General Spamnix information

What is the most recent version of Spamnix?

The current release of Spamnix is 3.0.30 for both Windows and MacOS X. To determine which version you are using:

• On Windows, select Eudora's Special menu, then the Message Plug-in Settings... menu item. Spamnix's version number will be listed next to its icon.
• On MacOS, select Eudora's Special menu, then the Plug-In Settings sub-menu. Spamnix's version number will be listed on its menu entry.

If you are not using the current release, you should upgrade now.

What do I need to know about upgrading from Spamnix 1.x or 2.x to 3.0?

Spamnix 3.0 uses a completely different spam-recognition system than all prior versions of the product and will not block any spam until you re-train it (your Accept and Reject rules will be preserved, though).

Spamnix Spam Reports no longer contain details about which "rules" triggered on each message, because Spamnix no longer works that way. The Spam Reports only contain the message's score and which Accept/Reject rules it matched.

Spamnix may continue to send blocked messages to the Spamnix mailbox instead of the Junk mailbox. You can change this on the Spamnix Settings dialog Spam Actions tab.

Spamnix no longer uses a normal Eudora filter to transfer identified messages. If you customized the Eudora filter that Spamnix created, your changes may no longer work. See the "Advanced" area of Spamnix Settings dialog Spam Actions tab.

If you re-install an earlier version of Spamnix, all of your old Bayesian training data will still work. You don't want to, though, as the new version is much better.

How do I make Spamnix's Buy Now reminder go away?

Spamnix displays its Buy Now/Buy Later reminder once per day during your 30-day trial period, and every 30 minutes after your free trial expires. To make this reminder dialog stop appearing, you must buy a copy of Spamnix or uninstall Spamnix. When you buy Spamnix, you receive a registration code that converts Spamnix to Paid mode, in which it does not display its reminder dialog.

To put Spamnix into Paid mode, select the Eudora Tools menu (on Windows) or Special menu (on MacOS), Spamnix: Change Settings menu item, and enter your registration code in the space provided on the dialog box that appears.

If you recently upgraded to a new version of Spamnix and the Buy Now reminder has reappeared, please read this.

If you have lost your registration code, visit our Customer Service page to get another copy. If you purchased Spamnix more than a year ago, please read the next question and answer.

If you are seeing Spamnix-related ads in Eudora in the ad window that also contains ads for other unrelated products, you are using Eudora in Sponsored mode. See Qualcomm's description of Eudora Modes for details.

Will my Paid registration code work with the most recent version of Spamnix?

Each copy of Spamnix includes one year of free upgrades from the date of purchase. That means that any version of Spamnix released within one year of your purchase will work with your registration code forever, but your registration code will not work with any version of Spamnix released more than one year after your date of purchase.

If your free upgrade period has expired, you can purchase a new registration code and receive a 25% upgrade discount. You can also download a prior version of Spamnix from the Download Now page by selecting the old version from the drop-list beneath the "Download Now" buttons.

Exactly which versions of Eudora work with Spamnix?

Spamnix works with any version of Eudora 5, 6, or 7 on Windows or MacOS X. You can always get the most recent version of Eudora from http://www.eudora.com.

Spamnix no longer supports Eudora 3 or 4. You may be able to get it to work with those versions, but we do not guarantee it.

Does Spamnix work with Eudora 6/7 and SpamWatch?

Yes.

Eudora 6/7 in Paid mode includes a spam-blocking feature called SpamWatch. We believe Spamnix is more accurate than SpamWatch and that it is best to turn SpamWatch off. On Windows, Spamnix turns SpamWatch off automatically, but you can turn it back on. On MacOS X, you can disable SpamWatch by removing one file.

If you want, Spamnix and SpamWatch can both operate within Eudora simultaneously. To minimize confusion, though, you should understand how they interact.

Like Spamnix, SpamWatch computes a spam score for every message, and Eudora chooses whichever score is higher. So, if Spamnix says a message scores 45 (non-spam) and Spamwatch says it scores 52 (spam), Eudora will assign the message a score of 52. (There is one exception: a message matching a Spamnix Accept ("whitelist") rule always gets a score of 0.)

Once a message receives a score, Spamnix filters it regardless of which plug-in assigned the score. So, in the above example, the message scoring 52 would be sent to the Junk mailbox, even though Spamnix knew it was not spam. You can and should still use the Message > Not Junk menu item to re-train on the message because doing so trains both Spamnix and SpamWatch.

Also, please read the next FAQ answer.

Why use Spamnix if Eudora 6/7 comes with SpamWatch?

Obviously, many users have considered using Eudora 6/7's built-in SpamWatch instead of Spamnix (see the previous question for information about SpamWatch and using Spamnix with Eudora 6/7). We are often asked why people should use Spamnix. Our answer:

• Spamnix provides more accurate spam-blocking than SpamWatch.
• Spamnix continues to improve over time. By comparision, Qualcomm has stated that they do not plan to improve SpamWatch in the future. Their goal was to offer a basic spam-blocker but leave more advanced spam-blocking development to third parties such as Spamnix Software.
• Spamnix is cheaper. It costs $29.95 including one year of free upgrades, and works with Eudora 5, 6, or 7 in Free, Sponsored, or Paid modes. Eudora 6/7 costs $49.95 for new users and $39.95 for upgrading users. Since the only major new benefit of Eudora 6/7 is SpamWatch and it only works in Eudora 6/7 Paid mode, it is more economical to use your current version of Eudora (in any mode) with Spamnix than to buy/upgrade to Eudora 6/7 Paid.
• Using Spamnix supports third-party software development for Eudora, which benefits you and all other Eudora users, and is what Qualcomm wants to have happen anyway (see above).

The great thing about free markets is that, in the end, the choice is yours!

How can I disable Eudora 6/7 SpamWatch?

To completely disable Eudora's SpamWatch plugin, follow these steps:

• On Windows:
  1. Go to Eudora's Tools menu > Spamnix: Change Settings.
  2. In the Options section of the General tab, check the box next to "Disable Eudora's built-in SpamWatch."
  3. Restart Eudora.
• On MacOS X:
  1. If Eudora is running, close it.
  2. Open a new Finder window and navigate to /Applications/ Eudora Application Folder (or wherever you installed Eudora).
  3. Hold the ctrl key and click on the Eudora application icon. Select Show Package Contents.
  4. A new Finder window named "Eudora" will appear.
  5. Navigate into the Contents folder, then the Plugins folder.
  6. Trash the file SpamWatch or SpamWatch OSX. You can always get it back by re-installing Eudora. You can also copy the file to a location of your choice before deleting it.

Does Spamnix support IMAP?

Yes, Spamnix works with IMAP accounts if you are using Eudora 6.2 or newer. Please read the Spamnix and IMAP section of the Online Help for details.

Can Spamnix "bounce" spam messages back to the sender?

No, it cannot. Please allow us to explain why.

Many people believe that "bouncing" a spam message (i.e. forging a mail server error message indicating that your email address does not exist) will reduce the amount of spam they receive. The theory is that when spammers receive these bounces they will remove your address from their lists in order to avoid sending out unnecessary messages. This theory is wrong for multiple important reasons:

1. Spammers do not prune their mailing lists based on "bounce" messages. We know of people that reactivated email addresses and even entire domains that have been inactive (and therefore bounced every message sent to them) for years, and yet literally within minutes of being reactivated, new spam arrived. Indeed, many spammers are known to send spam to randomly-generated email addresses in hopes of guessing valid addresses; practically every one of these messages results in a bounce, yet spammers continue the practice.
2. Most spam messages contain a forged "From" header. So, the spammer would never receive the bounce anyway. More importantly, however, the person whose From address was stolen and used by the spammer ends up getting so much email---replies, hate mail, bounces, and more---that their mail server is totally overwhelmed. Often, their ISP just cancels their account, sometimes without warning, even though they are an innocent victim. And even if a forged From header is not a valid address for someone, bounce messages just generate more unnecessary traffic for the Internet email system to deal with.

In short, bouncing spam messages has no benefit and significant costs. Bouncing is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Spamnix will never implement it. If you choose to use some other spam-blocking product that has a "bounce" feature, please do everyone a favor and (a) disable the feature and (b) ask the manufacturer to remove it.

Can you tell that we feel strongly about this?

Controlling what Spamnix blocks as spam

How do I make Spamnix block more spam?

Short answer: Keep training it!

Spamnix is a learning-based spam blocker. When first installed, it does not know anything about what you consider spam, and will not block a single message. You teach it how to recognize spam by providing examples of both spam and non-spam messages. Every time it makes a mistake, you "re-train" it on the incorrectly categorized message. Soon, Spamnix will identify almost every message correctly.

IMPORTANT: Especially during the first few weeks of use, check your mail and review the Junk mailbox frequently, re-training Spamnix on every mistake it makes. This will give you the best results as quickly as possible. You should expect Spamnix to take a week of consistent training before it achieves 99% accuracy.

With Eudora 6/7, use the Message > Junk menu item (it is near the bottom of Eudora's Message menu). When Eudora 6/7 "junks" a message, it also transfers it to the Junk mailbox automatically.

With Eudora 5, the Junk menu item is not available. Instead, use the Spamnix   (Reject) button to open the Accept/Reject dialog and select "Train Spamnix to recognize messages like this in the future". The Reject button does not transfer the message to the Junk mailbox; you can do that manually if desired.

Similarly, if a non-spam messages is sent to your Junk mailbox, you need to train Spamnix that the message is non-spam. With Eudora 6/7, use the Message > Not Junk menu item. With Eudora 5, use the Spamnix   (Accept) button.

If Spamnix is missing practically all spam, something is probably going wrong with it on your computer. Contact support@spamnix.com for assistance, and please select Eudora's Message menu > Attach sub-menu > Spamnix: Attach Files for Technical Support before sending your message.

Can I tell Spamnix to block messages based on specific words in the message body?

Blocking messages based on the presence of specific individual words is not a useful spam-blocking strategy. Instead, you should train Spamnix on every message it mis-classifies. Doing so effectively teaches Spamnix how to recognize nearly every "indicates spam" or "indicates non-spam" word in the messages you receive, all at once, instead of just the few words you would program manually.

Why do we say that blocking messages based on individual words is not useful? Yes, perhaps every message you receive with the word "viagra" is spam. However, spammers frequently misspell words in both the subject and the body of messages. Also, words can be "spelled" using foreign-language characters, special "digraph" HTML sequences, and via a number of other tricky obfuscating methods. It would be impossible for you to program Spamnix to recognize them all. So, you might create a rule to block "viagra" and then, when a message with the word "viagrà" slipped through, you would feel that Spamnix failed.

As described in the Spamnix online help, Accept and Reject rules are really only useful for consistent special-cases: messages from people you know, newsletters with reliable addresses or Subject tags, and the like. For everything else, training Spamnix is better.

Spamnix blocked a non-spam message (false positive).

Once trained, Spamnix is very unlikely to block personal messages sent directly to you, but some false positives are possible; no spam-blocking program is or will ever be perfect. For this reason, you should always review the Junk mailbox before deleting its contents.

If you find a message that should not have been blocked, you should train Spamnix on it.

Spamnix failed to block a spam message (false negative).

Once trained, Spamnix should block well over 99% of the spam you receive. However, no program is or will ever be perfect, so some spam messages will always get through.

If you receive an unblocked spam message, you should train Spamnix on it.

How can I tell Spamnix not to block messages from a mailing list or newsletter I subscribe to?

Your best bet is to train Spamnix on sample messages.

If you want to create an absolute rule never to block certain messages, start by pressing the Spamnix: Accept button () on the Eudora toolbar. Then:

1. If the messages always come From the same address (i.e. the From: header is always the same), accept the default From Address rule.
2. If the messages come from different addresses but always the same domain (such as US.Microsoft.com), or if you subscribe to multiple mailing lists from the same company, select the From Domain radio button. This creates a rule to accept any message from that domain.
3. If the messages come from different addresses but always To the same address (e.g. the To: header is something like "To: company-announcements@company.com"), select the To Address radio button. If you subscribe to multiple mailing lists from the same company, select the To Domain radio button.
4. If the Subject header always contains a predictable keyword (such as the name of the mailing list in square brackets, like "Subject: [company-announcements] New news!"), press the Subject radio button and edit the text field to contain only the predictable text.

How can I move my Spamnix settings from one computer to another?

To install Spamnix on a new computer, just download the latest version and install it.

To activate your Paid registration code on a new computer, simply follow the instructions in the email you received with the registration code. If you've lost the code or instructions, you can get another copy.

To copy your Spamnix Accept and Reject settings and training database from one computer to another, exit Eudora and:

• On Windows, copy the file <mailfolder>\Plugins\Spamnix.ini and the directory <mailfolder>\Plugins\Spamnix to the new computer, where <mailfolder> is the location of your mail files.
• On MacOS X, copy the file <mailfolder>/Eudora Items/Plugins/Spamnix.ini and the directory <mailfolder>/Eudora Items/Plugins/Spamnix to the new computer, where <mailfolder> is the location of your mail files, such as /Users/<username>/Documents/Eudora.

You cannot safely copy a training database from Windows to MacOS X or vice-versa. You can copy just your Accept and Reject rules between platforms, however; they are stored in the Spamnix.ini file.

Spamnix and the Eudora user interface

The Spamnix buttons for the Eudora toolbar are missing or wrong.

There should be five Spamnix buttons on the Eudora toolbar: (Accept), (Reject), (Settings), (Statistics), and (Help). Spamnix asks Eudora to put its buttons on the main toolbar, but Eudora does not always comply. In particular, whenever you upgrade to a new version of Spamnix, Eudora may remove some or all of the toolbar buttons, sometimes replacing them with other, unrelated buttons. It is also possible for Eudora to mis-assign the buttons so that, for example, the (Reject) button takes you to the Online Help page.

If your Spamnix toolbar buttons are "greyed out" (i.e. their outline looks correct, but they are disabled and you cannot click on them), please read about Spamnix's buttons and the Preview pane. If the Spamnix buttons are black, blurry, distorted, or otherwise incorrect, please read the Eudora Tech Support Knowledgebase article about this problem.

All versions of Eudora in Light Mode do not allow Spamnix to add buttons to the toolbar. However, with Eudora 4 and 5, you can temporarily put Eudora into Sponsored mode, follow the instructions below, and then put Eudora back into Light mode; the toolbar buttons will remain.

To manually put Spamnix's buttons on the toolbar with Eudora 4, 5, 6, or 7 follow these steps:

• On Windows:
  1. Read this general tutorial to customize your Eudora Toolbar on Windows.
  2. Right-click the mouse anywhere on the toolbar, and select Customize ...
  3. To remove unwanted buttons or buttons that do the wrong thing when you click on them from the toolbar, click-and-drag them to anywhere within the Customize dialog.
  4. Select the Plugins tab.
  5. Click on the one of the Spamnix buttons or labels in the left-hand pane.
  6. In the Buttons field in the right-hand pane, click and drag the button to wherever you want it. You can place it on the main toolbar, or drag it elsewhere in the Eudora window to create a new, separate toolbar.
• On MacOS X:
  1. Read this general tutorial to customize your Eudora Toolbar on MacOS.
  2. Hold down the Command key and move the mouse to the far right edge of the right-most button on the Eudora toolbar (or bottom edge, if your toolbar is vertical). The mouse icon will change to a "Resizer" (a vertical bar with an arrow pointing left and right).
  3. Click the mouse in that position. A new "Stop" icon will be added to the toolbar.
  4. Select the Edit menu, Message Plug-ins sub-menu, and the Spamnix: Accept message menu item.
  5. Repeat the above steps for Edit->Message Plug-ins->Spamnix: Reject message, Special-> Spamnix: Change Settings and Special->Spamnix: Help.

Spamnix's Accept or Reject buttons are greyed out.

Please read the answer to the next question.

Can I use the Accept or Reject buttons on a message without opening it, or from the Preview pane?

With Eudora 6/7, you can train on a message without opening it using the Message menu > Junk and Not Junk commands.

The Spamnix: Accept and Spamnix: Reject buttons are Eudora "on-request" plugins. On Windows, all versions of Eudora prior to 6.1 only enables them when a message is opened for viewing. A message is "open" when you double-click on it in a mailbox list (or select it and press Enter). In particular, a message is not open when you are viewing it in the Preview Pane (the message display area attached to and below a mailbox list view).

Starting with Eudora 6.1, the Spamnix: Accept and Spamnix: Reject buttons are enabled whenever a message is displayed in the Preview pane.

We still feel that Eudora's behavior in this regard could be better: it should be possible to use on-request plugins from a mailbox list even if the Preview pane is closed. We have asked Qualcomm for this change.

How can I remove the Spamnix report from messages?

To remove the spam report, you can simply click Eudora's "Edit the message" button (Pencil icon), select the report, and delete it. Then press the "Edit the message" button again to save your changes.

With Eudora 6/7, the spam report is never necessary. You can turn it off from the Spamnix Settings General tab.

How can I prevent Eudora from opening the Junk mailbox when spam arrives?

If Eudora's Open a mailbox option in the Getting Attention category is enabled, then every mailbox (except Trash) is opened automatically when it receives a new message. Configuring Eudora not to open the Spamnix mailbox when new spam arrives but to continue opening all other mailboxes when they receive new mail is a two-step process. First, turn off the Open a mailbox option:

1. Select the Eudora Tools menu, Options menu item (on MacOS, select the Special menu, Settings menu item).
2. Select the Getting Attention category.
3. Uncheck the Open a mailbox option.
4. Press OK.

This prevents Eudora from opening any mailboxes, including the Spamnix mailbox, when new mail arrives. If you want Eudora to open mailboxes other than the Spamnix mailbox when new mail arrives:

1. Select the Eudora Tools menu, Filters menu item (on MacOS, select Window menu, Filters menu item).
2. Press the New button at the bottom of the left-hand pane.
3. Click on the new filter named "Untitled" and drag it to the bottom of the list.
4. In the right-hand pane, click the drop-list next to the first occurrence of Header and select <<Any Header>>.
5. In the Action area, click the drop-list next to the first occurrence of None and select Open.
6. Check the Mailbox option.
7. Press OK.

Now, any time email is delivered to any mailbox other than Spamnix (and Trash), that mailbox will be opened. Note that if you have custom filters that use the Skip Rest action, you need to add an Open action as described above to each one.

Note: We have reported to Qualcomm the bug that the "Notify User: As Normal" filter action does not work as documented.

Can I manually invoke Spamnix on a message?

Eudora's Special menu, Filter Messages feature allows you to apply Eudora filters to selected messages. However, Spamnix is not just a Eudora filter, it is an "on-arrival" plugin, and the Filter Messages features does not invoke on-arrival plugins. So, no, you cannot currently invoke Spamnix on a message manually.

For now, what you can do is use the Message menu, Redirect option to re-send the message to yourself; the option preserves the headers and content of the message. Spamnix will operate on the message when you re-download it.

Eudora generates many error dialogs when a MIME digest arrives.

If you have the "Receive MIME digest as mailbox attachment" option enabled (available from Tools, Options, Attachments) and you receive a MIME digest message while Spamnix is installed, Eudora will display a large number of error dialogs containing text something like:

Could not read from file <mailfolder>\attach\next_message.mbx:

Cause: File or device is read only or file no longer open (9).

This is caused by a bug in Eudora. The only way to prevent the error messages is to turn off the "Receive MIME digest as mailbox attachment" option.

If you currently use this feature of Eudora, we recommend you turn it off, re-subscribe to the mailing list in non-digest format, and create a new mailbox for messages from the list along with a Eudora filter that moves messages from the list into the new mailbox. Contact support@spamnix.com for more details.

Eudora reports "An instance of Eudora may be running on a remote computer" whenever Spamnix is installed.

This problem has been resolved with Spamnix on Windows NT/2000/XP and MacOS X. It is currently only an issue on Windows 95/98/ME. It is caused by a bug in Eudora interacting poorly with Spamnix for users whose mail folder is stored on a network filesystem. With Spamnix installed, Eudora is unable to delete the OWNER.LOK file in the mail folder, which makes Eudora think another copy of Eudora is running.

To work around this problem, perform the following steps:

1. Make sure you are using the current version of Spamnix.
2. Download the Handle program from Sysinternals.com. This is a small, free utility program that Spamnix uses to solve the OWNER.LOK problem.
3. Open the file Handle.zip that you downloaded with any zip-compatible program (such as WinZip, PKZip, etc.). Extract the file Handle.exe from within the zip file to the directory <installdir>/Plugins/Spamnix where <installdir> is whenever you installed Spamnix, probably C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Eudora. This directory will already contain a program called Spamnix.exe.
4. Exit Eudora, and delete the OWNER.LOK file.
5. Restart Eudora. You will notice a "console" window flash briefly on the screen. The OWNER.LOK problem should now be solved.

How can I delete spam from the Spamnix folder without sending it to the Trash?

Normally, when you delete your spam from the Spamnix folder, Eudora saves it in the Trash folder until you the Empty Trash. To delete your spam without saving it in the Trash you must, ironically, send it to the Trash twice; this works because whenever a message already in the Trash is transferred to the Trash, it is permanently deleted from the Trash folder. It's a little bit tricky, but here's how to set it up:

1. Go to the Eudora filters dialog: Tools (on Windows) or Window (on MacOS), Filters menu.
2. Create a new manual-match filter (not an incoming-match filter) that matches any message with "SPAM: Spamnix identified this message as spam." in the body (if you are using Eudora 5) or has a Junk score over 50 (if you are using Eudora 6/7) and transfers it to the Trash. Do not include a Skip Rest action.
3. Create a second manual-match filter (not an incoming-match filter) that matches the same messages as above transfers it to the Trash again. This time, do include a Skip Rest action.

Now, in your Spamnix folder, you can highlight spam messages and select Special, Filter Messages. The highlighted messages will be deleted and not stored in the Trash. Whew!

How can I make Spamnix send spam directly to the Trash instead of the Spamnix folder?

Open the Spamnix: Settings dialog box and use the Spam Actions tab.

How can I automatically delete spam over a certain threshold?

Open the Spamnix: Settings dialog box and use the Spam Actions tab.