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BLScanPlus © 2004
Welcome to the "Classic Zone"

MailWasher is a product of Firetrust, a commercial package that offers multiple strategies for the effective control of SPAM.

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BLScan
Plus

BLScanPlus
includes

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BLScan
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BLComp
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BLJoin
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BLConv
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Totter
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UnRotter
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BLScanPlus replaces the former popular standalone tools BLScan, BLComp, BLJoin, BLConv, Totter and UnRotter. Basically, all of these utilities are now integrated into one program. Below are a set of FAQ.

Note: Information documented on this website is relevant to the "Classic" (or V2) version and "Pro" (or V4) version of BLScanPlus. For information on the new "Pro" (or V4) version, go to the ProZone

What is BLScanPlus?

For several years I have been using Firetrust's excellent Mailwasher program to filter my incoming emails. This has proven to be very successful, with close to 100% of my email being recognised correctly as legitimate or otherwise. Although Mailwasher is a superb program, over time I have identified a number of functions that it does not support and I have produced a set of utilities to implement them.

Blacklist Utilities: The Blacklist is one of the most effective strategies in combating spam. You can blot out individuals, entire domains or even entire countries! It is easy to use, you are in total control of the content, it yields very few false positives and most importantly it swallows a huge amount of incoming spam! BLScan, BLComp, BLJoin and BLConv enhance the value of the Blacklist and can make it much more effective. See My Guide for an explanation of all of the anti-spam strategies used within Mailwasher.

Trash Utilities: Did you delete something important?, did the less reliable anti-spam features of Mailwasher push something important into the Trash? Which one of your accounts is being hardest hit with spam? Dumpster dive your Trash file with Totter and UnRotter.

All of these utilities are now integrated into one program called BLScanPlus, this can be downloaded from this site. BLScanPlus is essentially a framework that pulls BLScan, BLComp, BLJoin, BLConv, Totter and UnRotter under one roof. One executable, all six utilities. The six utilities were originally available separately and have been in use since mid-2004.

A web page detailing each utility is available from the "links" on the top right of this page.

Why the change?

Since most users are now using all of the utilities, having separate programs requiring separate installations no longer made sense. Users will now have the simplicity of one installation which provides access to all utilities.

When should I change?

Sooner rather than later. The current set of standalone utilities will time out at the end of March 2005 and I will no longer be supporting them in their standalone form.

Will this affect the level of support, response to enhancement requests etc. ?

Managing six different utilities was becoming increasingly difficult, by combining all of the code into one program, all tools now use a common code library. It will make it the utilities easier to support, so I will have more time to do more things.

Are all of the tools the same as before?

No;

All utilities have been given an overhaul, many have additional functions
BLComp has been upgraded to handle whitelists
Totter now has a case sensitivity option and an IP Address output
I have added a new utility called BLJoin to merge blacklist files
BLScan, Totter and UnRotter will 'remember' the input file name between sessions
BLScan now has the option read from and also to write a new blacklist directly to the Mailwasher folder

All of the utilities have undergone various improvements and tweaks. Many of these will not be visible as such (like speed improvements) but veteran users will notice that the utilities are somewhat slicker and less rigid. It took around 3 months to complete the integration.

One of the major changes is that BLScan, Totter and UnRotter will now remember the input file name, this file name can now be a path. I do not recommend it, but the path can be directly to your Mailwasher Application Data area.

Renaming and writing the BLScanB file back into your Application Data folder (as the new Blacklist file) used to be a manual task, there is a new option to do this step automatically.

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United

Mated

Joined

Bundled

Connected

Associated

Lumped

Mutualized

Partnered

Bonded

Grouped

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Linked

Tied

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utilities

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BLScanPlus

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Will the tools 'behave' the same?

Yes, although BLScanPlus supports fast keys. This means that all utilities will respond to a single key press rather than a key press followed by a return. This function is "on" by default but can be switched on or off. It can also be permanently switched "off". There is a settings menu where this type of functionality can be controlled.

What are the settings?

Fast Keys	Off/On	Controls whether BLScanPlus waits for a 'return' after entering a command.
Help Files	Off/On	Controls whether the utility help files are written/displayed if the relevant help file does not already exist in the program folder.
Program Folder PopUp	Off/On	Display the program folder when BLScanPlus is started.
?	Off/On	A much requested mystery setting that regular users will like!
Direct Read/Write	Off/On	Write the new Blacklist generated by BLScan (in manual wildcarding mode) directly to the Mailwasher folder. Set the BLScan, Totter and UnRotter default files to the Blacklist and Trash files present in the Mailwasher folder. This option adds the facility to popup the Mailwasher folder from the main menu.

Will the existing utilities still be available separately?

No. BLScanPlus replaces the previous standalone tools. You can always contact me if you desperately need a standalone version of a utility, but the most likely answer will be no.

How will upgrades be affected?

Upgrading to a new version will now be much simpler. I will just post a new executable on this site and you can download it directly into your existing BLScanPlus installation. No re-installation will be needed going forward.

I was using the previous BLScan utility , what do I have to do to move over to BLScanPlus?

Install BLScanPlus, copy any useful files from your BLScan installation folder (such as the BLScan backup folder) into the BLScanPlus program folder, job done! BLScan running through BLScanPlus uses exactly the same files/folders as before.

You could delete the BLScan folder at this point, I would suggest that you keep it until you are familiar with BLScanPlus. When you are satisfied that everything is in place and have gotten used to BLScanPlus, delete the old BLScan folder.

I use all of the utilities, what do I have to do to move over to BLScanPlus?

You currently have BLScan, Totter and UnRotter installation folders. Download BLScanPlus and...

Copy your BLScanBackup folder from the BLScan installation into the BLScanPlus program folder.
Copy your TotterData file from the Totter folder into the BLScanPlus program folder.
Check to see if there are any other useful files in your BLScan, Totter and UnRotter folders, if there are, then copy them into the BLScanPlus program folder.
You may want to update any shortcuts that you currently used for the old utilities to BLScanPlus.
If you had any shortcuts located in the previous installation folders, you may also want to move or recreate them in the BLScanPlus program folder.

You could delete the BLScan, Totter and UnRotter folders at this point, I would suggest that you keep them until you are familiar with BLScanPlus. When you are satisfied that everything is in place and have gotten used to BLScanPlus, delete the old folders.

Is the installation process the same?

Yes. It is all done for you by an auto-installer, which creates the product and program folders, creates the desktop shortcut and also generates an Un-Installer.

If Un-Installing, the Un-Installer will delete the entire program but will not delete the Program folder if non-program related files/folders remain in it (such as the BLScanBackup folder).

Can I install the Classic and the Pro version concurrently?

Yes. The installation of Classic and Pro assume different installation folders, so you can download and run either, but do not run both at the same time!

Is BLScanPlus free?

Important!
This product is 'not for profit', no charge is made for current/future versions of this software. Users are however invited to contribute something towards the development and support of this software/site, which is funded out of my own pocket and from very kind donations from users. So if you think I have done a good job and the software helps you, then please put $10 in the honesty box.

What feedback do you get?

I get a lot of very kind comments from users, which makes it all feel worthwhile and is a great help in keeping me motivated. I cannot put names to comments but here are some testimonials.

What about the Pro version?

The Pro version is brand new, for information on this, go to the ProZone

Ok, how do I download it?

Go to the download page for instructions, install it and work through the tutorial.

Depending on your computer settings you may need to adjust the console window size etc. BLScanPlus does not interfere with your computer settings, details of how to make these adjustments are given on the problems page.

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