Outlook 2003 anti-spam... A couple of questions

[John C]

Hi,

I've had something of a hunt around for answers concerning the Junk Email
capability in OL 2003 but I've been unable to come up with anything specific
and would be grateful for some help.

1. It's v difficult to see exactly what the Junk Email filter is doing at
High/Low. I've downloaded the Nov 2004 MS Junk Email filter... OL still
fails to catch any emails based on dodgy subjects / content. The help files
that I've read seem to emphasise (understatement) the use of Safe Recipients
and appear to discount the use of the filter.... Has anybody had any success
with the filtering technology offered by MS.

2. In an effort to provide the filtering that's "missing", I've set up
some rules to trap dodgy subjects... There appears to be a limit to the
number of words you can have in the list of dodgy words. Does anybody know
what the limit is? Why it's there.

3. I note that in previous rules examples offered by some of the MVPs
here, the rule ends with "Stop Processing Rules" or similar... That option
doesn't appear to be offered in the Rules Wizard for OL 2003. Is it no
longer required?

Many thanks for your help
JC

 

[Roady [MVP]]

1) Works for me and mine is still set to Low. Are you running Office 2003
Service Pack 1 and have the latest Junk E-mail Definitions installed?
For more info on the Junk E-mail Filter see;
http://www.mapilab.com/articles/outlook_spam_filter_2.html

2) What error message do you get? You can have up to 32KB of active rules
configured.

3) Still there; it's in the action list

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

 

[John C]

Roady,

Thank you for replying so quickly. To answer your questions (and provide
some more information)...

1. Running MS Office 2003, SP1. OUTLFLTR.DAT is 3,512,201 bytes, Created 6
Oct 2004. The OS is XP Pro, SP2. ZoneAlarm is also installed (I mention
that since that seems to trash Norton Anti-Spam) although I have turned off
Basic MailSafe.

2. There are no error messages. The rule appears to run (progress bar
trucking across the dialog) but none of the messages get moved. The list in
question had about 20 terms (say 300 characters including the "'s used by MS
in the list)

3. Yup. I'd been dull... my apologies. I'd expected a "final step" in
the rules dialog that might have had a check box (or something similar) for
that. DOH!

Regards
JC

 

[Roady [MVP]]

2) Do other "move" rules work for you? Like based on sender? Reassigning the
folder that it should move the messages to sometimes fixes the rule.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----

Roady,

Thank you for replying so quickly. To answer your questions (and provide
some more information)...

1. Running MS Office 2003, SP1. OUTLFLTR.DAT is 3,512,201 bytes, Created
6 Oct 2004. The OS is XP Pro, SP2. ZoneAlarm is also installed (I
mention that since that seems to trash Norton Anti-Spam) although I have
turned off Basic MailSafe.

2. There are no error messages. The rule appears to run (progress bar
trucking across the dialog) but none of the messages get moved. The list
in question had about 20 terms (say 300 characters including the "'s used
by MS in the list)

3. Yup. I'd been dull... my apologies. I'd expected a "final step" in
the rules dialog that might have had a check box (or something similar)
for that. DOH!

Regards
JC

1) Works for me and mine is still set to Low. Are you running Office 2003
Service Pack 1 and have the latest Junk E-mail Definitions installed?
For more info on the Junk E-mail Filter see;
http://www.mapilab.com/articles/outlook_spam_filter_2.html

2) What error message do you get? You can have up to 32KB of active rules
configured.

3) Still there; it's in the action list

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

 

[John C]

Thanks again for your quick reply.

I deleted the rule that I had and I've created a new rule. This one seems
to work (at least when it is called deliberately by the user). I confess
that I'm surprised that the OL Junk Filter is doing nothing.

The new rule checks messages where I am in the To/Cc, where there are
certain keywords in the body and/or subject and then moves the mail off to a
dedicated folder... It certainly appears to run. I tested it on a few
messages in my Inbox and also on the contents of the Junk E-mail folder...
Trouble is that this seems to be a sticking plaster approach: the MS filter
ought to work and there is no selectable action to add the sender to the
Blocked Senders List (could be seen as an unreasonable request...).

More info about the configuration here... (Sorry, for not including this
earlier: I have a mind like a sieve).

OL2003, SP1, on Win XP Pro SP2. Running against Exch 2k3 SP1 on Win2k3S. I
have a "real" PC and a virtual PC. On the real PC I run in Cached Exchange
Mode and on the virtual PC I run in the "old-fashioned" mode... both hitting
the same mailbox. Sometimes both the real PC and the virtual PC are active
at the same time... More often only the real PC is active. OL2003 has
<<never>> caught any spam except that on the blocked senders list.

Thanks again
John

2) Do other "move" rules work for you? Like based on sender? Reassigning
the folder that it should move the messages to sometimes fixes the rule.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----

Roady,

Thank you for replying so quickly. To answer your questions (and provide
some more information)...

1. Running MS Office 2003, SP1. OUTLFLTR.DAT is 3,512,201 bytes,
Created 6 Oct 2004. The OS is XP Pro, SP2. ZoneAlarm is also installed
(I mention that since that seems to trash Norton Anti-Spam) although I
have turned off Basic MailSafe.

2. There are no error messages. The rule appears to run (progress bar
trucking across the dialog) but none of the messages get moved. The list
in question had about 20 terms (say 300 characters including the "'s used
by MS in the list)