AntiSpam3

ANTISPAM 3

USAGE GUIDE

1. Installation

The installation of AntiSpam3 is covered in the file Install.txt or online: http://antispam.sourceforge.net/install.shtml.

2. Copyright, licence and warranty

//      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
//      AntiSpam is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
//      it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
//      the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
//      (at your option) any later version.
//
//      AntiSpam is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
//      but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
//      MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
//      GNU General Public License for more details.
//
//      You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
//      along with AntiSpam; if not, write to the Free Software
//      Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
//
//      Copyright Philipp Spitzer, Gregor Herrmann 2003
//      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can find the GNU GPL in the file Copying.txt or online: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.

3. Overview

AntiSpam helps with the creation of complaints about spam to the responsible provider/hoster. It analyzes the Received: lines in the header to find out the way the mail went between the sender and the recipient. Verification of the host can be done with nslookup, and a responsible person's email address can be found via a whois query on the hosts' IP addresses. Complaints can then be sent either directly to email addresses or via the service of http://spam.abuse.net/. (You have to register there once.)

4. Invoking AntiSpam

Press the AntiSpam icon on the toolbar or choose Tools > Extensions > AntiSpam 3.0 from the menu.

5. Main window ("drop window")

Invoking AntiSpam will open the Main window (also called "drop window" because mails are dropped on it).

5.1 Main window's areas

• Button "Close": Does exactly what its name says.
• Button "Options": Opens Windows explorer in your home mailbox directory with the file called AntiSpam3.pm selected. You can edit all AntiSpam files with your favourite text editor.
• Area "Please drop spam here": Drop spam messages here (or somewhere else on the window - the area's function is simply to enlarge the window :-))
• Link to AntiSpam website: A click on http://antispam.sf.net/ opens your default web browser and points it to the project's website at sourceforge.

5.2 Usage

If you want to complain about a spam message simply drag and drop it onto AntiSpam's Main window.

Attention: If you invoke AntiSpam and then select a folder for getting the spam message, AntiSpam's Main window might hide behind some other window after losing the focus. To get it back to the foreground choose Windows > AntiSpam 3.0 in the menu or simply click on the AntiSpam icon in the toolbar again. This happens especially with the new folder preview mode: If the preview window covers the whole workspace you are not able to drag and drop messages on it. Solution: Make the preview window smaller or use the classic view. - And well, this workaround doesn't seem to work always so if you still have problems just use the classic list mode (at least for reporting spam).

6. Complain window ("compose window")

After a mail is dropped on AntiSpam's main window the Complain window (or "compose window" because with its help you compose a complaint) is opened. The Complain window has three tabs:

6.1 Tab "Modify spam"

This tabs offers some possibilities to "edit" the spam (which is attached to the complaint message). As abuse departments need to see the spam as unchanged as possible, only attachments and X-Headers can be deleted (in order to save bandwidth and protect private data).

6.2 Tab "View spam"

This tab just shows you the unchanged original message.

6.3 Tab "Complain to"

This is where most of the action takes place. On this tab you find:

6.3.1 List "Received lines from header"

On open this list shows the Hostname and the IP address the sender supplied for all Received: lines in the message. We hope that the columns and the hints in them are rather self-explanatory as far as they are not described here. - You can perform some analyses and then move addresses to the "Complain to ..." list:

• Right-click on the Hostname (or somewhere else on the appropriate line) > Get whois record and abuse email: Tries to get the whois record for the IP address and searches for a relevant email address in it. - Double clicking on the Hostname (or somewhere else on the appropriate line) has the same effect. If an email address is found it's entered in the "Abuse email" column.
• After you've fetched a whois record you can view it with a right-click on the Hostname (or somewhere else on the appropriate line) > Show whois record for IP and/or you can add the found abuse email address to the "Complain to ... " list (either by right-click > Add abuse email or by double-clicking on the Hostname (or somewhere else on the appropriate line)).
• You can try a reverse nslookup on the IP address by right-click > Get DNS record. If a name is found it's entered in the "Real hostname" column.
• You can add a hostname (more precisely: an email address of the form hostname@abuse.net) to the "Complain to ..." list either by right-click > "Add hostname@abuse.net ..." or by dragging&dropping the Hostname (or the whole appropriate line) to the list below. If a "Real hostname" exists it will be taken, otherwise the "Hostname" is added.

6.3.2 Button "Start/cancel DNS check"

Pressing this button starts a (or stops a running) reverse nslookup on _all_ IP addresses found in the Received: lines and adds the result to the column "Real hostname". If a "Real hostname" exists it will be used by Add hostname@abuse.net to complain.

6.3.3 Button "Add addresses"

Add email addresses manually to the "Complain to ..." list.

6.3.4 List "Complain to these addresses"

In this list you find all the addresses a) you've added yourself from the "Received lines ..." list or manually and b) taken from the Default list (cf. the file AntiSpam3DefaultList.txt described below).

Before actually sending the complaint there are a few things you can or should do:

• Right-click > $complaint_name let's you choose which complaint template you want to use for this address (cf. the files AntiSpam3ComplainX.txt described below).
• Right-click > Modify complain text let's you change the text and the subject of the complaint mail (not permanently, only for this specific mail). For permanent changes cf. the files AntiSpam3ComplainX.txt described below.
• Right-click > Add to/remove from ignore list adds or removes the selected email address to/from the Ignore list (cf. the file AntiSpam3IgnoreList.txt below).
• You can also edit the email address just like you would edit a file name in windows explorer: select it and then click on it once or press F2. - This can be useful for address of the form $very-long-hostname(at)abuse.net which you would like to trim to the relevant part.
• Last, but most important: Don't forget to tick the checkbox in front of the address! A separate email will be created for each checked email address.

6.4 Button "Send"

• Pressing this button creates the complaint and either queues it or sends it directly (depending on PMail's SMTP settings).
• For the complain message AntiSpam uses PMail's current identity. If you want to use a special identity for spam complaints make sure to choose it from PMail's tool bar _before_ dropping an email on AntiSpam's Main window.
• If you have set up PMail to queue mails instead of sending them immediately make sure that you send the complaints before (or when) closing PMail; AntiSpam creates a temporary file (with the original spam message) which is deleted by PMail on exiting.

6.5 Button "Cancel"

Does what it's supposed to do ...

7. AntiSpam files

7.1 AntiSpam3.fff

The "form fact file" tells PMail (how) to load the AntiSpam3 extension. Normally there should be no need to change anything except if you have a non default setup (e.g. you save all extensions in some special directory ...). -
Cf. also Install.txt or http://antispam.sourceforge.net/install.shtml.

7.2 AntiSpam3ComplainX.txt

These files are the templates for complaints. They contain the Title of the template (shown in the "Complain to ..." list and its context menu), the Subject of the complaint email, and the Body of the email.

You find some examples in the binary distribution of AntiSpam3. The format is explained in the files themselves and is rather trivial.

The "X" in the file name represents an integer starting at 0; it is used to sort the templates in the context menu of the "Complain to ..." list.

7.3 AntiSpam3IgnoreList.txt

The "Ignore list" is a text file with one email address per line. "Ignore list" means that you don't want to send complaints to the specified addresses (because they belong to spammers themselves, to your hoster, to spam-friendly providers, etc.). Email addresses in the Ignore list will be marked with "(Ign.)" in the "Received lines ..." and the "Complain to ..." lists.

7.4 AntiSpam3.pm

This file saves options.
The Window Position is set automatically, the CopySelf feature has to be set manually: Just open the file in your favourite text editor.

7.5 AntiSpam3DefaultList.txt

This text files contains email addresses that are always added to the "Complain to ..." list. Each address can be given a Complain text and can be checked or unchecked by default. The syntax is described in the file itself.

8. More ...

Visit http://antispam.sourceforge.net/.