JoeEmail - 0.9.107

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Step 1

JoeEmail is an email client- so you will need to tell it how to connect to your email account(s).  To do this you will need:

• Your mail server names
• Your mail account user name
• Your mail account password

This is the same information that you have already entered into your existing email client.  Enter this information for each account you have that you want to monitor with JoeEmail.

JoeEmail is set up to leave messages on the server by default.  This means that you will be able to continue to use your existing email program if you would like.

After your account information is set up, choose "Refresh Mail" from under the File menu.  JoeEmail will attempt to connect to, log in, and download messages from your account(s).  If you get an error message ("ERROR" will show in the status bar), check and make any corrections to your account information.

Step 2

Once you have a good connection, your email will be downloaded and processed by JoeEmail.  (See How It Works for more details.)  Your database starts out with no data so it will assume that every message you get is NOT spam.  You will have to train the database to recognize unwanted email.

To train JoeEmail, you tell JoeEmail which messages are spam and which are not.  As more data is entered, JoeEmail will do a more and more accurate job of sorting out the spam from the non-spam message.

To mark messages as spam or not, place a check in the box at the left of the messages under consideration.  If they are all spam, press the "delete as spam" button- the data in the messages will be incorporated and the messages sent to the Deleted box.  If they are not spam, mark them with checks and then press the "Not Spam" button.  Again data is collected and stored in the database.

Incoming mail will be routed to either the Inbox (if is not likely to be spam) or the Spam box if it is likely to be spam.  At first, check both boxes carefully!  You may find that JoeEmail starts to send legitimate messages to your spam box at first.  These are "false positives" and are the greatest fear with any email filter.  Use the "Not Spam" button with the messaged checked.  In most cases their probability will drop to 1% and they will be automatically moved to the inbox.  Once you have a couple dozen messages in your database the likelihood of false positives decreases dramatically.

HTML formatted messages are the most likely to show up as false positives.  Most Spam is HTML and you will find that HTML tags often end up as the most damning evidence a message is spam.

JoeEmail's ability to detect spam is only as good as the data it has- and YOU decide what data to feed it.  Be careful and thoughtful when building your database and JoeEmail will save you a lot of time.