Copyright: Copyright © 1997-2000, High Mountain Software
Citation: Copyright © 1997-2000, High Mountain Software


SpamEater Pro Contents

About SpamEater Pro

License Agreement

Requirements

Installation

Configuring SpamEater Pro

Running and Using SpamEater Pro

Getting Support

Registering SpamEater Pro

Credits

What's New?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Using Help: This is a standard Windows Help file and contains all the functionality standard with Windows Help. There are a number of hot images within this Help file that contain links and popups with specific help for the section of the graphic you click. Be sure to click the areas shown in the graphics for details on each specific field/entry.


Credits

SpamEater Pro utilizes the following 3rd party libraries/components:

PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) library

Written by Philip Hazel (ph10@cam.ac.uk)

Copyright © 1997-1999, University of Cambridge

TPerlRegEx (PCRE component for Borland's Delphi)

Written by Jan Goyvaerts (vcl@jgsoft.com)

Copyright © 1999, Jan Goyvaerts

A special thanks goes to the following people who have been influential in the development of SpamEater Pro with their suggestions and,  yes, bug reports. Thanks to each of you!

Laurence Platt, Trainer

Laurence Platt and Associates

http://home.att.net/~lpanda

Carman J. Lawrick

UMA Software (author of Vari-Mail)

http://www.umasoft.com

Bud Blackney	Donald Bock	Don Doyle

Gary Bajaj	James R. A. McKean	John Dye

Richard H. Epstein, MD	Richard J. Ward	Tim Rambo

Dilly

Help Contents


SpamEater Pro License Agreement

SpamEater Pro

Copyright © 1997-2000 High Mountain Software

All Rights Reserved

License Agreement

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using this software.  Unless you have a different license agreement signed by High Mountain Software, then your use of this software indicates your acceptance of this license agreement and warranty.

One registered copy of SpamEater Pro may be used by a single person who uses the software personally on one or more computers. If POP3 profiles are setup in SpamEater Pro for more than one person, a separate license is required for each person. For evaluation purposes, unlicensed copies of the Pro version may be used for a period not to exceed 30 days from the initial installation. See below for more information on evaluations.

Governing Law

This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, United States of America.

Disclaimer of Warranty

THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE SOLD "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OR MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. Because of the various hardware and software environments into which SpamEater Pro may be put, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED.

Good data processing procedure dictates that any program be thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on it. The user must assume the entire risk of using the program.  ANY LIABILITY OF THE SELLER WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.

Evaluation Version

Evaluation and Registration

This is not free software.  Subject to the terms below, you are hereby licensed to use this software for evaluation purposes without charge for a period of 30 days.  If you use this software after the 30 day evaluation period a registration fee of $24.95 is required. Payments must be in US dollars drawn on a US bank, and should be sent to High Mountain Software, P.O. Box 591, Pine, CO 80470-0591.

Credit card ordering is available. You can email your registration using the Register.Exe program, or by access the Kagi registration site on the World Wide Web. Please see the SpamEater Help file for more details on these and other registration options. This information is also available at http://www.hms.com.

When payment is received you will be sent a registered key for the latest version of SpamEater Pro, and will be entitled to free upgrades to all minor releases. Major releases (e.g. 2.x to 3.x) may require a small upgrade fee.

Distribution

Provided that you verify that you are distributing the evaluation version (select About from the SpamEater Help menu to check) you are hereby licensed to make as many copies of the evaluation version of this software and documentation as you wish; give exact copies of the original evaluation version to anyone; and distribute the evaluation version of the software and documentation in its unmodified form via electronic means.  There is no charge for any of the above, and other than media and distribution costs, you may not charge the end user for SpamEater Pro.

Under no circumstances are you authorized to, in any form, distribute a registered key for SpamEater Pro.

You are specifically prohibited from charging, or requesting donations, for any such copies, however made; and from distributing the software and/or documentation with other products (commercial or otherwise) without prior written permission. Request for such should be emailed to info@hms.com

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About SpamEater Pro

SpamEater Pro is a utility that can help you remove 95% or better of Spam email messages from any standard Internet POP3 mail server. SpamEater is fast and flexible and will check your mailbox on the server without forcing you to download entire email messages to your system, only to find out it is more junk spam email! What's more is that SpamEater Pro can also notify you when you have new (spam-free) messages waiting to be read by popup messages, playing a WAV file, and/or starting your email client software for you!

You can run SpamEater Pro hands free, residing out of the way in your system tooltray, or interactively, viewing the message information and selecting which messages to delete and which to keep - spam messages will be indicated for your review.

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Installing SpamEater Pro

If you are reading this, then it's likely that you have already installed SpamEater Pro on your system....

But for reference, installation of SpamEater Pro utilizes the industry standard InstallShield setup program. To install SpamEater Pro, you need to simply run the SETUPSEP.EXE program that you received or downloaded from the Internet. This will start the installation program. Typically you can accept all the default settings in the setup program, or if you desire, you can make the desired changes such as the directory where SpamEater Pro will be installed to and the name of the program menu group.

If you are upgrading a previous installation of SpamEater Pro, please install to the same directory where the old version is to maintain all your current SpamEater Pro settings and preferences.

Except in the rare case where we need to change the registration information for SpamEater Pro, if you are a registered user, your registration information will be recognized and accepted by the new version. If, after installing the new version you find that your registration information is not validated, please send email to support@hms.com explaining the problem.

After installing SpamEater Pro, you need to configure it for your mail accounts and other settings as appropriate for your system configuration. Please refer to the Configuration section of this help file for complete instructions on configuring SpamEater Pro.

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Uninstalling SpamEater Pro

The best way to remove SpamEater Pro from your system (although we can't imagine why you'd want to do that!), is to use the Windows Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel on your system.

For your reference, simply follow these steps to uninstall SpamEater Pro:

1) Click Start | Settings | Control Panel.

2) Double-Click the Add/Remove Programs icon in Control Panel.

3) Locate SpamEater Pro in the list of available programs. (Note that there might be other text displayed also, but it will always start as SpamEater Pro.)

4) Click the Add/Remove button to start the uninstall program. Follow the prompts to complete the uninstall process for SpamEater.

5) Abiding with the rules from Microsoft for Windows application compatibility, no programs are removed from your hard drive that were not written there originally by the SpamEater Pro setup program (InstallShield). If you do not plan on reinstalling SpamEater Pro on your system, then you should also delete (using Windows Explorer) the directory where you told the Setup program to install SpamEater Pro's files originally. As well, you can also delete the SPAMEATER.INI file which will be located in your Windows directory (or WINNT if running NT/2k).

6) SpamEater Pro will now be eliminated from your system.


Running SpamEater Pro
Running and Using SpamEater Pro

When you run SpamEater Pro you will see the following window, which is the main window for SpamEater. To see a brief explanation of the items in this window, simply click on them in the graphic below.

More information on Check and View (interactive checks)

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Configuring SpamEater Pro

Configuring SpamEater Pro properly is critical to getting the best results.. There are two ways to begin setting SpamEater Pro up on your system - Preferences and the Setup Wizard. The first time you run SpamEater Pro on your system, you'll be given the opportunity to run the Setup Wizard. The Setup Wizard will walk you through the basic setup of SpamEater Pro. To see all available settings, you should choose the File | Preferences option from the main menu.

Below is the POP3 Profiles tab in SpamEater Pro Preferences. This is where you configure the information required by SpamEater to connect with the mail server(s) where you have accounts. You can setup an unlimited number of profiles here. (Please note that the SpamEater Pro single user license allows for unlimited profiles, but they must all be for a single user. Multiple users requires a separate license for each user). Click on the graphic below for information on specific sections or see below for detailed information.

Clicking the Delete button will delete the currently displayed POP3 profile. You will be asked to confirm your request before the profile is actually deleted.

Clicking the Add or Edit button will display the following window where you can enter or edit your POP3 profile information.

Once you have setup at least one POP3 profile, you are then ready to continue with the next step by defining your valid email addresses.

Valid email address checking

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Valid Address Checking

Frequently spam email messages will not contain your email address(es) in the message headers. SpamEater Pro allows you to check messages for valid email addresses that you define. This setting is optional and can be disabled. You can also tell SpamEater where to check for these valid addresses - in the standard To:, Cc:, or X-Rcpt-To: header fields, or anywhere in the message headers.

Selecting the Valid Addresses tab in SpamEater Pro Preferences displays the following:

You should note that while a lot of spam messages may not contain your email address in the message headers, quite often, mailing list messages also do not contain your email address in the headers. Caution is suggested when using this option, especially when using the Strict check (checking for addresses in the To:, Cc: and X-Rcpt-To: header fields). If you get mailing list messages that do not contain you address in the headers, then you should either disable valid address checking, or add the address that these messages come from to the SpamEater Pro Exceptions list.

Exceptions Editing/Options

Help Contents


Approved Senders
Configuring Approved Senders

Approved Senders in SpamEater Pro are email addresses and domains that cause all further processing on a message to be terminated and the message immediately flagged as accepted. When SpamEater starts processing a message, it will first check to see if the message is from (in the headers From: field) an address or domain listed as an Approved Sender here. If a match is found (case insensitive), then all further processing for is discontinued immediately for that message, it is flagged as accepted and processing continues with the next message in the mail queue.

Selecting the Approved Senders tab in SpamEater Pro Preferences displays the following window:

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Filter Rules

This section is the heart of SpamEater Pro. The filter rules are text or regular expressions that determine whether a message should be accepted by SpamEater, or considered spam and rejected.

There are two basic types of rules in SpamEater Pro - System Rules and User Defined Rules. Each type of rule can be set for processing against the message header (all headers or specific header fields) or against the entire message body.

Clicking the Filter Rules tab in SpamEater Pro Preferences displays the following:

As previously noted, the system rules are defined and maintained by High Mountain Software. These rules can not be edited or deleted. To keep current with spammers and maintain the highest degree of effectiveness of SpamEater Pro, it is important to periodically update these rules. You can do this automatically from within SpamEater by selecting the File | Filter Update option on the SpamEater Pro menu. This option will connect with the High Mountain Software server on the Internet, download and install the latest rules.

Selecting to add a user rules (right-clicking the listbox and selecting Add from the popup menu) will display the following dialog window:

You can enter rules as either simple text strings to be searched for in the messages, or for more power and flexibility, advanced users can use basic Perl style regular expressions.

You can test your rule using the Test Rule button. Simply enter your rule in the Expression field and click the Test Rule button. Your expression will be compiled, and if successful (a message will be shown if compilation fails showing the reason for the failure), you will be presented with a dialog box to enter the string to test the rule against. Enter here the text you are creating the rule to filter and then click the OK button. If a match is found, a message will be shown stating such and showing the text that the rule matched against. If a match is not found, a message will be displayed indicating such.

If you would like to see some examples of the regular expressions supported in SpamEater Pro, you can generate a text dump of your SpamEater configuration and then view it to see a complete listing of all the configured rules in SpamEater as well as your other configuration information.

Supported Regular Expressions Syntax

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Supported Regular Expressions Syntax

SpamEater Pro rules support the use of basic Perl style regular expressions. If you are familiar with scripting with the Perl language, or are a seasoned Unix user, you'll find this capability straight forward and easy to use. If you are not familiar with regular expressions, then it is recommended that you gain that familiarity before trying to use this capability in SpamEater Pro.

The regular expression engine used in SpamEater Pro is the PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) library written by Philip Hazel (ph10@cam.ac.uk) and is Copyright © 1997-1999, University of Cambridge.

The Delphi component interface used in SpamEater Pro is the TPerlRegEx component - Copyright © 1999, by Jan Goyvaerts (vcl@jgsoft.com). Thanks to both of these individuals for their efforts!

Following are excerpts from the PCRE man pages showing the syntax supported in SpamEater Pro filter rules. For those that are interested in learning more, the full man page can be found at http://www.fileviewer.com/PCRE.html among numerous other sites on the Internet.

A regular expression is a pattern that is matched against a subject string from left to right. Most characters stand for themselves in a pattern, and match the corresponding characters in the subject. As a trivial example, the pattern

  The quick brown fox

matches a portion of a subject string that is identical to itself. The power of regular expressions comes from the ability to include alternatives and repetitions in the pattern. These are encoded in the pattern by the use of meta-characters, which do not stand for themselves but instead are interpreted in some special way.

There are two different sets of meta-characters: those that are recognized anywhere in the pattern except within square brackets, and those that are recognized in square brackets. Outside square brackets, the meta-characters are as follows:

  \      general escape character with several uses

  ^      assert start of subject (or line, in multiline mode)

  $      assert end of subject (or line, in multiline mode)

  .      match any character except newline (by default)

  [      start character class definition

  |      start of alternative branch

  (      start subpattern

  )      end subpattern

  ?      extends the meaning of (

         also 0 or 1 quantifier

  *      0 or more quantifier

  +      1 or more quantifier

Part of a pattern that is in square brackets is called a "character class". In a character class the only meta-characters are:

  \      general escape character

  ^      negate the class, but only if the first character

  -      indicates character range

  ]      terminates the character class

Note that when using any of the above meta-characters in your rule, if you want the match to include checking for  that character, you must escape the character using the \ character. For example, to include checks for the [ meta-character you'd need to enter \[ in your rule. Entering just [ would indicate the start of a character class rather than checking for a match on a [ (square bracket).

The following sections describe the use of each of the meta-characters.

BACKSLASH:

The backslash character has several uses. Firstly, if it is followed by a non-alphameric character, it takes away any special meaning that character may have. This use of backslash as an escape character applies both inside and outside character classes.

For example, if you want to match a "*" character, you write "\*" in the pattern. This applies whether or not the following character would otherwise be interpreted as a meta-character, so it is always safe to precede a non-alphameric with "\" to specify that it stands for itself. In particular, if you want to match a backslash, you write "\\".

The second use of backslash is for specifying generic character types:

  \d     any decimal digit

  \D     any character that is not a decimal digit

  \s     any whitespace character

  \S     any character that is not a whitespace character

  \w     any "word" character

  \W     any "non-word" character

Each pair of escape sequences partitions the complete set of characters into two disjoint sets. Any given character matches one, and only one, of each pair.

These character type sequences can appear both inside and outside character classes. They each match one character of the appropriate type. If the current matching point is at the end of the subject string, all of them fail, since there is no character to match.

CIRCUMFLEX AND DOLLAR:

Outside a character class, in the default matching mode, the circumflex (^) character is an assertion which is true only if the current matching point is at the start of the subject string. Inside a character class, circumflex has an entirely different meaning (see below).

Circumflex need not be the first character of the pattern if a number of alternatives are involved, but it should be the first thing in each alternative in which it appears if the pattern is ever to match that branch. If all possible alternatives start with a circumflex, that is, if the pattern is constrained to match only at the start of the subject, it is said to be an "anchored" pattern. (There are also other constructs that can cause a pattern to be anchored.)

A dollar character is an assertion which is true only if the current matching point is at the end of the subject string, or immediately before a newline character that is the last character in the string (by default). Dollar need not be the last character of the pattern if a number of alternatives are involved, but it should be the last item in any branch in which it appears. Dollar has no special meaning in a character class.

SQUARE BRACKETS:

An opening square bracket introduces a character class, terminated by a closing square bracket. A closing square bracket on its own is not special. If a closing square bracket is required as a member of the class, it should be the first data character in the class (after an initial circumflex, if present) or escaped with a backslash.

A character class matches a single character in the subject; the character must be in the set of characters defined by the class, unless the first character in the class is a circumflex, in which case the subject character must not be in the set defined by the class. If a circumflex is actually required as a member of the class, ensure it is not the first character, or escape it with a backslash.

For example, the character class [aeiou] matches any lower case vowel, while [^aeiou] matches any character that is not a lower case vowel. Note that a circumflex is just a convenient notation for specifying the characters which are in the class by enumerating those that are not. It is not an assertion: it still consumes a character from the subject string, and fails if the current pointer is at the end of the string.

It is not possible to have the literal character "]" as the end character of a range. A pattern such as [W-]46] is interpreted as a class of two characters ("W" and "-") followed by a literal string "46]", so it would match "W46]" or "-46]". However, if the "]" is escaped with a backslash it is interpreted as the end of range, so [W-\]46] is interpreted as a single class containing a range followed by two separate characters. The octal or hexadecimal representation of "]" can also be used to end a range.

Ranges operate in ASCII collating sequence. They can also be used for characters specified numerically, for example [\000-\037]. If a range that includes letters is used when caseless matching is set, it matches the letters in either case. For example, [W-c] is equivalent to [][\^_`wxyzabc], matched caselessly, and if character tables for the "fr" locale are in use, [\xc8-\xcb] matches accented E characters in both cases.

The character types \d, \D, \s, \S, \w, and \W may also appear in a character class, and add the characters that they match to the class. For example, [\dABCDEF] matches any hexadecimal digit. A circumflex can conveniently be used with the upper case character types to specify a more restricted set of characters than the matching lower case type. For example, the class [^\W_] matches any letter or digit, but not underscore.

All non-alphameric characters other than \, -, ^ (at the start) and the terminating ] are non-special in character classes, but it does no harm if they are escaped.

VERTICAL BAR:

Vertical bar characters are used to separate alternative patterns. For example, the pattern

  gilbert|sullivan

matches either "gilbert" or "sullivan". Any number of alternatives may appear, and an empty alternative is permitted (matching the empty string). The matching process tries each alternative in turn, from left to right, and the first one that succeeds is used. If the alternatives are within a subpattern (defined below), "succeeds" means matching the rest of the main pattern as well as the alternative in the subpattern.

SUBPATTERNS:

Subpatterns are delimited by parentheses (round brackets), which can be nested. Marking part of a pattern as a subpattern localizes a set of alternatives. For example, the pattern

  cat(aract|erpillar|)

matches one of the words "cat", "cataract", or "caterpillar". Without the parentheses, it would match "cataract", "erpillar" or the empty string.

Help Contents


Notifications

SpamEater Pro can notify you when you have new mail waiting on the mail server after cleaning out the spam. Selecting the Notifications tab in SpamEater Pro Preferences displays the following:

Help Contents


Network
Network Configuration

This is where you tell SpamEater Pro whether to connect with your mail server using a local area network (LAN) or to use Dial-Up Networking (RAS or DUN). Selecting this tab displays the following:

If you do not want SpamEater Pro to automatically connect to your ISP with Dial-Up Networking, then set the network type to LAN. In this mode, SpamEater will not dial your ISP, but rather just attempt the connection. If you have Dial-Up Networking configured for auto-connections, then Windows will dial your default Dial-Up Networking connection for SpamEater. Please note that in this case, unless you have Dial-Up Networking configured to disconnect after a specific number of idle minutes, the connection will be maintained. SpamEater Pro will not hang up connections that it does not specifically dial.

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Miscellaneous Settings

Selecting the Misc tab in SpamEater Pro Preferences displays the following:

(as throughout this help file - click the section of the image above for help on a specific item)

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Requirements
SpamEater Pro System Requirements

The following are the minimum (and recommended) system requirements for running SpamEater Pro:

•	Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 SP3 (SP5 or SP6 recommended), or Windows 2000

•	Microsoft Internet Explorer v4.0 or greater installed (recommended)

•	Intel 80486-40 or Pentium class or better processor (AMD, PII, PIII, etc.)

•	8 meg RAM (16 meg or greater recommended)

•	2 meg hard drive space

•	Networking connection to the Internet or whatever network in which your mail server resides

•	Email account that can be accessed using the Internet standard POP3 protocol (90%+ of all Internet email accounts meet this requirement. Web based email accounts (such as Hotmail and Juno) will not work.

AOL accounts will also not work since they do not allow you access to your mailbox using your pick of email client software and using the POP3 protocol. Also, at this time, SpamEater Pro will not work with the Microsoft Network (MSN). This is due to their non-standard authentication scheme used for POP3 logins. We are looking for way to support the required secure login, thereby enabling us to support use of SpamEater Pro with MSN.

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Registering SpamEater Pro

You can register SpamEater Pro using the following methods:

·	Run SpamEater Pro, choose Help | About and click the Register button. Follow the instructions at the top of that window to generate your registration information.

·	You can register online using your credit card through the Kagi service, RegSoft and through GetSoftware. See our web page at http://www.hms.com for links to these online registration services for our software. At our home page, click the Registrations link on the left for a complete and current list of registration sites.

·	Print out the registration form and mail it with your check or money order to us directly.

Help Contents


Registration Form
SpamEater Pro Order Form

To order SpamEater Pro via Postal Mail, please print the form below, complete it and mail it with your check or money order (US $ only) to:

High Mountain Software

P.O. Box 591

Pine, Colorado, USA

80470-0591

Please note that there is a 7-10 day hold placed on checks to allow for it to clear our bank. Once cleared, or if you pay by money order, then your registration information will be emailed to you at the email address you include on the order form below (please make sure your email address is correct!).

Please, also review the SpamEater Pro License Agreement to determine the correct number of licenses necessary for your use of SpamEater Pro. Individuals will typically only need a single license, but businesses will require multiple licenses if using for multiple users.

Name:	_______________________________________________________________

Email Address:  ________________________________________________________

Company: _____________________________________________________________

Address:   _____________________________________________________________

City:  _________________________________________________________________

State:  ________________________________________________________________

Postal Code:  __________________________________________________________

Country:  ______________________________________________________________

Qty	Program	Price	Extended

____ 	SpamEater Pro (single user license)	$24.95	_________

____	CD with latest version of SpamEater Pro	$14.95	_________

(cd does not include SpamEater Pro license - they are separate items.)

TOTAL:	_________


Support
Getting Support

Support for SpamEater Pro is available via email and online through our web site.

For online support, please visit our web site at http://www.hms.com. You will find the latest version of SpamEater Pro available for download there, as well as the most current Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

To get email support, please send your message to support@hms.com. Please be as specific as possible when describing your problem, include the version of SpamEater Pro that you are running (this can be found in Help | About), what operating system you are running, and any other information you think may be helpful to us in helping you resolve your problem. Please do not send a configuration dump unless we specifically request that you do so.

Help Contents


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Frequently Asked Questions

My virus scanning software says that the sep.exe (SpamEater Pro executable file) is infected with a virus.

The executable file for SpamEater Pro (sep.exe) is compressed to speed loading time and reduce the amount of disk space required. In some cases, the heuristic scanning for viruses will report the file infected. This is normal and you may wish to contact the maker of your virus scanning software of this issue.

I am getting Error 500 messages in the log file and SpamEater is not filtering any spam from my mailbox!

SpamEater needs to log into the mail server under each of the accounts (POP3 Profiles) you have configured. The Error 500 is an authentication error message and is usually caused by either your login name and/or password in the POP3 Profile being incorrect. Check and re-enter these and try the connection again. These should be entered into the POP3 Profile the same as you have configured in your email client software.

Can I define my own items in the SpamEater filters?

Yes, SpamEater Pro supports an unlimited number of user defined rules. These are added/edited in SpamEater Pro Preferences on the Filter Rules tab.

I am getting TPerlRegEx.Compile() error messages. Why do these errors occur?

This error message will be displayed and/or noted in the SpamEater Pro log file followed by a brief description that will explain the precise error. This is an error while trying to compile a regular expression rule. If you have entered your own rules (user defined filter rules) then it is likely there is an error in your rule. Try and use the description to locate and fix the error. If the problem is still not apparent, please send the complete text of the error message along with a dump of your SpamEater Pro configuration to support@hms.com for assistance.

I am a registered user of SpamEater Pro, but now I can't seem to get SpamEater Pro version 3.0 to accept and validate my registered key. What do I do?

The upgrade to versions 2.6.x and above from previous versions will require a new key. If you are currently a registered user, please send email to support@hms.com and include the name and email address used when you originally registered SpamEater Pro. Usually, within 24 hours you will receive a return email message containing your upgrade key and installation information.

Does SpamEater Pro support multiple POP3 mailboxes?

Yes, SpamEater Pro v2.5 and above fully supports multiple POP3 mailboxes. You can enter an unlimited number of POP3 Profiles for SpamEater Pro to check. Please note that per the license agreement, these mailboxes must be for a single user for each copy of SpamEater Pro that you have registered. Multiple users will require additional licenses, even if you are using a single copy of SpamEater Pro to check multiple mailboxes for multiple users.

Does SpamEater Pro support MSN (Microsoft Network)?

No, currently SpamEater Pro can not be used with MSN accounts. This is due to their requirement for using SPA (Secure Password Authentication) when logging into accounts there with the POP3 protocol. SpamEater Pro does not support SPA at this time.

Does SpamEater Pro support AOL (American Online)?

No. SpamEater Pro requires the use of the standard TCP/IP POP3 protocol, and further, that the mail server supports the standard POP3 protocol command TOP. These are industry standards that are used by the majority of mail servers on the Internet. However, AOL does not support this protocol (along with the SMTP protocol) for it's users to send and receive email.

If I register SpamEater Pro, what are the upgrade policies?

Registering the Pro version of SpamEater entitles you to all forthcoming minor upgrades at no charge. When a new version is released, all you have to do is to download and install the new version. Your registration information for the previous version will be recognized and accepted by the new version. If a change in registration key information is required for whatever reason, you can request (free of charge) an upgrade key by sending email to upgrade@hms.com.

Major upgrades (e.g. from 2.x to 3.x) may require a small upgrade fee. Please check our web site for details.

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Header Listing
Check and View - Header Listing

When doing an interactive check (Check and View) with SpamEater Pro, the following window will be shown after all the waiting messages on a POP3 Profile are processed. This window shows you all of the waiting messages, who they are from, who they are addressed to, the subject of the message, it's size (in bytes), and the UID (message ID from the mail server). Click the sections on the graphic below for more information on this window.

Right-clicking the list will display a menu of options to change the list display (small/large icons, listing, detailed), view headers of selected message, refresh the list and to check or uncheck all messages listed.

Double-clicking a message in the listing will display the raw headers for the selected message as follows:

Help Contents


What's New

10 Augues 2000 - Version 3.10 Beta 2

·	Revamped the Exceptions section in Preferences. Exceptions are now referred to as Approved Senders. These can be either email addresses or domain names, and also support entering of comments. (user requested changes)

·	Changed wording in various areas of the Preferences dialog to, hopefully, make things a bit clearer for novice users. (user requested changes)

·	Online update of the SpamEater program now support (via automated http downloads).

·	Fixed problem with Setup Wizard when configuring the Network settings where it would always complain that the settings entered were incomplete when configuring to use Dial-Up Networking.

·	More updates done to this help file. Note that not everything new is documented here yet.

18 June 2000 - Version 3.10 Beta 1

·	By popular request, archiving of eaten (deleted) messages on server now implemented. When configured, SpamEater Pro will retrieve and save all messages before they are removed from the mail server to a special archive directory on your machine. This is setup on a profile by profile basis. See Configuring SpamEater Pro for more details.

·	New Dial-Up Networking (RAS) engine should resolve any issues previously reported.

26 January 2000 - Version 3.03

·	Returned behavior of Popup message to the way it worked in 2.70. Unless the checkbox to always popup is checked, SpamEater will only popup a message when the number of available messages on the mail server changes - otherwise only a single popup notification will be displayed.

·	Bug fixed related to exceptions not being honored. Matches on addresses in the exception list will now correctly bypass all further rules processing.

08 January 2000 - Version 3.02

·	More problems with the display of the main SpamEater Pro window on some systems - labels were off the window and the window could not be resized to accommodate. Fixed.

·	When using message body filtering, SpamEater Pro was reporting an error opening a file and the processing then terminated. No further messages were checked and no messages were deleted from the server - processing just stopped after the first message. Fixed.

02 January 2000 - Version 3.01

·	On some systems using lower screen resolutions (e.g. 640 x 480), some of the SpamEater Pro windows were displayed partially or completely off screen. This has now been changed so that Windows will determine the size and position most of SpamEater Pro various windows.

26 December 1999 - Version 3.00

·	Major update - numerous enhancements. Help file contains description of all items and their use.


Network Type Popup
This will display LAN for local area network, or RAS for Dial-Up Networking (Remote Access Service). The text displayed here indicates the current network type that SpamEater Pro is configured to use.


Stats Popup
This will display the statistics from the last check that SpamEater Pro did. It shows the number of messages checked, how many were rejected (cleaned) and how many were ok'd (cleared).

During the checking process, this section will display the current POP3 profile that is being checked.


Check button popup
Clicking this button starts the SpamEater filtering process. Using this option will cause SpamEater Pro to connect with all defined and enabled POP3 Profile mail servers and check for spam. If any messages are rejected as spam, and entry will be made in the log file showing the rejection, but the messages will remain intact on the server - spam will not be deleted using this option.


Check and eat button popup
Clicking this button starts the SpamEater filtering process. Using this option will cause SpamEater Pro to connect with all defined and enabled POP3 Profile mail servers and check for spam. If any messages are rejected as spam, and entry will be made in the log file showing the rejection and the spam message will then be deleted from the mail server.


Check/View popup
Clicking this button starts the SpamEater filtering process. Using this option will cause SpamEater Pro to connect with all defined and enabled POP3 Profile mail servers and check for spam. After checking each mailbox, SpamEater will display a list of the messages found on that server. Non-spam messages will be listed with an envelope icon, and spam messages will be listed with spam can icon. You can interactively choose, in this mode, which messages to actually delete and which to keep. You can also view the entire headers for each message.


POP3 server caption popup
This will display the hostname of the POP3 server that SpamEater is currently connected to during the filtering process, or the hostname of the last POP3 server accessed when idle.


Connection status popup
Current status of connection is displayed here.


Activity label popup
This caption will show the current activity (while connected) or the last activity (if not connected). Here you'll see things like the current message number being processed, message number being deleted, etc.


Progress bar popup
This progress bar will give you an idea of where SpamEater is in the filtering process and how much time remains before completion.


Main menu popup
This is the main menu for SpamEater Pro. The menus available are as follows:

File: Preferences, Setup Wizard, Filter Update, Exit

Action: Check and Eat, Check Only, Check and View, View Log File, Clear Log File

Help: Contents, What's New, FAQ, Support, Online Resources, New Version Check, About


New POP3 profile button
Click this button to create a new POP3 profile.


Delete POP3 profile button
Click this button to delete the currently displayed POP3 profile information.


Edit POP3 profile button
Click this button to edit the currently displayed POP3 profile.


Profile enabled indicator
A yellow light here indicates the displayed profile is enabled, a red light indicates a disabled profile. Enabled profiles are checked for spam by SpamEater, disabled profiles are not checked.


Profile selection box
Click here to select the POP3 profile you wish to edit or delete. This combo-box will list all the currently defined POP3 Profiles.


Profile Information display
This section displays the information for the currently selected POP3 profile. You can not edit profiles here - this is display only. To edit, select the profile using the combo-box above and then click the Edit button.


Auto check popup
This option controls how SpamEater Pro checks for spam and when. If set to 0, then SpamEater Pro will not automatically connect and check your mailboxes. If set between 1 and 99, then SpamEater Pro will automatically check every set number of minutes.


POP3 port popup
This is the POP3 port number that SpamEater Pro will use when connecting with the defined POP3 servers. The standard port number for the POP3 protocol is 110. Unless you are behind a firewall where a different port is configured for POP3 traffic, you should leave this option set at the default port of 110.


Autocheck type popup
This option controls the way SpamEater Pro will work on automatic checks. You can choose to have SpamEater check only or check and eat any spam that if finds.


Profile editor name popup
This is the name of the POP3 profile. This can be anything you want, but must be unique to all configured profiles.


Profile editor server name popup
This is where you enter the hostname or IP address of the machine running the POP3 service where you have an account/mailbox. This information should be provided by your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or your network administrator. This must be the fully qualified hostname or the IP address. This information will also be the same as you have setup in your email client software for the POP3 server or incoming mail server.


Profile editor login name popup
This is where you enter your login name for the POP3 server.


Profile editor password popup
This is where you enter your login password for the POP3 server.


Profile editor enable popup
Check this box to enable this profile, or uncheck to disable this profile. This option allows you to temporarily disable a profile (prevent SpamEater Pro from connecting and checking mail on this mailbox) without deleting it from your configured profiles.


Valid addresses field popup
Enter an email address here that you want SpamEater Pro to check for in email message headers. This must be in a valid format for email addresses and is case-insensitive. Enter the address and click the Add button to add the address to the valid addresses listing.


Valid addresses list popup
This is a list of all the currently defined valid addresses you have entered.

To change an entry, click it in this listbox and it will be shown in the Email Address field where you can then edit it. When finished editing, click the Change button to save your changes.

To delete an entry, click it in this listbox and then click the Delete button. You will be asked to confirm the deletion before it is actually deleted.


Valid address check type popup
This option allows you to configure the way SpamEater will check for valid email addresses.

If set to Disabled, then no checking for valid email addresses in messages will be done.

You can also set it to Strict Checking (address must appear in one of the listed header fields), or set it to check for the address which may be located anywhere in the email message headers.


Valid address add popup
Clicking this button adds the address entered in the Email Address: field to the list of valid addresses.


Valid address delete popup
Clicking this button deletes the address currently selected in the Acceptable Email Addresses listing.


Valid address change popup
Clicking this button will change the selected address in the Acceptable Email Addresses listing to what is entered in the Email Address field.


Exception address field popup
Enter an email address or internet domain name here that you want SpamEater Pro to check for in email message header From: fields. This must be in a valid format for email addresses (e.g. bill@microsoft.com) or internet domain (e.g. microsoft.com) and is case-insensitive. Enter the address or domain and click the Ok button to add the entry to the valid addresses listing. You can also enter a short comment to be saved with your entry.


Exception address add popup
Clicking this button will display a window for you to enter the address or domain you want added to the Approved Senders list.


Exception address delete popup
Clicking this button deletes the address currently selected in the Approved Senders listing.


Exception address change popup
Clicking this button will display a window for you to change the selected address or domain in the Approved Senders list.


Exception address list popup
This is a list of all the currently defined Approved Senders you have entered.

To change an entry, double-click it in this listbox (or click it once and then click the Change button) and it will be shown in a popup window where you can then edit it. When finished editing, click the Ok button in that window to save your changes to the displayed list. NOTE: Your changes are not permanently saved until you click the OK button in the SpamEater Pro Preferences window!

To delete an entry, click it in this listbox and then click the Delete button. You will be asked to confirm the deletion before the record is actually deleted. And then you must click OK in the Preferences window to save the deletion permanently.


Preferences ok popup
Click this button to save your preferences and settings.


Preferences cancel popup
Click this button to cancel the changes you've made in Preferences and revert back to your previously saved settings.


Preferences help popup
Click this button to display this help file - context-sensitive to SpamEater Pro Preferences.


System Rules definition popup
Rules defined and maintained by High Mountain Software.


User Rules definition popup
Rules that are defined and maintained by the user - you.


Rules listbox popup
This listbox shows all the rules currently defined in SpamEater. The source column shows the origination of the rule - system rule or user rule. Right-clicking this listbox will popup a menu which will allow you to add, edit and delete user rules. Note that you cannot add, edit or delete system rules.

You can enable and disable individual rules (system and user rules) by clicking the checkbox next to each rule. When checked, the rule is enabled. When unchecked, the rule is disabled.


Disable rules popup
When this checkbox is checked, all rules processing (user and system rules) is disabled. In other words, this effectively disables the scanning of messages for spam. When checked, processing is enabled and all enabled (checked) filter rules will be run against incoming messages.


body rules popup
When this checkbox is checked, rules noted in the listbox as Body rules (under Section) will be processed. Unchecking this checkbox disables all body rules (user and system rules).


rule type popup
Rule Type: This can be set to Message Headers or Message Body. As the name indicates, a message headers rule is applied to the headers of the message, and a message body rule is applied to the body of the message.

Message Header rules also require the specifying of the Header Field to be checked by the rule.


rule header field popup
Header Field: This specifies the field in the message headers to be used by Message Header rule types.


rule desc popup
This is the description of the rule. This is the text that is written to the SpamEater Pro log file when a match is made against this rule. This field is for informational purposes only.


rule expression popup
This is the actual rule definition. This can either be a simple text string to be searched for in a message, or you can use basic Perl style regular expressions.


rule enabled popup
When checked, the rule is enabled and will be used when processing messages. When unchecked, the rule is disabled and will not be used when processing messages.

This option has the same effect as unchecking and unchecking the checkbox in the full rules listing.


rule reject match popup
This option determines how the rule works when a match is found.

If checked and a match is found, then the message is rejected as spam. If checked and a match is not found, then the message is accepted.

If unchecked and a match is found, then the message is accepted. When unchecked and a match is not found, then the message is rejected as spam.


rule save popup
This saves the rule (or changes if editing) and adds the new rule (or updates the modified rule) to the list of rules in the Preferences listing.


rule cancel popup
This cancels the adding of a new rule or the modifications if editing the rule.


notify popup popup
When this option is checked, SpamEater will popup a message telling you that there is new mail waiting for you on the mail server(s) and how many cleaned messages (no spam) there is waiting to be retrieved.


notify always popup popup
When this option is checked, SpamEater Pro will always popup a message notifying you of waiting mail. If unchecked and launching your email client software is also enabled, then SpamEater Pro will not popup the notification message.


notify play wav popup
When this option is checked, SpamEater Pro will play your choice of WAV files to alert you to waiting mail.


notify wav popup
Enter the full path and filename of the WAV file to be played for notifications of waiting mail. You can click the folder button to the right to browse to the file on your system hard drives.


notify email client popup
When this option is checked, SpamEater Pro will launch your email client software when new mail is waiting.


notify window name
This should be a text string that is located on the caption bar of the main window for your email client software. For example, with Outlook Express, you'd want to enter Outlook Express. This string should be unique to that window/application.


notify exe popup
This is the full path and filename for your email client software. Click the folder button to the right of this field to browse your system to locate the file.


notify params popup
If your email client software executable file require parameters to run, enter them here. In most cases you'll leave this field blank.


notify startup folder popup
This is the folder that you want your email client program to start in when SpamEater Pro launches it. This would typically be the same folder that the executable file (EXE) is located in.


notify window style popup
Select here the way you want to start your email client software. This can be Normal, Maximized, or Minimized.


lan popup
If you connect to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or the mail server where your mailbox is located via a local area network (LAN), then select this option.

You should also select this option if you wish to make Dial-Up Networking profiles yourself and do not want SpamEater Pro to dial out to connect with your mail server.


ras popup
If you connect to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or the mail server where your mailbox is located via Dial-Up Networking (DUN/RAS), then select this option and complete the rest of the information on this tab.


dun profile popup
When using Dial-Up Networking, select from this drop-down the Dial-Up Networking profile on your system. SpamEater Pro will list here all of the profiles you have configured on your system.


phone number popup
If you need to override the phone number for your ISP then enter it here exactly as you need SpamEater Pro to dial it. This can be helpful if you are in an area with overlaid area codes. Most users will leave this field blank. When blank, SpamEater Pro will dial using the phone number you have established in the Dial-Up Networking profile on your system for the selected profile.


login popup
Enter your login name for the selected Dial-Up Networking profile.


password popup
Enter your login password here for the Dial-Up Networking profile you have selected to use.


hangup popup
When this option is checked, SpamEater Pro will hang up the Dial-Up Networking connection when it is finished checking your mailbox. Note that SpamEater will only do so if it was the one that made the initial connection.

When this option is unchecked, SpamEater Pro will not disconnect when finished checking your mailbox.


start minimized popup
When this item is checked, SpamEater Pro will startup minimized to your system tooltray and remove itself from your taskbar. When minimized to the tooltray, the spam can icon will flash when SpamEater Pro is processing messages.


startup popup
When this option is checked, SpamEater Pro will create a shortcut link to itself in your Windows Startup group, thereby automatically running whenever you log into Windows.


check on startup popup
When this option is checked, SpamEater Pro will connect with your configured mail servers and process/check any mail there when SpamEater first starts.

When unchecked, no checks will be done until either the Auto-Check timeout occurs, or a manual check is initiated.


size popup
You can configure SpamEater to reject large messages with this option. When this is set to 0, size checking is disabled. Set to a non-zero value to reject messages that are larger than the size specified here in kilobytes (1024 characters).


log level popup
This option allows you to configure how much information SpamEater Pro writes to it's log file when processing messages.

None: SpamEater will not write information to a log file. (not recommended)

Normal: SpamEater will write exception matches and rejections to the log file. When a rejection of a message is made, SpamEater will log the To:, From: and Subject: fields from the message headers to the log file as well as the description of the rule that was matched, causing the message to be rejected.

Verbose: SpamEater will write all the information written in Normal logging mode as well as numerous operational messages such as Dial-Up Networking status messages. Note that this can cause the log file to grow large rapidly and should only be used when troubleshooting problems with SpamEater Pro.


dump popup
This option will write a text file containing a detailed dump of your SpamEater Pro configuration. This can be helpful to you when troubleshooting configuration problems. When requesting support from High Mountain Software, you may also be requested to email this dump. This allows us to see how you have SpamEater configured and helps us to help you resolve any problems.


header listbox popup
This is a list of all the messages currently waiting on the mail server for the POP3 profile name shown in the caption bar of the window. You can double-click an entry in this listing to view the entire raw headers for the selected message.

Messages rejected as spam by SpamEater will be shown here with a spam can icon and will, by default, be shown checked - indicating that the message should be deleted from the mail server when this window is closed. Clicking the checkbox to an unchecked state will override the rejection and the message will not be deleted.

Messages found to not be spam will be shown here with an envelope icon and will, by default, be shown unchecked. You can click the checkbox to a checked state to have the message deleted from the mail server when this window is closed.


header list close popup
Click here to close this window and delete all checked messages. You will be asked to confirm your desire to delete the checked messages before they are actually deleted from the mail server.


headers status popup
The text here will tell you the status of the message. If the message was found by SpamEater to be spam, then the reason for the rejection will be shown here.


headers popup
This displays the entire raw headers for the selected message. Viewing the headers can help in defining new filtering rules to account for new spam message tactics.


header status popup
This shows the reason this message was rejected as spam or, if not rejected as spam, this will indicate that the message cleared all processing rules.