About Mailscrubber

Steps to follow (READ ME!)

Configuring forwarding to work with the learner and forwarding mail
-Mozilla Thunderbird
-Apple Mail
-Outlook
-Exchange Webmail

Configuring rules to autosort mail (optional, but a good idea)
-Mozilla Thunderbird
-Apple Mail
-Outlook

Last Updated: March 24th, 2005
Version: 0.9
Written By: Chris Kelly

Mailscrubber is a tool that scans all incoming mail for spam and viruses and adds headers if it suspects
something you wouldn't want in your inbox. If Mailscrubber is 110% sure, it will throw away the email but
only you know what you really want to receive, but usually messages will be let through. To acheive this,
most email that comes through is tagged with a "score" of how likely Mailccrubber things the message is spam.
If there is no tag, the message didn't meet any of the possible spam criteria Usually a 6 is a pretty good sign
that a message is spam and anything over 10 is almost certainly spam, but this may differ based on your
preferences and the kind of email that you receive. So to see the messages that you want to, you must
set up rules in your email program to automatically move or delete messages over a certain score.
Additionally, Mailscrubber can learn from its mistakes. When you receive a message that was identified as spam
but is something that you actually wanted to recieve you simply forward it to not_spam@mailscrubber.example.com
and Mailscrubber won't make the same mistake again. The same goes for spam messages that slip through,
just forward them to is_spam@mailscrubber.exaple.com and messages like it won't get through any more.

To successfully work with Mailscrubber there are several steps that you need to follow:

1. Configure your mail client to foward mail as inline text.
   (see the appropriate section below for your mail client)
2. Forward all undetected spam one at a time to is_spam@mailscrubber.example.com
   (just select the email in your client, click forward, type in the email address and click send!)
3. Forward all false positives one at a time to not_spam@mailscrubber.example.com
   (just select the email in your client, click forward, type in the email address and click send!)
4. Configure your mail client to autosort incoming mail based on the scores that Mailscrubber gives them.
   (Optional, but a good idea. see the appropriate section below for your mail client)

Because of the way the learner works, your mail client must be set up to forward messages inline
instead of as attachments. Here are instructions for doing this for your mail client.

1. Open Thunderbird and click on the "Tools" menu then click on "Options".
   
   
2. In the window that opens, click on "Composition" on the left and then in the first drop
   down on the right, make sure that "Forward messages" is set to "Inline". Click OK and your settings
   will be saved.
   
   

1. Open Mail, click on the "Mail" menu and then on "Preferences".
   
   
2. In the window that opens, click on the "Composting" icon in the toolbar and towards the bottom of that
   window, select "Include all of the original message" underneath "When quoting text in replies or forwards".
   Close the window to save your settings, if it asks for confirmation, click on "Save Settings".
   
   

1. Open Outlook, click on the "Tools" menu and then click on "Options". (If you have smart menus turned on you
   may need to click on the arrows at the bottom of the menu to see the menu item.)
   
   
2. Click on the "Preferences" tab at the top left of the window that opened, and then click on the
   "E-mail Options.." button in the "E-mail" section on the right.
   
   
3. In the new window that pops up, make sure that underneath "When forwarding a message" the option
   "Include original message text" is selected". Click "Ok" in all the windows to save your changes.
   
   

Usually having two rules is a good idea. One to move for sure spam to the trash (score of 10 or higher) and
one to move possible spam to a spam folder (score of 6-10). You can tweak these numbers later on as you
get a feel for what is being filtered.

1. First, open Thunderbird and right click on your account name in the folders pane on the left.
   Select new folder and when the prompt comes up, make a new folder called "Spam". Then repeat this
   process and create a folder called "Possible Spam".
   
   
2. Next is the actual rules creation. Click on the "Tools" menu and then on "Message filters".
   
   
3. A rules management window will show up. Ensure that your email account is selected in the drop down menu.
   
   
4. Click on the "New" button on the right and a new window will open. In this window click on the dropdown
   on the left where it says "subject" and click on customize (the last item on the list).
   
   
5. In the box that comes up, type "X-Spam-Status", then click the "Add" button, then click the "Ok" button.
   
   
6. Then click on the "subject" dropdown again and this time click on "X-Spam-Status"
   
   
7. Make sure that the next dropdown is set to "contains" and type in 10 *s into the box to the right of
   "contains". In the bottom half of the screen, check "Move to folder:" if it isn't already checked, and in the
   dropdown to the right of it navigate to your account name, then to "Spam" and click on it. Type "Spam" in the
   "Filter Name" box, and then click "Ok"
   and you're done with the first rule.
   
   
8. Click on the "new" button on the right again and set this rule up the same as the previous rule but with
   the name "Possible Spam" and with 6 *s instead of 10 and set to move to the folder "Possible Spam" instead
   of "Spam".
   
   
9. Your two new rules will be listed in the box and after you click ok, they will apply to all incoming mail
   that has been tagged by Mailscrubber.
   
   

1. Open up Mail and click on the "Mailbox" menu and then click on "New.."
   
   
2. Select "On My Mac" as the location and give it the name Spam. Repeat these steps and create a folder
   called "Possible Spam".
   
   
3. Then, click on the "Mail" menu and click on "Preferences".
   
   
4. Click on the "Rules" icon in the toolbar (its the one furthest to the right) and then click
   on "Add Rule".
   
   
5. When the window opens, click on the dropdown labled "From:" and click on the item "Edit Header List..."
   at the bottom of the menu.
   
   
6. In the new window that opens, Type in "X-Spam-Status" in the "Header:" box, click on
   "Add Header" and then click on "Ok".
   
   
7. Click on the dropdown labled "From" once more and this time select "X-Spam-Status". It should be the 5th
   item on the menu.
   
   
8. Make sure that the next dropdown is set to "contains" and type in 10 *s into the box to
   the right of "contains" Then in the next section of the window under "Perform the following actions" make
   sure that "Move Message" is selected, then click on "No Mailbox Selected" and click on "Spam" in the menu
   that opens. Then click "OK" and the rule will be created.
   
   
9. Click on the "new" button on the right again and set this rule up the same as the previous rule but with
   the name "Possible Spam" and with 6 *s instead of 10 and set to move to the folder "Possible Spam" instead
   of "Spam".
   
   
10. Your two new rules will be listed in the box and after you click ok, they will apply to all incoming mail
    that has been tagged by Mailscrubber.
    
    

1. Open Outlook, right click on "Personal Folders" and click on "New Folder".
   
   
2. Name the folder "Possible Spam" and click "Ok".
   
   
3. Make another new folder named "Spam".
   
   
4. Click on the "Tools" menu and then on "Rules and Alerts". (If you have smart menus turned on you may
   need to click on the arrows at the bottom of the menu to see the menu item.)
   
   
5. Click on the "New Rule.." button.
   
   
6. In the Rules Wizard that opens, select the "Start from a blank rule" radio button and click
   "Check messages when they arrive" beneath it, then click "Next".
   
   
7. Scroll down in the new window until you see "with specific words in the message header" and check
   the box next to it. Then click on the "specific words" link in the Step 2 box at the bottom of the window.
   
   
8. In the box, type "X-Spam-Status: **********" and click "Add".
   
   
9. You should now have a window that looks like this. Click "Next".
   
   
10. Check the box next to "move it to the specified folder" and then click on the "specified" link
    in the Step 2 box at the bottom of the window.
    
    
11. Select your "Spam" folder and click "Ok".
    
    
12. You should have a window that looks like this. Click "Next".
    
    
13. The rule should be named "X-Spam-Status: **********". check the box "Turn on this rule", then click Finish.
    
    
14. Create a new rule following the same process except use 6 *s instead of 10 in the "specific words" link
    and use "Possible Spam" for folder to move messages to instead of "Spam".
    
    
15. You should have a window that looks something like this. Click "Apply" and then "OK" and the filters will
    apply to all new incoming messages.