[Dixielandjazz] Spam

[Andy.Ling at Quantel.Com]

Bud Taylor asks:-
>> A good free implementation of this can be found at :-
>> 
>> http://popfile.sourceforge.net/
>> 
>> The typical results obtained with this are 98% spam filtered

> Has anyone had experience using this with AOL mail?

Sorry I don't, but to get a bit technical:-

The way popfile works is to sit between your mail program and
your ISP. It relies on your ISP supporting a mail fetching
system called POP3. It then does all the fetching, analyses
the messages adds a tag and then passes them on to you mail
reader. It is then up to your mail reader to sort the
messages dependant on the tag. So does AOL support POP3?

The Bayesian filter works by analysing the contents of the
message, so it has to download all the messages. This isn't
a problem if you have broadband, but may be if you are on
dialup.

It is possible to set up a hybrid system where you let one
program do an initial scan of the message headers while
they are still at the ISP. It can then throw away the
really obvious spam without downloading it. Then you let
popfile filter what is left. I've not done this myself,
but I'm sure some googling would turn up examples.

Andy Ling