Thunderbird with SpamBayes – its not all that hard.

So if your like me and have finally dumped Outlook for Thunderbird then you will understand why I needed to get SpamBayes going. The current spam solution within the Bird is less than adequate – in fact it quite sucks. SpamBayes has two configuration options for use on Windows. 1. The Outlook plugin and 2. The proxy server solution. Obviously this post is about the second solution.

If you are looking for instructions on how to setup SpamBayes proxy for external access to filter all of your email with Thunderbird as your client, read on.

Downloading SpamBayes

SpamBayes is a SourceForge project and the Windows download page can be found here. Scroll to the bottom for the “Non Outlook Solutions”, grab the installation program from there. [Current Link] Download and install that sucker. Be sure to ONLY check the option which installs the proxy, and not the outlook plugin.

Installing SpamBayes as a Service

The first thing you might want to do is get the SpamBayes service running permanenty. Here is their instructions on how to do this, which worked perfectly well for me:

To install the service, perform the following steps:

• Open a command prompt, and change to the \Program Files\SpamBayes\bin directory.

• Execute sb_service.exe -install

• Select Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services, and locate SpamBayes Service in the list.

• Change the properties of the service so it logs on with your user account, rather than the builtin system account. This will ensure that SpamBayes uses the same configuration and data files when running as a service and when running as a normal program.

• If desired, change the properties of the service to start at boot time.

• Start the service.

• Start the SpamBayes Tray Icon program, and confirm the server is running. Configure and manage SpamBayes normally.

So you now have the proxy running as a service. Next we need to configure the service.

Configuring SpamBayes

SpamBayes's proxy server is typically configured via the Web Interface found at http://localhost:8880/. Hit the link for the “Configuration Page”. On this page, the only required steps you need to take is to update the POP3 Proxy Options.

In the “Remote Servers” box, place a comma delimited list of POP3 servers which you need to connect to via this proxy. pop.foo.com,mail.bar.com,pop3.example.com:996

This server list should be an exact copy of what you see in your email client. So in Thunderbird, go to “Tools”, “Account Settings”, and under the “Server Settings” node for your account. It should list the POP Server and Port which are used. If it is using a non-standard port (110) the convention for the Remote Servers box above is <server>:<port>. For example: pop3.example.com:996

The key here is that for each server you need to create a specific port. This is how the proxy server knows which remote mail server to connect too. So now in the “SpamBayes Ports” input box you need to give a list of ports which each server is mapped too. For example: 110,111,112

What this is saying is for all connections on port 110 proxy them to the server: pop.foo.com

Port 111 -> mail.bar.com
Port 112 -> pop3.example.com

Quite a simple and elegant solution if you ask me.

Allowing Remote Access

If you plan on allowing remote access to the Proxy Server, then in you will need to update the Advanced Configuration page at: http://localhost:8880/advancedconfig. Be sure that both “Allowed remote POP3 connections” and “Allowed remote SMTP connections” have valid values. I just set mine to *. I plan on travelling allot and I need this work when I'm on a bunch of unknown IP's.

Configuring your Firewall.

If you do plan on allowing remote connections to your proxy you must open up your ports which you specified above, and have the pointed to your correct machine. In my case I have an ASUS router which I simply opened up the few ports and pointed them to my Proxy Server. I dont have the Windows Firewall running, and if you do be sure to allow those there as well.

Configuring Thunderbird

Lastly you need to do is go back into the Account Settings for Thunderbird and change the Server Name and Ports to your server (name or IP) and those ports listed above. Personally I did all of this with just one account. Start out simple. Once I was able to get that one working, I added the additonal servers, ports and made the changes to Thunderbird.

You might want to also install the latest Thunderbird Add-on called ThunderBayes. Instructions for use are on the download page.

Troubleshooting SpamBayes

The quickest way that I found to troubleshoot the SpamBayes proxy is to enable verbose logging. To do this, first shut down the SpamBayes Service (via Services). Next create a batch file in the SpamBayes install folder (typically: C:\Program Files\SpamBayes\bin\) with the following:

sb_server.exe -o globals:verbose:True

Execute that batch file, use Thunderbird and check your specific email account and you should have a file _pop3proxy.log created in that bin folder. Feel free to shut down the server (close the dos window) and open up the _pop3proxy.log file in your favorite text editor.

I found this specific error: “-ERR Connection not allowed”. This is a super simple one to correct. Hit the Advanced Configuration page at: http://localhost:8880/advancedconfig and be sure that both “Allowed remote POP3 connections” and “Allowed remote SMTP connections” have valid values. I just set mine to *. I plan on travelling allot and I need this work when I'm on a bunch of unknown IP's.

I hope this helps.