[Spambayes] I can no longer get SpamBayes to deal with Spam.

[harrysigerson at ntlworld.com]

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I am using SpamBayes Proxy Version 1.1a3 (August 2006) (binary), with
version 2.4.4c0 (#69, Apr 24 2006, 10:15:03) [MSC v.1310 32 bit
(Intel)] of Python; my operating system is Windows 5.1.2600.2 (Service
Pack 2).  I have trained 46 ham and 331 spam.

The problem I am having is as follows.

The above information is slightly misleading because it says that I am
using v1.1a3.
In fact I only downloaded that version today having first uninstalled
v1.0.4.

I had been using v1.0.4 for a very long time successfully up until
about nine months ago.
Okay, initially, way way back, I'd had bother getting v1.0.4 to work.
I sorted that out and SpamBayes ran beautifully so much so that I was
inclined to forget all about it.
I don't know what went wrong with v1.0.4; I'm sure it must have been
something I did. I kept trying to fix it; couldn'; reverted to taking
my email directly and dealing with spam manually - a wearying task but
necessary.

Then this morning I decided that I'd clear  SpamBayes v1.0.4 out of
the machine and download the latest version; v1.1a3, the one described
above.
I don't usually attempt to run beta versions as I'm a PC user of long
standing but unfortunately not knowledgeable in any depth about
debugging and such.
However v1.1xx has been on the go for some time and I noted from
SourceForge information that the latest, v1.1a3 has had some 40,xxx
downloads and thought perhaps it is solid enough now for numpties <s>.

I think the trouble lies in how I must have set or reset SpamBayes so
the it is located like piggy in the middle as a proxy. That is so that
it is 'localhost' or perhaps that should read to allow 'localhosting'

I am using the email agent 'Virtual Access', which I really like and
have been using it since around about 1992-4 or so.
It is a straight forward POP and SMTP deal.
In the Incoming Mail field I have VA set to   pop.ntlworld.com    and
in the Ougoing Mail field it is set to   smtp.ntlworld.com
Under the News tab of VA, I have the News{NNTP} Server field set to
news.ntlworld.com   and with these settings my email agent, VA works
fine and hauls in all the spam for me to deal with, manually.

I've tried a lot of experimentation trying to get back to what I
_must_ have had in these fields in VA during that very long time when
SpamBayes happily fielded all the spam for me and dumped it into the
VA folder called SPAM <s>.

On installing the v1.1a3 this morning - with high hopes - hopefully, I
filled my email agent's three fields, for the Incoming/Outgoing/News
with the word  'localhost' (without the quotes).
Of course it couldn't connect to the ISP and I immediately reverted to
bypassing SpamBayes.

I have read the FAQ section a lot and will read it again but not
hopefully.
Can anyone suggest a clue on what I'm likely to be missing out doing.
I was convinced there was nothing wrong with SpamBayes v1.0.4 - I used
it for a long time.
I am further convinced since trying out v1.1a3 this morning and
realising that I would be going down the same route again with that.

I don't want to use another spam basher.
I've usually managed to problems like this if only by a process of
attrition but now the only word I can think of is ...HELP!!

I do know this that at the time when SpamBayes went awry, I'd had a
trouble with my Hardware and the Operating System.
The Hardware is greatly updated and the O/S is as above and all of my
heavy duty applications work really well. So whatever is banjaxing
SpamBayes, it has to be something I'm doing - or more likely *not*
doing.

I'not too sure what good the following log will be since if there is
anything in it, it will be from the manually spambashing that I've
done for yonks.
Not only that but I think v1.1a3 said the it changed old spambayes
records from v1.0.4 over to its way of working.

Regards,
Harry Sigerson