[Spambayes] Problem

[Skip Montanaro]

    Rich> I use SpamBayes and it is fantastic - which you probably all ready
    Rich> know. I use Outlook at the office and Outlook Express at
    Rich> home. When I open Outlook express, after a few seconds a SpamBayes
    Rich> error window opens up stating: "There was an error initializing
    Rich> the SpamBayes addin. Please re-start Outlook and try again." Can
    Rich> you help me out of this problem as the window keeps opening and I
    Rich> have to keep closing it.

Rich,

The Outlook Plugin doesn't work with Outlook Express.  Despite the similar
names, Outlook and Outlook Express are completely different beasts and OE
doesn't support external plugins.  You'll either have to install Outlook on
your home computer or (more economically), install and run the SpamBayes
sb_server.py proxy (if you connect to your mail server via POP3) or
sb_imapfilter.py (if you connect to your mail server via IMAP).  Currently,
that requires you do download and install Python, Mark Hammond's win32all
extensions and the SpamBayes source distribution.  Mark is working on a
binary installer which includes both the Outlook plugin and sb_server.py,
but it's still under test.  Several people have reported success with it.

Here's where you can find the various bits necessary to install from source:

    Python 2.3.3:  http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.3.3/Python-2.3.3.exe
    win32all:      http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/downloads/win32all-163.exe
    SpamBayes src: http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/spambayes/spambayes-1.0a7.zip

In case those URLs got mangled by mail systems, here are Tiny URL
equivalents: 

    Python 2.3.3:  http://tinyurl.com/26frm
    win32all:      http://tinyurl.com/2sbwv
    SpamBayes src: http://tinyurl.com/22rfq

Since it's still under test, I'll make it just a little harder for you to
find Mark's experimental binary installer.  The slight barrier shouldn't be
hard to overcome if you are appropriately adventurous.  Start here:

    http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/

and follow the obvious path to get to the installer.

Skip