How Spam Shredder Intercepts E-mail

Spam Shredder can work with any Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) e-mail client. Popular POP3 e-mail clients include Outlook Express, Outlook, Eudora, and Mozilla. Normally when you use these e-mail clients, the e-mail client communicates directly with your POP3 e-mail server using the server's name (for example, mail.webroot.com) and a specific port on the server (usually 110) as shown in Figure 1 .

Figure 1: How e-mail works before using Spam Shredder

When you use Spam Shredder, it essentially sets up your computer as a POP3 e-mail server that is between your e-mail client and your normal e-mail server as shown in Figure 2 . When you set up your e-mail accounts in Spam Shredder, it assigns "localhost" as the POP3 server and it assigns a unique port number.

Figure 2: How e-mail works when using Spam Shredder

If you are using an e-mail client other than Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora you must set up your e-mail accounts using these assigned POP3 server and port settings in your e-mail client. For more information, see Setting Up E-mail Accounts.

If you are using Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora, Spam Shredder automatically detects your e-mail accounts and sets them up for you.

The key steps you must perform to use Spam Shredder after you install it are:

Setting Up E-mail Accounts.
If you are using Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora, you can skip this step.
Be sure to start Spam Shredder before starting Outlook Express. Spam Shredder starts automatically when you start Outlook or Eudora.
Setting Spam Shredder Filtering Options. (Optional)
Setting Up Trusted E-mail Addresses (Whitelist). (Optional)
Setting Up Known Spam E-mail Addresses (Blacklist). (Optional)
Opening your e-mail client and checking for new e-mail as you normally do.
Sending Quarantined E-mail to Your Inbox.
Deleting Quarantined E-mail.