Client Setup for Outlook 2000

This page gives instructions on installing and setting-up SpamPal for use with the e-mail program Outlook 2000

Quick Index

2. Configure SpamPal

3. Configure your email program
3.1 Change your POP3 settings
3.2 Change your IMAP4 Settings
3.3 Change your SMTP settings
3.4 Create Filter/Message rules

4. Email Virus Scanners and Firewalls

5. Whitelist friends and contacts
5.1 Export your contacts email addresses

1. Install SpamPal

Start installation by double-clicking on the SpamPal Setup program (spampal.exe) and follow the on-screen instructions. Upon completion, SpamPal will run, showing its pink umbrella icon in your system tray.

If this installation is an upgrade of SpamPal then the existing configuration of Outlook is retained and the process is now complete. If not, i.e. this is a new installation of SpamPal, proceed with the steps below.

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All you need to know about extra configuration can be found here

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Now you have set up SpamPal, you need to tell your email program to fetch your mail through the SpamPal proxy rather than directly from your ISP.

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3.1 Change your POP3 settings

Load Outlook then go to Tools, Accounts:

Note 1: If you are using the Corporate or Workgroup version of Outlook...

Don't worry; instead of going to Tools, Accounts; you will need to go to Tools...and then Services

We'll start with the first account (most people will only have one). Select it from the list and click Properties, followed by clicking on the Servers Tab. You should see a window a like this:

To reconfigure your email program, first make a careful note of your original settings.

You should append whatever value you currently have in your Incoming Mail Server (POP3) setting, to whatever you currently have in the User Name field (seperated with a @ sign), and change the Incoming Mail Server (POP3) setting to 127.0.0.1.

e.g. if your original values were:

Incoming Mail Server: your.mailserver.com
User Name: fred.bloggs

then you would, for example, change them to:

Incoming Mail Server: 127.0.0.1
User Name: fred.bloggs@your.mailserver.com

Note 2: if you got the message about SpamPal not being able to use the standard POP3 port...

You may, at this point, get an error message about SpamPal not being able to listen on the standard POP3 port.This is nothing to be worried about; just write down the port number SpamPal tells you and continue with this guide

This message means SpamPal is using Port 1110 instead of 110. You don't have to put it into SpamPal because SpamPal already knows it is using port 110. Instead, you have to tell your email program (for example Outlook Express) to use port 1110 instead of 110.

Note 3: If the server name already is localhost

Don't worry; just add @localhost to the username and leave the server name as is

Note 4: If your POP3 username already contains an @

continue regardless; SpamPal copes with usernames that contain two @s without difficulty.

Note 5: If the my server requires authentication box is checked...

Click the Settings... button beside it. Now, select Log on using and enter your original username and password
i.e.. What they were before you modified the username to install SpamPal

Typical POP3 Server Examples (do not use directly)
Eg. 1: the original values of:	Eg. 1: should be changed to new values of:
Incoming Mail (POP3):mail.btopenworld.com	Incoming Mail (POP3): 127.0.0.1
Username: fred.bloggs	Username: fred.bloggs@mail.btopenworld.com
Eg. 2: the original values of:	Eg. 2: should be changed to new values of:
Incoming Mail (POP3): pop.west.cox.net	Incoming Mail (POP3): 127.0.0.1
Username: johnsmith	Username:johnsmith@pop.west.cox.net
Eg. 3: the original values of:	Eg. 3: should be changed to new values of:
Incoming Mail (POP3): pop.telus.net	Incoming Mail (POP3): 127.0.0.1
Username: fax07734	Username: fax07734@pop.telus.net
Eg. 4: the original values of:	Eg. 4: should be changed to new values of:
Incoming Mail (POP3): 192.168.1.1	Incoming Mail (POP3): 127.0.0.1
Username: mary_jones	Username: mary_jones@192.168.1.1

Note 6: Server names

The above Incoming POP3 Server Name, can be called: Incoming Mail Server, POP3 server, POP3 Username or Account Name depending on your email program.

There are also two ways of specifying the local server name, which should mean exactly the same thing (but on some system only one of them will work): localhost or 127.0.0.1

Now click OK to confirm, and repeat this for all the remaining accounts. When you're done, close the Accounts window.

Now try to check your mail; if you don't get any errors, continue to the next step.

You may be asked to re-enter your POP3 passwords; this is nothing to worry about. If you get an error from Outlook, check that you've configured the incoming POP3 server to localhost and, if necessary, that the port has been set right. If you get an error from SpamPal, check you've added the servername to the username correctly, and that your Internet connection is active.

If there is a need to change you POP3 or SMTP ports, then start with the first account (most people will only have one). Select it and then click Properties. Go to the Advanced tab of the window that comes up, which should look a bit like this:

Note 7: Server timeouts

The default Server Timouts of 1 minute can be a little too small an amout when using SpamPal. If you are finding your email is timing out then perhaps increase this figure to 4 minutes.

If you are still having a problem, why not give this setup page a try

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Load Outlook then go to Tools, Accounts:

We'll start with the first account (most people will only have one). Select it from the list and click Properties, followed by clicking on the Servers Tab. You should see a window a like this:

You'll need to make changes to the Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) and User Name fields.

Write down the name of your Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) (e.g..imap.yourisp.com) and then replace this with 127.0.0.1

Now add an @ symbol and the Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) that you wrote down earlier, to the Username logon box (e.g.. my_login_name@imap.yourisp.com)

When you check your mail, you should also notice that you only get non-spam email in your inbox, as the spam marked message are now in a new folder called spamtrap, which is created by SpamPal to store all your spam marked messages:

If there is a need to change you IMAP or SMTP ports, then start with the first account (most people will only have one). Select it and then click Properties. Go to the Advanced tab of the window that comes up, which should look a bit like this:

Note: Server timeouts

The default Server Timouts of 1 minute can be a little too small an amout when using SpamPal. If you are finding your email is timing out then perhaps increase this figure to 4 minutes.

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3.3 Changing your SMTP settings

If you wish to use SpamPal's SMTP Proxy to auto-whitelist any email addresses that you send to, you will need to change Outlook's SMTP settings, as follows

Load Outlook then go to Tools, Accounts:

We'll start with the first account (most people will only have one). Select it from the list and click Properties, followed by clicking on the Servers Tab. You should see a window a like this:

Now, take a note of your current Outgoing mail Server (SMTP), for example: smtp.myisp.co.uk

Now change the current Outgoing mail Server (SMTP), to: 127.0.0.1

Note 1: If the my server requires authentication box is checked...

Click the Settings... button beside it. Now, select Log on using and enter your original username and password
i.e.. What they were before you modified the username to install SpamPal

Now, take a note of your current Outgoing mail Server (SMTP), for example: smtp.myisp.co.uk

Now change the current Outgoing mail Server (SMTP), to: 127.0.0.1

Now go to SpamPal's Connections page:

Now click on Add port and change the Port Type to SMTP

Now, change the Server Name to the Outgoing mail Server (SMTP) you noted down earlier,
e.g..smtp.myisp.co.uk

Now, whenever you send an email, SpamPal will automatically auto-whitelist it

Note 2: Never Auto-Whitelist option

Occasionally, a spammer might forge the email address of someone who is in your auto-whitelist - for example, a colleague or an alternate email address or yours. While you don't want to put this person in your blacklist because they send you lots of genuine email, you don't want them to end up in your auto-whitelist and bypass SpamPal's spam-checking features.

Clicking on the Exclusions pane will bring up a window into which you can enter the email addresses of people who should never be added to the auto-whitelist. Just add your colleagues here and you won't have to worry about spammers forging their addresses to bypass SpamPal's filtering. You can even add your entire employer's domain - e.g. *@acme-widgets.com

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3.4 Create Filter/Message Rules

If you are are using an IMAP4 server, you will not need to setup a filter/message rule on your email program,
as SpamPal moves any spam tagged messages automatically into a folder called inbox.spamtrap on your
server.

If you are are using a POP3 server and want your email program to automatically filter the SpamPal-marked messages into a separate Mailbox, so that you can more easily review them, continue as follows

Go to Rules Wizard in the Tools menu, this will bring up a list of all of the filters (or as Outlook calls them, rules) that are current set up. Click New to create a new one.

Choose to Check messages when they arrive and click next.

Note 1: Outlook XP (2002) Rules Wizard

Using more recent versions of Outlook, you need to create a new rule using:
Tools/Rules Wizard, Select New..., and then Select start from blank rule

Now we will make a filter to transfer everything containing SpamPal's special header into a spam folder.

First, check the condition with specific words in the message header

Now click the blue specific words in the box at the bottom; type X-SpamPal: SPAM into the field at the top of the window that appears, and click OK then click Next.

Then, check the action move it to the specified folder. then click the blue specified and click New to create a new folder called Spam Trap (or whatever you would like to call your spam folder).

Ensure that the Folder Contains dropdown shows Mail Items , and select which folder you wish to place the new folder inside of. Then click OK.

If you would like a shortcut added to the Outlook shortcut bar that points to the new folder click Yes otherwise click No.

Click OK then Next.

Check any exceptions to the rule you may wish to use (recommend not checking any) and click Next.

You should end up with a rule looking a bit like this:

Give your filter an appropriate name, for example, SpamPal Rule and click Finish to create it, then OK to dismiss the mail rules window.

So, if you only have one rule setup, your rule should look like this screen:

Note 2: message rule order

Make sure your new rule for SpamPal is first in the list, if you have a lot of other message rules you use. In this example, you can see that the SpamPal rule, needs to be moved up a place, by highlighting the SpamPal rule
and clicking Move Up

Note 3: stop procesing more rules

Make sure your SpamPal rule ends with And Stop processing more rules

Note 4: Junk Senders/Adult Content senders

If you have a lot of blocked senders then it is worth Removing them from the list, as SpamPal will do a much better job of coping with Spam and removing the blocked senders will also speed up the processing of email.

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4. Email Virus Scanners & Firewalls

Specific instructions for using a variety of email virus scanners with SpamPal can be found on the main installation page

Some email virus filters want to sit between your mail program and your mail server in just the way that SpamPal does. There's actually no reason why they can't; you just have them up in serial so that your virus filter fetches its mail through SpamPal rather than directly from your mailserver, and then your email program fetches the mail through the virus filter.

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5. Whitelist Friends and Contacts

In order to speed up the processing of your emails and to prevent SpamPal from marking your friends or contact's emails as spam, it's a good idea at this point to whitelist all your important email addresses.

This can be done in four ways:

a) Use the pop3 automatic whitelist: this will whitelist non-spam email's that you receive on a frequent basis
b) Use the smtp automatic whitelist: which (if setup in 3.3) will whitelist all email addresses that you send out

Note 1: Privacy: smtp automatic whitelist

If you are using this, especially in a business, as this is recording all outgoing addresses, some people might view this as an infringement upon their privacy, (if you are in UK you need to tell staff of this policy before you start collecting data)

c) use the Add to Whitelist option on SpamPal's system tray: to manually whitelist your email addresses by typing in an address (or by using the dropdown box; to select from a list of recently received address):

d) You can use this procedure to automatically export your Outlook contacts or you can use SpamPal Whitelist Email Addresses page, to manually whitelist your email addresses:

Note 2: Headers that the whitelist compares against

The whitelist function only looks for email addresses in certain headers of your email.

These headers are currently: From:, Reply-To:, Sender:, Mailing-List: and Return-Path:

Initially, you will notice that using SpamPal makes fetching your email a little slower. This is because SpamPal has to check everything against the DNSBL lists (Public Blacklists) to see what email's are from a spammer and which aren't.

However, through it's Auto-Whitelist feature(s), SpamPal will quickly learn about the people and machines that send you lots of email, and adds them to a list of trusted senders. Because they're trusted, SpamPal doesn't waste time any checking the DNSBL lists (Public Blacklists) for them and so the more you use SpamPal, the quicker it will get.

There are more hints and tip on how to optimise SpamPal here

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5.1 Export your contacts email addresses

You can use this procedure to automatically export your Outlook contact's email addresses, so that you can quickly whitelist your contacts which will speed up the processing of your emails and to prevent SpamPal from marking your friends or contact's emails as spam.

This completes the installation and setup.

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