How Purgy works
In this chapter you will learn how the program filters your mail to prevent spam messages from reaching your mailbox.
Basics
Purgy sits between your email program and your POP3 account. When a new message arrives, Purgy checks if its sender is on the list of approved senders. If the sender is on the list, the new message is made available to the email program and ends up in your mailbox.
If the person who sent the new message is not on the list of approved senders, Purgy sends back a message (called a verification request) asking her to verify that her email address is legitimate.
Upon positive verification the email address is added to the list of approved senders meaning that all future messages sent from the verified email address are automatically delivered to your mailbox. Also, the original message that made Purgy send the verification request in the first place is also added to your mailbox as well as all messages that were sent afterwards. In short, no messages are lost.
To find out how to go about managing the approved senders list read section entitled Approved Senders List.
More Details For the Technically Abled
Here are some technical details. You do not need to read this section to use the program but if you are curious then go ahead...
Purgy acts as POP3
server. After your email program is integrated with Purgy, it connects to Purgy
instead of your original POP3 account whenever you ask it download new mail.
To download new messages
sent to your email address Purgy connects to your original POP3 account
periodically. It goes through the new messages and makes ones sent by people
that are on the list of approved senders available to your email program.
How about messages sent from email addresses that have not been approved? Purgy stores those messages in its database. It also replies to all these messages with verification requests. It then waits till it received a positive verification. If that happens, it adds the email address to the approved senders list and makes all messages sent from this email address available to your email program.
Getting Started
In this chapter I will show you what you need to do to integrate Purgy with your email program and to start filtering your mail in no time.
Installation
In order to install Purgy you need to have its installation executable saved to a known location on your hard drive.
To install the program open the folder containing the installation executable, double-click it to start installation and follow the prompts.
If you do not have the installation executable yet, you can download it here:
http://www.purgy.com/download.php
Starting the Program
Normally, Purgy will start every time you start your computer. To start Purgy manually, please click the “Start” button, click “All Programs”, select the “Purgy” folder and click “Purgy” (please note, that the actual name of the folder may be different if you have changed it during installation).
After you start it, Purgy adds its icon to the system tray (usually, located in the bottom-right hand corner of the screen):
Configuration
To integrate Purgy with your email program, double-click Purgy's icon in the system tray.
This will bring up the “Settings” window. You can use the window to add one or more email accounts to Purgy, set up the SMTP server Purgy will use to send verification requests and so on.
Click the “Add Account” button to integrate an email account with Purgy and follow the prompts. Repeat it for every account you want to protect with Purgy.
Another thing you need to configure is the SMTP server. Purgy will use it to send messages. Simply enter the host name of the SMTP server into the text box in the “Mail Delivery” section of the window. If your SMTP server requires authorization to send messages, mark the “Enable SMTP server authorization” check box and click the link to fill in the details.
To test your configuration click the “Click here to test your configuration” link. I strongly recommend that you do that!
If you have any problems please send an email to: config@purgy.com.
You can use the “X” button (top-right hand corner of the windowto close the “Settings” window.
Approved Senders List
To access your approved senders list, right-click the program’s icon in the system tray (see Starting the Program) and select the “Approved Senders” option from the menu.
This will open the “Approved Senders” window:
To add an approved sender to the list, fill out the text box and click the “Add” button. Type in either a full email address (example: info@purgy.com), or a domain name (example: purgy.com).
Ordering and Activating the Product
You can purchase one or more licenses using this page:
http://www.purgy.com/order.php
After you receive an email containing the registration number, activate your copy of Purgy by right-clicking the program's icon (see Starting the Program) and selecting the “Activate Product” option from the menu.
Then type-in your registration key into the “Registration key” text box and click the “OK” button.
Support
To get technical support please visit this page:
http://www.purgy.com/support.php
Glossary
email program – the program you use to read your mail (also called an “email client”)
POP3 account – an email account; your email program uses one to read your mail (Purgy is not compatible with IMAP accounts)
verification request – a message Purgy sends to an unknown sender asking her to verify that her email address is legitimate by hitting the “Reply” button in her email program