Having successfully installed the Mailwasher Filters some weeks ago, I have been reading about the up-date procedures.
With the greatest respect may I say that, for an intelligent novice like myself, the up-date procedure seems to be almost impossible for me to understand.
Am I to copy from the new list EACH filter and then paste THESE over the old filters of the same name in the filter txt file? ...ONE BY ONE! ??
This two hour job is very daunting to me!
Regards,
Grah

Please understand that the filters at http://www.w5hq.com/MailWasher/MailWasherFilters.txt have been put together by a fellow user (i.e. volunteer) Gary from Dallas Texas. Gary hopes to make the upgrades somewhat easier but for the time being he has included history info that itemizes the filters that changed from the previous release. Yes each one must be copied to the paste buffer then pasted into filters.txt (close MWP first).

But keep in mind that the operative word here is volunteer. Personally I'm just grateful that Gary has taken it upon himself to help the rest of us cope with Regular Expressions. Just think how long it would take you to compose and test all the filters he has already composed and tested.

Thanks for sticking up for me, guys!!

Normally it doesn't take me but a few minutes to update a filter list from the history, but I have an editor that's good for things like that. I'm not sure why it would take two hours - are you a couple of revisions behind, Grah?

I'll make you, IkeB, and BillT a special, limited time offer. If you'd like me to update your filters for you, just send me your filters.txt file. Please prominently mark any filters that you have customized, so that I don't clobber them. Send me a personal message for contact info.

(Of course, Ike and Bill probably already updated theirs, so I guess this is going to cost me a beer, eh? Hehe)

Just got my upgrade and as I am a new user I sometime need stuff spelled out to me.... I have loaded the filters but I'm not sure how to exactly modify the ones with the asterick. The one with name/email I put my email addy in the subject and from line when I modified... is that correct?
BUT...How bout "not a recipient" What do I put in there? Or the friend code.... can you make me out an example on those also?

I also would like to know how to put my friends in... do I have to reenter one at a time or can I just copy and paste like I did with the filters themselves?
I also have a couple of groups I participate in. How do I NOT bounce them...?

Sure.

Let's say your e-mail address is "SueZ@somedomain.com".

For the right hand fields in the "[2] Not A Recipient* (T,C)" filter, you could just put: "SueZ" (This filter makes sure you are in the From or CC field of the e-mail.)

You would also put "SueZ" in the fields for the "[2] My Name/E-mail* (F,S)" filter. (This filter catches those e-mails that either look like they come from you at some other domain, or that say "SueZ, we have a deal for you!" You don't want to put the "@domain.com" part of your address in there, unless you are having some problems with false positives, and then you probably just want to put your name in the Subject field part, and delete the From field part of the filter.

The "[1] "Friend" Code* (S)" you really don't have to use it at all. It's just a way for either you or a friend to bypass the spam checks by putting a keyword somewhere in the subject line, like "[nospam]".

Does that help any?

- You don't really want to put your friends in the filters, you want to "white list" them, by right-clicking on an e-mail from them and choosing "Add to Friends List", or hitting "+" on your keyboard, or clicking the box in the "Friend" column, if it is visible.

- If you have a mailing list where the To: address is not you (very common), then highlight the e-mail in the list, choose the "Raw source view" over the mail preview window, and find the line that starts with "To:" in the header of the email. Copy the list e-mail address (usually something like RowingClub@rowers.com), and paste it in the "[1] Mailing List* (T)" filter.

like it when I don't have to ask all those questions,I get help--two questions though--what about the "bcc"field is it the same as "cc' mail as far as how the filters work--and lastly have any of you guys got a session error after upgrading to the new ver.,--I like the improvements.

My apologies to Gary if my message came across as a criticism; I am in no doubt that the fault will be with me. I am very grateful for the filters which I have been using for the past month or so. I will study the replies and assistance to see how I can up-date the filters more easily than I thought might have been the case. Thanks

Thank you Gary.
When my mind is clearer I, too, will have a go at up-dating the filters for myself. I am nearly sure that I can do it; I just have to do some clear-headed reading of the instructions. However, if I fail, I will take you up on your offer.
Regards.

Grah, here is what I do to customize my filters. This is after I have used Ctrl-C to copy the filters from Gary's webpage and then Ctrl-V to paste them into filters.txt (which you access from MWP>About>(C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\MailWasherPro hyperlink at bottom of the "About" window) and then click filters.txt.

I disable 3 of the first 5 on the list (In reality, you probably don't even need to bother with this because of the particular examples Gary has used!)

""Friend"" Code* (I have no need to use this...my friends would probably never use it even if I explained it )
Always Bounce* (because I have no "stalkers"...yet!)
Mailing List* (because I read all my lists via Web and not e-mail)

To disable, simply put your cursor at the beginning of "enable" in the line to be edited, hit delete twice and type "dis", changing each one from enabled to disabled. If you ever have need to enable any of these, it is a simple matter to go back to filters.txt, change back to enable, and add the necessary code or E-mail address.

Next scroll down over halfway down the list to:

My Name/E-mail*
Not A Recipient*

Both of these must be customized for your E-mail address(es). I have three different addresses, so I enter all three in the appropriate place in the following format:

Name1|Name2|Name3

where you follow the format Garly explained (example my first E-mail account called Name1@anywhere.com) The "|" is simply to separate address names in case you use more than one. Once you do one set, simply highlight it with your cursor, Ctrl-C, put your cursor where another copy needs to go and Ctrl-V. Then make sure you delete Gary's samples ("jwsmith2" in the My name filter and "MailBoxName1|MailBoxName2" in the Not a recipient filter.

To summarize, you begin with Gary's generic filters:

[enabled],"[2] My Name/E-mail* (F,S)","[2] My Name/E-mail* (F,S)",16711680,OR,Blacklist,Delete,Subject,contains,jwsmith2,From,contains,jwsmith2

[enabled],"[2] Not A Recipient* (T,C)","[2] Not A Recipient* (T,C)",16711680,AND,Blacklist,Delete,To,doesn'tContainRE,MailBoxName1|MailBoxName2,CC,doesn'tContainRE,MailBoxName1|MailBoxName2

and after you are done, you have:

[enabled],"[2] My Name/E-mail* (F,S)","[2] My Name/E-mail* (F,S)",16711680,OR,Blacklist,Delete,Subject,contains,Name1|Name2|Name3,From,contains,Name1|Name2|Name3

[enabled],"[2] Not A Recipient* (T,C)","[2] Not A Recipient* (T,C)",16711680,AND,Blacklist,Delete,To,doesn'tContainRE,Name1|Name2|Name3,CC,doesn'tContainRE,Name1|Name2|Name3

I don't bother customizing Gary's last customizable filter, Suspicious Routing*, but simply leave it "as is". If you ever want to add another country to Gary's list of suspicious domains, see "9. COUNTRY CODES REFERENCE:" on Gary's webpage and modify that filter using Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V.

Last and most importantly, close MWP and then File>Save filters.txt. Now reopen MWP and confirm that your new filters are in place (either by looking at the actual filters.txt file using Help>About as above, or you can View-Filter Sidebar (or hit Ctrl-F7).

This has taken me much longer to describe than to do. Once you get the hang of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to copy and paste, you can customize everything in minutes. Now that Gary has preset the filters not to Bounce, I never go into the individual filter editing mode.

Good luck!

Bill

Bill, thank you.
As a first step, I have copied and pasted your Filters Up-date Instructions to a Word document and printed it.
Then, when I have time, I will follow them to the letter.
Now, having just done my Portuguese homework, which also requires a clear head, I am going to watch Lord of the Rings on DVD as a reward to myself. When one is retired one can have these little treats - lol