FAQ
Installation
Q: How do I know if Spam Counterstrike is working?| A: |
You will see our Icon in the system tray (the @ sign, in the area next to your click) animate as it processes your email. It will change from blue to red when it is working. Spam CounterStrike works only when you use your email client to receive email. You will see our Icon in the system tray animate as it processes your email. The subject line of junk email will be marked with the prefix "Spam:" Junk e-mail is marked in the subject with the word "Spam:" in the beginning of the line. Most e-mail programs have rules or filters that can move e-mail based on this value, so it goes out of your inbox. |
Q:
Why do I have to manually change my email account settings? If you are using an email program that our install program doesn¡¯t
recognize, we can¡¯t automatically configure the settings for you.
The good news is that our design allows any email program to work
by making a few simple changes to your account settings. Our general
help wizard will guide you through the settings required.
A:
Q:
How can I uninstall Spam CounterStrike if the un-installer is gone? It's possible that the uninstaller gets deleted after multiple
installs. This is not intentional on our part, but is part of the
installer package. It tries to remove itself after an un-install. The solution to uninstall Spam CounterStrike, is to first re-install.
This is necessary in order to copy the uninstaller back to your
computer.
After you've done another install, you may then uninstall the application.
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Q:
Why do I have to manually setup rules for email?
A:
Currently, there is no ability to automatically add
rules to any of the email clients. Once this is possible, we will
enhance the install program to do this for you.
Q:
Which e-mail programs can be automatically installed?
A:
Q:
I installed Spam CounterStrike a couple of times but why doesn't it
work? It's likely that your email program hasn't read the settings since
you installed Spam CounterStrike. Try rebooting your PC or simply
go to the Account settings in your email program and check to see
if the following items are present. Incoming mail server should have 'localhost'. If you see 127.0.0.1,
that's OK, but replace it with 'localhost'
Your user name or account name should have the pop mail server
in it from your ISP and a '/' and your user id:
Example: Account Name: mail/jsmith If you have multiple email accounts, verify they all are setup
like above.
When you press send/receive on your email program, the '@' icon
should start to change color as it scans your email. If it isn't
doing that, then your email program isn't using localhost as its
POP server.
Any spam that comes in will have "Spam:" as the first part of the
subject. So if you see that, then SCS is working. The next step
would be to make sure your email program has a rule or filter to
move the spam to a special folder or trash.
A:
mail.myisp.com/jsmith
pop3.bigisp.com/jsmith
Troubleshooting
Q: How do I prevent Outlook from timing out on large emails?| A: | You are probably using dialup to get your email and a message is taking too long to transfer. Go to Outlook¡¯s account settings and set the server timeout to the maximum (5 ¡§C 10 minutes). In some cases, even this won¡¯t be long enough. For really large files, you will have to change your account settings to go direct to your ISP¡¯s POP server. Then you¡¯ll want to change the account settings back. See the Help system from the ¡®@¡¯ tray icon for more specific instructions. |
Q:
Why are some of my friends email being treated as spam? Click on the '@' icon in your system tray and select "List
Manager". Check your list and make sure that it contains the email
address of the sender you want to treat as a friend.
The list should only contain the email address and not the display
name of the person.
The "from:" field may be blank in your friend's email or they may
not have the "from:" field the same as the reply-to field. You can
look at the message header of the email and see what's in the "from"
field of the email. Put that address in your friends list.
In Outlook: right click on the message and select options. Look
for "From:" and the address to put in your friend's list is that
address. You only want the email part Ex: name@domain.com. The display
name should not be in the list.
It's likely that the subject line contains "Spam:" as a forwarded
email or replied email. The rules in your email program see this
indicator and move the email to your spam folder or trash based
on the key word.
A more reliable method to move spam is to change your email rule
to move the message based on the header contents instead of the
word "Spam:" in the subject.
Go to your Rules Wizard or Filter Messages menu and
edit the rule for moving spam. We found that some email programs don't allow you to make a rule
for header contents. This is why we made all our rule instructions
use the Subject line containing the word "Spam:". If you can't create
a rule using the header contents, then you're stuck with using it
like it is. We apologize for this limitation.
A:
There could be a few reasons:
Change it to move the message based on the header containing "X-SpamCounterStrike:
SUSPICIOUS"
Q:
Why is another application using port 110?
A:
Q:
Why do I get pop ups after installing Spam CounterStrike? It¡¯s likely that you downloaded Spam CounterStike from a file
board that either pretends it¡¯s Spam CounterStike or they re-packaged
our program with spy ware. We did not do this! To remove the spy ware pop ups, we recommend using Ad-Aware by
Lavasoft Download
Please go to our site and download
an official copy of Spam CounterStrike here. This will NOT have
any pop-up in it!
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Networking
Q: What is a TCP/IP port?| A: |
It is part of a network address to a server service (or program). A good analogy is your radio and a radio station. Radio stations broadcast their information on one or more frequencies. Your radio is tuned to a specific frequency in order to receive the information. A port works in a similar fashion, where a server service (the radio) listens for information on a particular port (frequency). For more technical information, visit: |
Q:
What is the difference between ¡¡ãlocalhost¡¡À, ¡¡ãpop3.scs¡¡À, and ¡¡ã127.0.0.1¡¡À? Each is a TCP/IP network address that refers to your computer.
The 127.0.0.1 address is also referred to a ¡¡ãloopback address¡¡À,
meaning it is always referring to itself. Localhost and pop3.scs
is a local alias that refers to 127.0.0.1, and is defined in the
Windows Hosts file (located in c:windows for Win9x machines, or
c:winntsystem32driversetc for NT, 2000, or XP machines).
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Q:
What is "pop3.scs"? A local network address alias refers to your computer. It can
be used interchangeably with ¡¡ã127.0.0.1¡¡À or ¡¡ãlocalhost¡¡À.
A:
General
Q: Will Spam Counterstrike work with AOL?| A: |
A Since AOL is proprietary, you will need special software which converts AOL's protocol to POP. This can be downloaded from eNetBot. This lets you get your AOL email using a real email client. |
Q:
Will Spam Counterstrike work at the office? Yes, if you use a POP server.
A:
Q:
How is Spam Counterstrike different than the rest? Spam Counterstrike works by disappearing and working
with your email client. Most other spam or junk email filters work
independently from your email client, requiring you to run it before
checking your email. This method also may require emails to be downloaded
twice before you actually see it in your inbox. Our design works with
your email client, acting as the POP server. Your email client downloads
the email once and if it's spam, your email program will see the mark
and act on it according to your specification. Most other spam filters
only filter out some junk email by using patterns and black lists,
which need to be updated frequently. We use many types of patterns
plus proprietary algorithms to discover specific elements which determine
an email is junk. Our detection system requires no special knowledge
about how it works. It just does. All you need to tell us is how aggressive
you want us to be. That's all! As bulk emailers adapt to the detection,
we will adjust the detection system. You will soon forget that you
even get junk emails.
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Q:
Why use Spam Counterstrike if my ISP filters out the spam? Control and cost. If your ISP is filtering out all
of the spam, how do you know it's not blocking some legitimate emails?
And if it's not mistakenly filtering out legitimate emails, then it's
not filtering very well. Spam Counterstrike solves all of this by
working in tandem with your normal email client, allowing your email
client to move spam effectively to any folder you desire, or simply
deleting it as you wish. You know what it's marking as spam and what
it's not. Most ISPs charge an additional monthly fee for spam filtering.
Spam Counterstrike will usually pay for itself in just 4 months or
less!
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Q:
How is Spam Counterstrike different than my ISP's spam filter? Your ISP filters out the spam before it reaches your
computer. The advantage is that you don't have to download it first,
but you also lose the ability to check to make sure it didn't filter
out wanted emails. Your ISP probably doesn't filter out all of the
spam, so you still have to delete what they miss.
A:
Q:
Does Spam Counterstrike prevent viruses and worms from infecting my
email? To the extent that Spam Counterstrike tags an email
as spam and detects harmful attachments, it will alert you to possible
infection. However, we do not claim to prevent viruses or infection.
We recommend using due diligence and have a full virus scan product
as well as spam prevention.
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Q:
Why can't Spam Counterstrike delete spam before it's downloaded? It is possible, but our first release schedule didn't
permit this feature. Also, most users won't want Spam Counterstrike
to delete their emails automatically anyway.
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Q:
How can Spam Counterstrike prevent spam? It can't. What it will do is prevent you from being bothered
by it and as it removes spam from your inbox and preventing you
from opening the email, spammers will stop sending as much junk.
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Q:
What is the benefit of turning the preview option off in my email client? Safety, Privacy and reduced bandwidth consumption. An Email which
is flagged as spam will often contain links and images which load
automatically when you preview it. Outlook, Outlook Express and
Netscape are noted for allowing you to preview emails without
actually opening them. Also, emails that are flagged as spam often
contain scripts which execute at preview time. These scripts can
open up numerous pop-up windows which can contain porno and other
pop-up windows. Spammers will violate your privacy by exploiting
what is known as referrer bugs so they can track how their spam
is working. Now you wouldn¡¯t want them to benefit from emailing
you junk now?
A:
Q:
Can I use Norton Anti-virus and Spam CounterStrike at the same time? Yes. You can use the two products together as long as do not
use the optional email protection feature in Norton Anti-virus.
Because of how Internet networking operates and the technical needs
of both applications, Spam CounterStrike and the optional email
protection feature of Norton Anti-virus may not be used at the same
time.
The optional email protection feature of Norton Anti-virus scans
your incoming mail messages for viruses. It physically downloads
and scans your e-mail before you see it. Not using this feature
does not mean you are more vulnerable to virus attacks (see below).
It is simply one of many methods Norton Anti-virus offers you to
prevent virus infection.
From Symantec, the maker of Norton Anti-Virus:
If
you disable email protection, is your computer still safe from
email viruses?
Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses
and malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection
in addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files,
including email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long
as you keep your virus definitions up to date with LiveUpdate,
and keep Auto-Protect enabled and set to scan files as they are
created or downloaded, your system is fully protected. To disable the email protection feature in Norton Anti-virus, refer
to the following instructions for your particular version:
How
to disable outgoing email scanning in Norton AntiVirus 2002 and
2003
How
to enable or disable email protection in Norton AntiVirus 2001
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Q:
How to use Spam CounterStrike with anti-virus software Certain versions of anti-virus software (such as Norton Anti-virus
or PC-cillin) use similar techniques as Spam CounterStrike to
scan incoming e-mail. This is done with a proxy, where information
and commands are ¡¡ãrelayed¡¡À from your e-mail program, through the
proxy, to your e-mail box. Both Spam CounterStrike and your anti-virus software use proxy
technology to do its job. Starting with version 1.2 you can configure
Spam CounterStrike and your e-mail program to work with your anti-virus
software. This is done by altering the port number your e-mail program
communicates with Spam CounterStrike. Spam CounterStrike then relays
its commands to the anti-virus software and eventually your e-mailbox.
NOTE: You should have your e-mail program completely configured
and tested (e.g. receive a mail message) with your anti-virus software
before making changes to work with Spam CounterStrike. NOTE: If the suggested TCP/IP port value is 110, you do NOT need
to use this procedure. Your e-mail program and anti-virus should
work together without any further steps. Original values: New values: If you need additional assistance, visit our support forums or
contact technical support.
A:
First, you must select an available TCP/IP port that both your e-mail
program and Spam CounterStrike will share.
For example:
POP3 Server Name: pop3.norton.antivirus
POP3 User Name: john_smith/mail.myisp.com
POP3 Server Name: pop3.scs
POP3 User Name: pop3.norton.antivirus|john_smith/mail.myisp.com
Q:
How do change my POP3 TCP/IP port in Microsoft Outlook 98 or 2000? Run Outlook and follow these instructions.
A:
Select the MAIL TAB.
Q:
How do change my POP3 TCP/IP port in Microsoft Outlook XP? Run Microsoft Outlook and follow these instructions:
A:
Q:
How do change my POP3 TCP/IP port in Eudora? Make sure Eudora is not running and follow these instructions.
Where ¡¡ãx¡¡À is value of the port number you want to use.
A:
PopPort=x
Q:
How do change my POP3 TCP/IP port in Incredimail? Run Incredimail and follow these instructions:
A:
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