THE NITTY-GRITTY:
A look at my email spam filters in Eudora 5.1.

Eudora stores its filter information in a text format file called "filters.pce", located in the same folder as the user's mailboxes. This file can be opened with Notepad or similar for viewing or even editing, but editing is usually done within Eudora's "Filters" window (found under the "Tools" menu). To download a copy of my latest filters.pce file Click Here.

Below is the most recent image of my Eudora filters window.  It's somewhat different than the list of example filters on the left, since I have been actively updating my filters with new filtering terms. As you can see some of my filters make use of color - I've assigned a "Label" Action to them, and the message subject lines found by that filter will be in the same color. This is handy (but not required) for quickly knowing at a glance which filter rule any particular message has matched. Combining Eudora's eight different label colors (including no color), with the five priority tags gives 40 possible variations for identifying which filter acted on a given message. Alternatively it is also possible to simply use the Eudora filter Action "Make Subject" to replace (or add, with the "&" ) an identifier to the subject line of an email when it gets filtered.

Eudora filters email starting with the first filter at the top of the list, and proceeds down the list of filters until it finds a match. If the matching filter says to "Skip Rest", any email that matches that filter's rules with stop filtering right there, and will take whatever action was assigned prior to the  "Skip Rest". That message will not encounter any filters further down the list. If a filter does NOT say "Skip Rest", any email that matches that filter's rules will be assigned the Actions stated by that filter, but will continue down the list of filters. This is important to note, because any assigned Actions can be changed to different Actions by later filters if the email matches those later rules. (Using "Skip Rest" will also reduce the total filtering workload).

Filter Image - Date 6-27-2003

 

The first  filter is for possible virus attachments. Filter number two is a minor spam filter that needs to be ahead of the passlist. The third filter has been inactivated, but was a filter to catch and keep certain replies to me from people I've written to. The next eight filters are "whitelist" filters, including my special keyword filter, and a personal domain filter.  These filters snag and send matching email messages safely to the inbox. All of the rest of the filters (in color) are spam filters, and send all intercepted emails to the Spam box for a quick review and dumping. In the rare event that an email manages to make it past the bottom of the list, it  goes to the inbox by default, since it hasn't triggered any of the preceding spam filters. 

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE VARIOUS FILTER EXAMPLES PROVIDED IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES  DO NOT REFLECT THE FULL OR NEWEST CONTENTS OF MY LATEST FILTER SETS. SOME OF THE FOLLOWING FILTERS SUCH AS THE "BCC" FILTER ARE NO LONGER USED IN MY  FILTER SETS. THEY ARE ALL GOOD FUNTIONAL FILTERS BUT EITHER ARE NOT NEEDED OR MAY CONTIBUTE TO HIGHER FALSE-POSITIVE HIT RATES. ALL FILTER EXAMPLES ARE PROVIDED TO SHOW HOW FILTERS ARE MADE. PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE LATEST FILTER SET ZIP-FILES FOR THE MOST CURRENT FILTERS.

I hope to  eventually find the time to create a web page here to enumerate and discuss the exact contents of all my current filter sets. Since I do this web site as a public service and not a remunerative venture I haven't gotten back in here and upated it recently as much as I would have liked...

 

By  Cecil Williams