Plugin script to bypass Hotmails junk mail filter?[Linux] ?

[JLC_UK]

For various reasons, I like to use my hotmail address. I've configured Thunderbird to connect to Hotmail and it works fine.

HOWEVER, because Hotmail has an all powerful all arrogant and all junk mail filter than can't be disabled, I have a problem.

Forget disabling it in Hotmail - it can't be done. Also forget the "tip" that people give about creating a Hotmail-side rule to move every mail to the inbox. I have done that, and with tiresome predictability, it doesn't work.

So the next best thing would be to get Thunderbird to move all mails that appear in the "junk" folder (which is an intrinsic hotmail folder) back to the Inbox. At least that way I will see everything.

In an ideal world, this would happened BEFORE Thunderbirds junk mail filter runs, so I can train it client-side.

Has anyone done this, or have any suggestions ?

I'm running on Linux FWIW.

[tanstaafl]

Are you using a IMAP or POP account? There might be a webmail setting to tell the POP server to (transparently) retrieve messages from both the inbox and the junk folder when a email client checks for new mail in the inbox. Yahoo webmail has that setting, so its possible Outlook has too. However, I took a look and couldn't find any in its options. Ditto with its online help. If you're using a IMAP account you could just specify in copies & folders to use the same junk folder as what Outlook webmail does.

Have you considered adding domains you typically get spam from in the outlook.com safe senders list? You can have up 1024 of them. That might help with spam messages that spoof the senders address to try to look like they're from somebody you know or do business with.

[JLC_UK]

Are you using a IMAP or POP account? There might be a webmail setting to tell the POP server to (transparently) retrieve messages from both the inbox and the junk folder when a email client checks for new mail in the inbox. Yahoo webmail has that setting, so its possible Outlook has too. However, I took a look and couldn't find any in its options. Ditto with its online help. If you're using a IMAP account you could just specify in copies & folders to use the same junk folder as what Outlook webmail does.

Have you considered adding domains you typically get spam from in the outlook.com safe senders list? You can have up 1024 of them. That might help with spam messages that spoof the senders address to try to look like they're from somebody you know or do business with.

Server is setup as IMAP. The Junk folder is replicated into my Thunderbird.

The idea of the exercise is to ensure I don't miss emails which aren't spam. That's the inverse of only allowing preselected domains in. Suppose I get a non-spam message from an unlisted domain ?

[tanstaafl]

If you are using a IMAP account I don't see the problem. New messages will be in either your inbox or the junk folder, and you have full access to those folders. They are the same folders that webmail uses, you are just accessing them via a different mechanism and in a different client. In fact, if you wanted you could create a virtual folder per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Saved_Search that acts like it contains both the inbox and the junk folder. You could look in just that virtual folder for your new mail, and see all new mail regardless of whether its identified as spam or not. The virtual folder has no effect on where the messages are physically stored.

[JLC_UK]

Ah, a virtual folder might be the way forward.

Could it be spam-trained ?

[tanstaafl]

I think so. However, I don't see any reason to stop using the junk folder for spam. Training involves marking many messages as "junk" and 'not-junk". You need both. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Junk_Mail_Con ... l_Controls

[JLC_UK]

Thanks for your patience.

It's not a question of not wanting to use the Junk folder.

The actual problem I am trying to solve, is that I can't trust Hotmails junk filter. It's WAY too twitchy and moves a lot of legitimate emails into "Junk" it's end. These are then faithfully moved into TBs local "Junk" folder, waiting for me to winkle them out. Which is a PITA.

I want *ALL* junk mail to be under MY control.

Hopefully, the virtual folder approach will do the trick. I get to see ALL emails, and can start to mark the junk ones for TB to learn.