MVPs: Is Entourage 2004 Mail Junk filter trainable like Apple'sMail or SpamSieve?

  • Thread starter Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.
  • Start date
N

Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.

A colleague in the MacOSXHints.com forum just asked me if Entourage 2004 is
trainable like in Apple's mail or SpamSieve?

The Entourage 2004 Mail help notes do not get into the trainable aspects as
such. But a new icon appears on the Entourage 2004 mail toolbar. Clicking
on it sends a message to the junk folder, rather than delete, so my guess is
that it is training.

(I've got so many Entourage Mail rules that already label certain kinds of
mail as junk and send them to the junk folder that it will take quite a
while for me to tell how it works in the trainable sphere.)

Please advise on the trainable aspects of our new junk filter.

Respectfully, Norm
 
A

Adam Bailey

Norman R. Nager said:
Please advise on the trainable aspects of our new junk filter.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, clicking the Junk button will remove the sender's
address from your Recently Used Addresses list (as well as setting the
message category and moving it to the Junk E-Mail folder).

Beyond that, however, Entourage's Junk Mail Filter is not trainable. You can
adjust its sensitivity via Tools > Junk E-Mail Protection.
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

As I understand it, clicking the Junk button will remove the sender's
address from your Recently Used Addresses list (as well as setting the
message category and moving it to the Junk E-Mail folder).

Beyond that, however, Entourage's Junk Mail Filter is not trainable. You can
adjust its sensitivity via Tools > Junk E-Mail Protection.
Click to expand...

The trouble with "trainable" (Bayesian) filers is that the spam merchants
soon learn how to get around the training. They figured out that including
lots of real text including long Latinate words fooled the filters into
thinking it was non-spam, so that's why most people have started to get lots
of plain text messages filled with that stuff after a short spam
announcement.

This way, MS keeps ahead of the spam guys, and plan to make periodic updates
to the Junk Filter.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage
Entourage FAQ Page: http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Entourage you are using - **2004**, X
or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions otherwise.
 
P

Paul Robichaux [MVP]

Paul Berkowitz said:
The trouble with "trainable" (Bayesian) filers is that the spam merchants
soon learn how to get around the training. They figured out that including
lots of real text including long Latinate words fooled the filters into
thinking it was non-spam, so that's why most people have started to get lots
of plain text messages filled with that stuff after a short spam
announcement.

This way, MS keeps ahead of the spam guys, and plan to make periodic updates
to the Junk Filter.
Click to expand...

To amplify on this a little, Entourage uses the same basic filtering
mechanism that MS now uses for Hotmail, MSN, the Exchange Intelligent
Message Filter (http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/techinfo/security/imfoverview.asp), and Outlook 2003. The advantage of their approach is that they get a
*huge* corpus of messages that can be scanned for spam-ishness, giving
them a pretty accurate filter. They've been releasing periodic updates
for the Outlook junk filter, and I expect them to do the same for the
IMF (once it's released) and Entourage.

Cheers,
-Paul

--
Paul Robichaux <[email protected]>
MVP - Exchange
Exchange security book: http://www.e2ksecurity.com
FAQs: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exchange.htm &
http://www.swinc.com/resource/e2kfaq.htm
 
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