Blocking Spam

[#1]

Is there an effective way to block spam that appears in my web mail?  Often I only spot it when it appears in my email client (Outlook Classic).

i've tried an app called MailWasher but I've struggled to make it work consistently.

Any help, ideas or experience would be great.

[#2]

@slowtime I don't know the capabilities of of webmail for spam-blocking - sorry - but MailWasher is (IMO) very good, once you have 'trained' it, I've been using it for a good 15 years or so. 

[#3]

@slowtime have you tried adjusting the Spam settings on your account ?

Login to the member centre then goto Manage Account->Manage your Plusnet mailboxes and click the Spam tab.

There you can adjust the settings.

I'd suggest using the Discard obvious spam, the Move to Spam folder option and then adjust the aggressiveness of the filter.

[#4]

Hi John and thanks for your post.  I've been working with the customer service team at FireTrust, looking at Mailwasher.  I have the Pro version.  However, it has been very intermittent in its functioality.  Occasionally it will download from my web mail and Gmail accounts but generally develops a fault and fails to download.  The event log shows fetching and filtering is completed but messages do not then appear in the MailWasher inbox to allow me to classify them.

I have heard many people say that MWP is great but, for whatever reason, I cannot get it to work.  It won't work in safe mode either.  We have tried eliminating virus protection/firewall issues but to no avail.  Apparently it works better in the POP3 protocol but I have the IMAP protocol and I want to keep using it.

I don't get a huge amount of spam but that I do get needs blocking, hence asking about blocking it at web mail level.

[#5]

Thanks MisterW.  I'll have a go at what you suggest.

[#6]

@slowtime Fair enough - as I use POP3, I have never had those issues, but maybe because the program was developed way before IMAP became the 'standard', FireTrust are relying on code that doesn't take account of the differences?

[#7]

John,

Thanks for your reply. Fire Trust say that they will be bringing out an IMAP friendly version at some time but they realize that the permanent auto check feature of this protocol does not align with the MailWasher software.  Unfortunately, at the moment the only practical workaround is to turn you IMAP mail client off!

[#8]

@slowtime Glad I still use POP3!😀

[#9]

Just to add to my post.....

I can download messages from Gmail, which also works on an IMAP protocol.  It appears that I am only getting problems downloading Plusnet messages.

Fire Trust have added the following to our conversation:

"maybe your system needs a program running to work your internet connection or something like that and it is failing to allow MW access 100% of the time....

Possibly check your modem, router or other connection device you use and see if there is any hardware firewall built into that or something similar....?"

I don't think that my system needs a programme running to connect to the internet.  I have never come accross this in the past.  I use the router provided by Plusnet and I just don't have the knowledge to answer this question.  Does anybody, please?

[#10]

maybe your system needs a program running to work your internet connection or something like that and it is failing to allow MW access 100% of the time....

Possibly check your modem, router or other connection device you use and see if there is any hardware firewall built into that or something similar....?"

I don't think that statement is correct, @slowtime - I suspect, but don't know, that it is something to do with the IMAP protocol - but I'm just guessing here. 

@MisterW Am I flying into fantasy-land?😀

[#11]

@slowtime my guess (and its just a guess!) is that MWP is expecting an IMAP reply in a short time and that sometimes the Plusnet IMAP server isnt responding within the timeout.

Most email clients provide some way to increase the timeout but it would seem from here https://forum.firetrust.com/viewtopic.php?t=23227 that maybe MWP doesnt have that facility

[#12]

Hi John and MisterW,

Thanks for your replies.  I have contacted Fire Trust and put these points to them.

[#13]

I have just heard back from Fire Trust.  They confirm that the timeout interval cannot be altered in Mail Washer Pro.  In the past they have tested my accounts from their end and found them both to be working, which points to an issue at my end.  However, I cannot determine what this is so I think that until a new IMAP friendly version of MWP comes out, it is not going to help me tackle spam.

Thanks again for all the contributions to this thread,

[#14]

@jab1  Trying to understand the workings of Mailwasher. In pop3 mode does the program download the emails, checks for unwanted ones which are then deleted from the server ? The client in pop3 mode will download the remaining emails again, the client in imap mode will just read the emails on the server ?

[#15]

I am no expert, just learning but as I understand it what you say is correct.  In additon I think that some POP3 services have the option to download to your device and store them on your ISP's server but I may be wrong about this.

IMAP just looks at them on your ISP's server and they remain there until you have exceeded your contracted storage and they then get archived by your ISP and eventually deleted.  I have archived some historic email onto the hard drive of my PC and there is an option to do this automatically in IMAP settings. The problem, as I understand it, with IMAP in relation to MWP is that the protocol continually and automatically checks back to your ISP for new messages so not giving the MWP user the opportunity to intervene and use MWP to delete unwanted email on the ISP server.

My MWP experience as an IMAP user has been inconsistent in that I was occasionally able to use it to load it with recent messages and "classify" them, including labeling them as spam, which it intercepted and deleted the next time it arrived on my ISP's server.  All good.  However, for some reason my ability to "check mail" using MWP on a regular basis was inconsistent.  Sometimes it would appear in MWP and on other occasions it wouldn't. My Gmail account behaved much better than the web mail service from my ISP.  The root of this problem was never discovered so I can't pin it directly to my IMAP protocol or other issues such as router firewalls which were suggested.

I will give the IMAP friendly version of MWP a go when it is available.

Hope this makes sense.