- Overview

- What is Deadletter and how does it work?

- How does Deadletter work with Eudora's filters?

- Editing In-Box messages

- System Requirements

- Installation

- Manual filter creation

- Uninstallation

- Getting Started

- Testing Deadletter

- The Deadletter Settings Dialog

- Known Problems

- Bug Reports

- Legal Stuff

NOTE: You should UNINSTALL any previous Deadletter beta or demo versions prior to installing the latest version. To do this open the control panel folder and double-click the "Add Remove Programs" icon. Then select Deadletter in the list and click the Add/Remove button. If you are NOT installing this program for the first time, click the No button when asked if you want to update the Eudora filters file to prevent updating it twice.

Eudora provides a tool for processing incoming mail, called "filters". They have powerful capabilities to automatically forward, delete, notify, respond, or alert you based on specified criteria in the message. Unfortunately, the selection capability of these filters is quite limited. You are only allowed two tests or "conditions" per message, not nearly enough to adequately identify junk mail.

Deadletter is a plugin for Eudora that provides far more extensive and easy-to-use criteria to scan your incoming mail for likely Spam junk email messages. When it finds one it inserts the tag [** SEND TO DEADMAIL**] at the end of the message. This tag can then be used by a Eudora filter to transfer, delete, or otherwise deal with the message.

How is Deadletter different from other spam detectors? Most junk-email-detecting software on the market relies on identifying who sent the message, they have lists of known spammer sites, and compare the given email address with the list. This has proven inadequate as spammers routinely change their return addresses and take other measures to conceal the actual sender. Deadletter instead focuses on what spam is: "Spam" can be defined as a mass emailing for the purpose of making money. In other words, spam is a marketing message. So Deadletter focuses on identifying mass emails that are marketing something: a sex web site, a chain letter, a product, a "business opportunity", etc. A spammer may change his return address a hundred times, but he won't change the fact that he wants you to buy his miracle diet pills. By focusing on what spam is Deadletter gets the spams that other similar programs miss.

NOTE: Deadletter's automatic junk mail checks assume the junk mail is in U.S. English, and most likely will not work on foreign language junk mail.

When Deadletter reads an email message passed to it by Eudora and decides it is junk, it appends a label to the message body of the form: "[**SEND TO DEADMAIL**]", called the "kill tag". A filter for this tag has been created by the installation program. It transfers suspected junk mail to a new mailbox called "DeadMail". There you can scan the message headers and either retrieve or trash the message.

Deadletter also comes with a unique feature that allows you to edit the contents of a received message in your mailbox. This feature allows you to get rid of what we call "semi-spam", that is, messages that contain useful information buried behind pages of extraneous text and forwarded messages. You can open a message and select the Edit->Message Plug-ins->Edit this message... menu item, the message text will open up in a simple text editing dialog for you to remove unnecessary text or add your own notes to the message body.

This feature does come with a couple caveats, however: 1) since Eudora does not pass formatting information to the dialog, you will lose any styled text or formatting present in the message if you edit and save it; 2) if text in the message is highlighted when you select the menu item, then only the highlighted text is sent to the edit dialog, and attempting to save only a partial message can cause Eudora to freeze. See the Known Problems section below.

Deadletter requires Win95/NT and Eudora Lite or Eudora Pro version 3.05 or higher. If you have an earlier version please go to Qualcomm's Eudora site at http://www.eudora.com for a free update.

The installer performs several tasks installing Deadletter:

1) it installs the Deadletter.DLL file, help and documentation files into the Eudora/Plugins folder;

2) it adds two new files: DeadMail.mbx and DeadMail.toc. These files will show up as a new "DeadMail" mailbox in your Eudora program. Suspected junk messages will be placed here by the filter s(below);

3) it appends a default filter to the FILTERS.PCE file (and backs up the previous file to "FILTERS.PCE Backup"): the new filter transfers files tagged with the kill tag to the new DeadMail mailbox.

Together the installer creates a system that should start working scanning for spam "right out of the box".

If for some reason you wish to create your own Deadletter filters (or if the installation program didn't do this for you), here are the instructions:

1) Open the Tools->Filters.. menu item.

2) Click the New button on the filters dialog.

3) Create a filter that searches Header: <<body>> contains: [**SEND TO DEADMAIL**]

Action Transfer To: then select the DeadMail mailbox.

next Action: Skip Rest (skips all further filter processing for this message).

4) Use the Up button to move this to the top of the list.

To uninstall this program, open the Control Panels folder and double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon. Then select Deadletter from the list and click the Add/Remove button. Note that the uninstaller will NOT remove some items: 1) the Deadletter.ini settings file (since you may be installing another version); and 2) the filters added to the Filters.pce file (you can delete them by going to the Tools->Filters menu item, or restore the previous filter file "Filters.pce Backup").

Deadletter's junk mail filter has two components: a piece that scans and labels new messages as they are downloaded from the server, and two dialog boxes for modifying the search criteria. The first is a dialog that can be called from the Edit->Message Plugins->Kill or save messages from this user.. menu item. It allows you to add the sender of the currently open message to Deadletter's "kill" (always send messages from this sender to DeadMail) or "save" (always let messages from this sender through). Deadletter checks the From:, Sender: and X-Sender: header fields for user IDs in this list. The radio buttons allow you to select either the specific user ID or any user ID from the sender's domain. The second dialog box controls all Deadletter settings and is reached through the Special->Message Plug-in Settings.. menu item.

Deadletter also includes a simple text editor to allow you to edit messages already in your mailbox. This editor can be invoked from the Edit->Message Plugins->Edit this message... menu item.

You might be tempted to immediately test Deadletter by sending yourself a bunch of junk emails. You would then be disappointed to see them sail right through Deadletter unmarked as spam. Why? Because, by default, Deadletter will not check for spam any email that is actually addressed to you (bulk emailers use Blind CC lists for their addresses). What mail is tested for junk is controlled through the Junk Mail page of the settings dialog (see the description below and in the help file). Mail will not be checked if it is actually addressed to your email address in either the To: or CC: fields.

The best way to test this program is to simply install it and use it. Let the normal flow of junk emails hit your mailbox and see how many are caught. Most people find that Deadletter catches nearly 100% of the spam out there, but does also catch some non-spam messages. You should always scan the headers of the messages sent to your DeadMail folder to make sure there are no messages you want to keep.

All of Deadletter's saved settings can be viewed from the Deadletter settings dialog. To open this dialog go to the Special->Message Plugin settings... menu item and double-click the Deadletter icon in the window. Deadletter lets you specify mail to kill based on a number of criteria.

Label Page - shows you the label added to suspected junk mail by Deadletter. Be sure your filter file matches. The checkbox allows you to completely disable all Deadletter checking. Additional checkboxes allow you to add buttons to the 4.0 toolbar that open the Edit Message and Save/Kill dialogs. (Note that a current bug in Eudora means Eudora 4.0 always adds the toolbar buttons anyway.)

Killed Senders - a list of all user IDs and domains you don't want to hear from again. All messages from these senders will be tagged with the kill tag. The From, Sender or X-Sender, and List-Server header fields are checked against user IDs on to this list.

Saved Senders - opposite of above. Messages from all these senders will never get the kill tag. The From, Sender or X-Sender, and List-Server header fields are checked against user IDs on to this list. Note that messages from senders found in your Eudora address book are automatically saved and thus do not have to be added to this list.

Kill Subject Text - lets you add text to search for in the subject line of messages. If the text is found then the message receives the kill tag.

Kill Header Text - lets you add text to search for in any header line. If the text is found then the message receives the kill tag.

Kill Message Text - lets you add text to search for in the message body text. If the text is found then the message receives the kill tag.

Junk Mail Page - controls what Junk mail tests are performed on emails not actually addressed to you. See the help file for more information on what each test is. If you remove your email address from this page then ALL mail will be checked EXCEPT for messages from "Saved Senders" or messages from senders who are in your Eudora Address book.

Deadletter makes use of a Windows 95 system DLL, "Comct32.dll", that has been buggy in the past (the symptom shows up as "tabbed" dialog boxes with garbage in the tab labels, followed by a program crash). Microsoft has available on it's http://www.microsoft.com website a fix program called Com32Upd.exe.

In certain circumstances, Eudora 3.05 freezes when attempting to save an inbox message that you have edited with the Edit this message.. dialog box. This is because Eudora does not pass the entire message to the Message Edit plugin if some text is highlighted when you select the menu item. If, after editing a message, the message display window shows some of the message text highlighted and some not, then close the message window and click "No" when you are asked if you want to save the message. The freeze happens after the Deadletter plugin is done with the message and is out of our control. This problem does not occur with Eudora 4.0.

In Eudora 4.0 the program adds two icons to the toolbar to open the Save/Kill and Edit Message dialogs regardless of whether the "Add to Toolbar" checkboxes are checked in the settings dialog. This is apparently a Eudora problem we will address with them.

For a FAQ of frequently asked questions, and problems and their solutions visit the Deadletter web page at http://www.deadletter.com.

All registered users are entitled to free technical support by email. If you have any questions or problems, first read the FAQ list on the support page of the Deadletter web site: http://www.deadletter.com. If that does not address the issue then please email bug reports, questions, or comments to support@deadletter.com. We will endeavor to respond to all questions or problems within one business day. In order to verify your purchase, and thus your elegibility for technical support, please include the email address you used when purchasing Deadletter.

Registered users are also entitled to free updates of Deadletter through the commercial release of Eudora 4.0. We will be updating the program as needed to match the capabilities of this new Eudora release. See the updates page of the Deadletter website for the latest version.

Deadletter is Copyright 1997, Isaac Software Design. All rights reserved.

Deadletter(tm) is a trademark of Isaac Software Design.

Eudora is a registered trademark of Qualcomm, Inc.

DEADLETTER IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. IT MAY CRASH OR OPERATE IN UNEXPECTED WAYS OR PRODUCE UNEXPECTED RESULTS. USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Please read the license agreement for more information.