Beta Testers wanted

rusticdog · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 3:29 am Post subject: Beta Testers wanted

Hi all

We are looking for more beta testers for our spam database system (CFS) currently in trial.

More info about this can be read here
www.firetrust.com/products/cfs/

You will require a registered copy of MailWasher Pro already.

Anyone interested send an e-mail to you will then receive a notice detailing your CFS account number and password as well as a link to a CFS compatible version of MailWasher Pro.

Thanks
RD

stan_qaz · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 2:09 pm Post subject:

I've been in the CFS beta program for a while now and CFS is hitting 46% of my spam over the last five days!

w0zv · Trooper Joined: Aug 19, 2003 Posts: 19 Location: USA

Working very well so far! Completely smooth installation and operation on Win98. After only one day, 43% flagged by CFS and this should only improve as more users add to the database.

My only comment so far is that the tick box not appearing under "Report" was confusing at first, but now I understand it only appears if the spam is not already flagged by CFS.

Nice job guys! This is a major advance IMHO!

Guest · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 9:57 am Post subject:

Yes, this is really excellent and CFS is picking up so far around 40% of mine and as others have said this will only get better.. Excellent job to all the developers and others involved in this product.

Mailwasher seems to be going from strength to strength... keep it up ! Smile

w0zv · Trooper Joined: Aug 19, 2003 Posts: 19 Location: USA

As you think about pricing CFS, you should consider the following alternative. Yahoo has a "Bulk Mail" option which works similar to CFS for Yahoo users. You simply tag any Spam in your inbox, they compare tags from other users and then classify spam messages as "Bulk". You can opt to read your Bulk mailbox if you don't trust their filter but I've discovered it is so good I just dump the contents of the Bulk mailbox. Yahoo says they will automatically purge mail >30 days old. I wish they would lower the holding period so I would not run the risk of exceeding my 6MB mail quota when out of the country. Bulk is free to all Yahoo users, but here's the competitive aspect.

They also offer a POP and Forwarding service for $19.99 per year. Using this service, I could forward all my current ISP malboxes to Yahoo, pass through their Bulk filter, and then forward remaining messages back to my ISP under another mailbox address. The net result it is I am using their Bulk filter for $19.99 per year to purge all my mail.

I am currently forwarding a heavily spam-infected address at my ISP to Yahoo as a test, and their Bulk filters are catching ~90% of spam. I assume this is because they have a huge database from all their users. I don't currently have the POP and Forwarding service so I just leave what's left at Yahoo.

Anyhow I thought you should be aware of this alternative when you consider pricing for CFS. CFS really is working very well so far and I can imagine the percentage of captured spam will dramatically incresase once you expand the number of users.

Skah_T · Corporal Joined: Jun 05, 2003 Posts: 51 Location: USA

I just got started with CFS. I love the concept.

I do have an issue with how it interacts with my MWP setup. This takes some 'splaining so take a seat.

My filters are broken down into four categories.

stan_qaz · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 7:14 pm Post subject:

Skah_T, I could use something like this too, an option to just flag the message with the indicated status but not take any other action.

rusticdog · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 10:01 pm Post subject:

from the developers...

"This is something we've been meaning to do, so will be in the next beta release."

Ikeb · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 3:26 am Post subject:

rusticdog · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 3:37 am Post subject:

you mean for the full public release or the next beta preview ?

Friday if you mean beta preview

Ikeb · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 4:05 am Post subject:

Actually I was hoping to find out what you're planning for the next full public release.

Of course I'm interested in what'll be available with the next beta release as well.

rusticdog · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 4:25 am Post subject:

Sure, I'll post that in about a week and a half then, once we are sure just what/can be included.

DearWebby · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 5:25 pm Post subject:

I sincerely hope that "Report" will be included in the Filter Actions.

As it is, all mail caught by filters that have worked well for years and have been set to "Delete" + "Not Show In List" do not get reported !

That totally defeats the purpose of the CFS Beta, namely stocking the database with TYPICAL spam, so that keys or algorithms can be derived from it.

It means TYPICAL spam does NOT get reported, only weird oddball stuff. Anybody trying to derive some rules from that will see a really distorted and unrealistic picture that has nothing to do with reality. It's a total waste of time trying to build rules based on only unfiltered spam.

THAT is the reason why for example the pharmacy crap, which most of us have filtered out for over two years, is still not "KNOWN" by the CFS.
Even "Viagra" is not "KNOWN" by the CFS !
DUH!

The proper way to handle that is that filters that have been debugged and proven to the point where you add "Do Not Show In List", automatically turn on the "Report" flag.

Second best would be to add "Report" to the Action choices in the filters and make us wade through a few hundred filters to click that on.

However, without either one of those two, it's a waste of time because the reporting is not proportional to reality.

Skah_T · Corporal Joined: Jun 05, 2003 Posts: 51 Location: USA

I agree that it would be nice to have a Report check box for proven filters. For me, whenever I process my mail I first unhide everything and check the Report box as appropriate. If I were to enable auto-delete for these filters then they would not get reported.

On the other hand, the point of CFS as I undestand it is to have two people verify that a particular mail is spam - the recipient and the person at Firetrust handling the CFS database. Having a filter report mail automatically removes one of those. That opens the door for lots of non-spam to get reported erroneously.

stan_qaz · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 6:16 pm Post subject:

I'd rather look at a bunch of spam than miss a good e-mail, but so far I'd trust CFS for autodelete.

I guess it is your choice use the autodelete or use the reporting function. But auto-reporting is in my opinion a bad thing, if you can't tke the time to verify you should let others feed the filter.


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