[Spambayes] Doesn't work!

[Tim Peters]

[Sam Sox]
>> You use phrases like " Have you changed your mail client
>> to connect to "localhost", instead of directly to your mail
>> server".. I have to assume that my local host is Road Runner
>> accessed via pop-server.sc.rr.com.

[Tony Meyer]
> "localhost" means the machine that you are using.  You don't need to
> understand that, just that you need to change the address of your mail
> server to "localhost".

In case that still isn't clear, we mean literally the 9-letter word on
the next line:

    localhost

It doesn't matter who your ISP is, who your host is, etc.  The literal
word "localhost" (but without the quotation marks) is the thing to
type.

It's possible that, if you have a badly configured machine, the name
"localhost" won't resolve.  If that happens, you could try typing in
exactly this string instead:

    127.0.0.1

On a properly configured machine, they mean the same thing; here from
a little Python session:

>>> import socket
>>> print socket.gethostbyname("localhost")
127.0.0.1

You should note too that Outlook Express is a low-end mail
application, and using it makes everything harder for you than it
_could_ be.  That's fine, but you should expect some pain no matter
how carefully things are explained -- using OE here is plain
complicated.