comcast's X-Mailer: AT&T Message Center Version 1 (Dec 17 2004) email client name

Hi -

I've finally decided to experiment with a spam filter, or a better email client, but right off the bat I am stuck. I do not know the name of the .exe file for the comcast email client:

X-Mailer: AT&T Message Center Version 1 (Dec 17 2004)

I haven't given up, but just annoyed that I'm going to have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get anywere.

Plus - (i don't know if this is still the case, but I read that ATT formats its DNS lookups in such a way as to make using another email client (other than Outlook) impossible.

Well, thats where I'm at now, anyone know anything about the executable name or the other thing?


-HandsOff

 

OK forget it, the deed is done.

And irony of ironies, comcast had better documentation of thunderbird, than thunderbird did.

So far thunderbird seems so simple that I don't know why everyone using outlook doesn't switch. I didn't only because I thought it must be very hard or it would be bundled with Firefox. I'm still not sure why it isn't!



HandsOff

 

The deal was that Firefox was a browser only while the Mozilla suite has browser, email/newsgroup reader, chat client, and HTML editor.. it also wouldn't surprise me if they included the calander program (PIM) once it's done as well. They have the calander as an extension for Thunderbird as well, making it even closer to an Outlook replacement

Just for future reference, in case you end up needing to find out the filename of a particular program, Process Explorer (from http://www.sysinternals.com/) has a button on the toolbar that looks like a crosshairs which you can drag from the toolbar onto any program window and it will highlight the file in the list.

 

Hi, Notok,

Calendar? I'll have to check that out!

Believe it or not I have never used outlook, or outlook express. Somehow they have always just annoyed me, so I used aol, netscape, pacbell, and ATT. all but netscape were the customized browser of the ISP. I'm going to take a look at that.

I remember trying to use process explorer a couple of times to identify who was initiating a process, and it seemed pretty complicated. This thing with the crosshairs I don't remember at all. Maybe I over looked that, but it sounds like a great tool. That said, why can't software producers just put their name and version numbers on files!

-HandsOff

 

Hehehe, same here.. if it wasn't for one of my previous jobs I would not have used it either. Unfortunately Outlook is the only one to support all the functions of Exchange server, so many companies are locked into using it. I'm very glad to not have to use it now, though.

You might take some time to go through the options.. it does indeed have quite a few things that aren't always easily understood, but you can also cut things down to just show what you need. It has some really handy features, though. For instance if you have a file that you need to delete but it's being used by some process, you can click Find > "Find DLL or Handle", type in the filename of the locked file, and it will show you the handle that's locking the file.. you can then right click and close the handle to free the file for deletion. The main thing to remember with PE is that the amount of used RAM for a process is called "Working Set" and virtual memory is "Private Bytes", also hovering your mouse over a process will show the full path, the vendor name, and description, unless you've chosen to show those in the columns. Anyway, check it out.. it may take a while to learn to use fully, but it's very worth it.

Hehehe, no kidding!

 

Hi Notok-

I admire the sysinternals expertise but I think could be a while before I get the hang of it.

Is there any danger associated with the preview window in Thunderbird (as there is in outlook).

What I am seeing is that when I delete or move an e-mail, Thunderbird automatically jumps to the next email, and opens the preview. X-Mailer does not doe this. It highlights the next email, but it does not do anything unless you click it. Will this previewing cause a receipt to be sent back to, for instance, a spammer, who would then know that your email is being used. I know this was just explained to me, but let me see if I got it right: No, it won't cause a problem? Comcast is Pop3 server, BTW.

It will be interesting to see how well the spam filter works.


-HandsOff

 

Thunderbird uses the same engine as Firefox, so it's a lot safer, but if you go through the options you'll see some options for things like javascripts, remote images, phishing, etc., that you'll probably want to set (although it's safe by default, you'll still want to see them so you know what to expect). There's also read receipt settings in the account settings. Despite this same kind of functionality in PocoMail (I use Poco for my personal mail, Thunderbird for my work mail), I do also set it not to show the preview/message pane in my primary inbox. You can disable this in the View menu under Layout > Message Pane. You should be fine either way, but it certainly isn't going to hurt to disable the message pane.

Regarding the spam filter, just remember to right-click on each email and mark plenty both good and bad. After doing this for a while these kind of spam filters get to be pretty accurate.

I recently got service with Comcast as well.. are you using their spam filter as well, or just what's in Thunderbird? If both, let me know how it goes. I'm also tempted to get one of these: http://www.spamcube.com/ - they claim to have a 98% accuracy rate. Although it's $150, it's a one time fee and supports up to 4 computers.

 

Hey Notok-

I just realized that I read your entire post from the preview window...I guess the die is set! The think is, it really is tremendously more time efficient than opening and closing everything. You can knock out those spams like a Howitzer!

If your experience is like mine you will find that using comcast's spamblocker is worse than using no spamblocker at all. Justs complicates the job of deleting spammail, and I dont believe that it cuts down on it.

Hey, A2 has a spamblocker that is still beta. Man, I love the features...but it is not that close to being a full version...trust me on this!

I just installed Kerio Personal firewall, and have to figure out how to negate an authorization that I gave it for DevLdr32.exe (part of sound blaster). Now this kind of stuff drives me crazy. why on earth does a sound driver need to connect to the internet. On the plus side, now I am 90% sure it is the process that has extended start up and shut down times. It really is interesting to see how my new programs stack up with the old ones.

BTW, I just assumed that the thunderbird filter would work when I used Thunderbird, and the comcast one when I used ATT (which will be never!)

Back to A2's it has a feature, probably common, but new to me where you can both blacklist and whitelist addresses. for some reason, the cruddy spamfilters my isp's have used give you an option to create a white list...and then ONLY they can send you mail! Come on!

Take Care- HandsOff