[Spambayes] can't get spam bayes to work

[Eric A. Silver]

Hi, Tony,



I've been reading over this thread, and here's what I can ascertain:   
The writer obviously uses a computer routinely, but isn't very savvy  
about the lingo, nor is she particularly proficient technologically,  
so she probably (obviously) didn't know how to ask the questions in  
the correct way.  I gather from reading her e-mails that she's been  
pinged on by a few of our list members.  Not very nice of them.   
However, let's review the bidding:

despite her obvious lack of knowledge in the field, she did manage to  
install SpamBayes for OE correctly, and when you directed her  
attention to various aspects of the program (FAQ's, etc.) it turned  
out that she had, in fact read everything and done it correctly.  so  
she qualifies as a pretty good user, despite her not having asked her  
questions in the right way.  When you asked for her log files--and  
told her where they were, she managed to find them and sent them to you.

Now here's what I've come up with.  Verizon is one of the major  
players here in the U.S.  and checking with a few friends who use it,  
it appears that when you set up the incoming mail account, the user  
inputs incoming.verizon.net.  However, as you correctly noted on your  
response to her, it shows up as pop.verizon.net.  That's just the way  
program operates, and nothing should be made of it.  I'm sure she has  
her OE settings set up as incoming.verizon.net.  I could e-mail her  
to confirm this but I don't think it would be necessary.

The big thing here is that you told her was the following: "there's  
some sort of DNS lookup problem (DNS lookup does the conversion from  
(e.g.) incoming.verizon.net to

206.46.232.10)."  Now we all gather from reading her e-mails that  
she's not very computer literate.  That being the case, I'm not  
certain what she could gather from your above statement.  I'm sure  
she doesn't know what a DNS lookup problem is, or for that matter,  
what 206.46.232.10 is either.  What she needs to do is to configure  
SPAMBAYES to work on her computer.  You told her that she has a DNS  
lookup problem, but you didn't tell her what to do about it.  I think  
that information, in specific, easy to follow instructions would be  
more helpful.  And it could easily bring this thread to a close.  The  
fact that we haven't heard from her in response to your last e-mail  
several days ago tells me that she's probably given up in  
exasperation.  She asked for help, admitted that she doesn't know  
very much about computers, (at least the technical details beyond  
using the program she has), and you gave her technical info about a  
DNS problem without providing anything close to a solution.  Does a  
solution exist?  Can she use OE with SPAMBAYES--and most importantly-- 
what would it take for her to make that happen?

Of course, if I were advising her, I'd tell her to use Outlook, a far  
better program than the braindamaged OE, and one where installing  
SpamBayes is a piece of cake!  I don't know why anybody would want to  
use OE, but that's another story entirely.

Just my 2c worth.  Please don't flame me--let's just see if we can  
help this person out by giving specific, concrete advice that that an  
obvious and admitted rank amateur can understand.

Eric
Eric A. Silver


 > herewith the log files you requested.

[...]
 > Can't connect to pop.verizon.net:110: (7, 'getaddrinfo failed')

What this means is that although OE can connect to SpamBayes, SpamBayes
isn't managing to connect to your mail server.  The "getaddrinfo failed"
error is somewhat unusual, as it indicates that the problem is in  
converting
the "pop.verizon.net" to it's IP address.

<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3A%22IP+address% 
22&btnG=Google+
Search&meta=>

I'm not sure why this would be.  Is "pop.verizon.net" definitely exactly
what was in your OE settings previously?  I don't know anything about
Verizon, but a cursory look at their website indicates that
"incoming.verizon.net" might be the correct address.  (Pinging the  
two hints
at that, too).

<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3Aping&btnG=Google 
+Search&meta=
 >

Try changing the SpamBayes settings to use "incoming.verizon.net".   
To do
this:

   1.  Right-click on the SpamBayes icon in the tray (next to the  
clock).

   2.  Select "Configure..." from the pop-up menu.

   3.  In the browser window that opens, the top box should have
"pop.verizon.net" in it at the moment.   Change that to
"incoming.verizon.net" (no quotes).

   4.  Click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page.

   5.  Try using SpamBayes again.

If that doesn't work, then it's possible (although unlikely, since I  
gather
OE works without SpamBayes) that there's some sort of DNS lookup problem
(DNS lookup does the conversion from (e.g.) incoming.verizon.net to
206.46.232.10).

 > Tony, the only reason I sent the e-mails to you was because I
 > had received an e-mail from you.

I don't really care that you emailed me offlist, although it really  
is best
(for both of us) if you don't.  My signature (at the bottom of every  
list
message I send) explains this, ands asks people to send mail to the list
rather than to me.  There's a link to a more detailed explanation  
that is in
as clear language as possible for those that don't understand the
space-constrained signature.  A large number of people don't do this,  
though
(I suspect many people ignore signatures), so I'm used to it by now.

 > I realize you're a volunteer, and that this program is
 > offered free of charge, but why can't it be simpler to operate?

The simple answer is because making it simpler to operate is  
difficult and
takes a great deal of time.  There is a nearly completed script that  
will
automatically configure SpamBayes (basically it does all the steps  
outlined
in the FAQ) for varous common mail clients.  That's complicated to  
program,
however, and so far no-one has managed to have the time to finish it  
off.

As I said previously, SpamBayes is consistently getting easier to  
install
and use.  It's a incremental process.  It's only at version 1.0,  
after all!

Somewhat ironically, one of the things that makes this difficult is
answering support mail from this list (and elsewhere).  If I used the  
time
that I spend helping people here on SpamBayes development, then  
things would
improve faster.  However, that would mean that many people didn't get  
any
help in the meantime.  That's why the "how can I help" FAQ says that  
helping
others on the list (freeing up the developers' time) is very useful.

 > And the first rule of business (even if it's free
 > business)--never--ever berate the customer, no matter how
 > stupid s/he may be.

To steal from Tim, berating is in the eye of the berated, but AFAIK I  
never
berated you.  Every reply is in the mailing list archives, too, so  
it's easy
for people to check.

=Tony.Meyer

-- 
Please always include the list (spambayes at python.org) in your replies
(reply-all), and please don't send me personal mail about SpamBayes.
http://www.massey.ac.nz/~tameyer/writing/reply_all.html explains this. 
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