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What is SpamBayes?

The SpamBayes project is working on developing a statistical (commonly, although a little inaccurately, referred to as Bayesian) anti-spam filter, initially based on the work of Paul Graham. The major difference between this and other, similar projects is the emphasis on testing newer approaches to scoring messages. While most anti-spam projects are still working with the original graham algorithm, we found that a number of alternate methods yielded a more useful response. This is documented on the background page.

SpamBayes is not a single application. The core code is a message classifier, however there are several applications available as part of the SpamBayes project which use the classifier in specific contexts. For the most part, the current crop of applications all operate on the client side of things, however, a number of people have experimented with using SpamBayes on mail servers to classify incoming mail for multiple users. The table below outlines the main applications which are part of the SpamBayes distribution.

The main applications which are part of the SpamBayes distribution:

Outlook Plugin - A plugin for Microsoft Outlook which tightly integrates classification and training into the Outlook interface

Pop3proxy / sb_server - A mail filter which sits between the user's POP3 server(s) and the user's mail client and presents a web-based training interface

Imapfilter - A mail filter similar to pop3proxy but which talks the IMAP protocol

Hammiefilter / sb_filter - A simple mail filter suitable for embedding in a procmail environment

Applications

A number of applications are available in the SpamBayes project. Which application is right for you depends on which operating system, mail client, and mail delivery system you use.

Download SpamBayes:

Locate the row which contains your operating system and mail program to see which version of SpamBayes is right for you:

Outlook 2000/2003/2007/2010 - Windows XP/Vista/7
Outlook Express - Windows XP
Windows Live Mail - Windows XP/Vista/7
Other - Windows XP/Vista/7
IncrediMail - Windows XP/Vista/7
Any - Mac OS X/Linux/Solaris
...