[Spambayes] help!

[Bovbjerg Family]

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please help me. I'm just an average-ly knowledgeable PC user, not a system administrator. I'm begging for help figuring out how to run SpamBayes. I have it at work, but it installed automatically into Outlook, with a routine to follow for initial training by batched spam vs non-spam directories, then a button to accept or reject new messages in teh inbox, one by one.

Alas, at home with Outlook Express and Windows XP, nothing seems at all the same, and I cannot even install, configure and run the program.  (Outlook proper is also on the PC for my wife to syncronize her PDA with her office Outlook. But it doesn't run unless invoked and is not the email default.)

I have downloaded spambayes-1.0rc2.exe and it has run. In so doing, I selected not the default "outlook" but the 2d choice "outlook express." The program successfully installed a shortcut on the desktop and in a directory on the start button, both "C:\Program Files\SpamBayes\bin\sb_tray.exe"

Either shortcut puts an email-envelope icon at the lower right on the task bar, which I'm guessing must be the "SpamBayes Tray Icon" referred to by the "Getting Started" part of the "readme" instructions. C:\Program Files\SpamBayes\docs\sb_server\readme_proxy.html

As instructed, I right clicked the icon and selected "configure," which brought up the window http://localhost:8880/config  I have read the set-up instructions under "Using the Service" several times. Sadly, the jargon and syntax go too far beyond my understanding for me to follow them. Happily, they say "you don't need to use this." 

Next come the "configure" instructions: 

1. Initially it looks like only one thing is needed: "You can skip over most of the settings here, apart from the top one (shown in the figure). You need to enter the address of your mail server. If you don't know the address, you can find it in the settings of your mail client." The 8880 window says "a POP3 server address typically looks like "pop3.myisp.net".  Outl. Expr. tools/accounts/mail/properties/servers tells me that my "incoming mail (POP3):" is "incoming.verizon.net"  -- which doesn't look right but is the best I can find. Entering this and saving does not get SpamBayes to work for me -- so please tell me where else to look for the right information.

2. Then a second set-up task is indicated: "Setup your mail client: You need to set your mail client to receive mail from localhost rather than your mail server"  I don't understand how to do this.

Please tell me.

Assuming that I eventually get things set up right, I foresee a problem with the next stage of the instructions: "Training - When you first start using SpamBayes" ... because (a) I don't see where I'm told how to start up SpamBayes and (b) it also looks like I have to train SpamBayes only on incoming messages one by one. My keeping a "spam" and "not spam" folder in Out. Expr. for the past month looks unhelpful.

If Outl. Expr. operations are all this cumbersome, it's probably beyond me to use SpamBayes with it. So we prbably need to think about another option, either using Outlook at home (I'm hoping that set up is more automatic) or finding another, more user friendly bayesian program. 

Can you please give a poor soul some advice? You guys have a very good reputation, and in exchange I'd be happy to help rewrite your instructions so that non-tecchies can understand them. That would take some time from a tecchie to work on translation, and I could probably only contribute to helping others like me stuck with Outl. Expr.

Thanks for your consideration

RandyB
Washington, DC
Bovbjerg at verizon.net 






Troubleshooting _begins_ with what do with problems _after_ installation/configuration. I don't know how to configure, so it doesn't help. 
C:\Program Files\SpamBayes\docs\sb_server\troubleshooting.html
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