as mail to be deleted. 
       This filter takes priority over the friends list.

Additional sample rules can be downloaded from
  http://www.mailwasher.net/faq.php
be sure to modify anything with an asterisk,  and to correctly enter your email address
on such lines or you will delete your legitimate email.   That is why I do not do anything
automatically. 

Disadvantages of MailWasher:

Outlook Express knows nothing of MailWasher so does not wait for MailWasher to 
have checked the Email and for you to approve or reject MailWasher's identifications.

First Line of Defense:

The first line of defense should be at your ISP.  Then you only have to worry
about the SPAM that makes it past your ISP's filters.  Potential Problem with the
ISP doing the filtering is that you may never see what was filtered out.  You may
lose newsletters, email from friends, and particulary anything sent to you as a
blind copy or "Undisclosed Recipients".   You will have to provide for them ahead of time,
and possibly you only have email addresses to work with for those exceptions.
 

Related

• Aggressive Spam Filtering, discussion at webmasterworld, predates current version of MailWasher.
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