Sam Spade was the name of a Windows software tool designed to assist in tracking down sources of e-mail spam. It was also the name of a free web service that provides access to similar online tools.[1][2][3][4] The Sam Spade utility was authored by Steve Atkins in 1997. It is named after the fictional character Sam Spade.[5]
Query tools
The main features (query tools) were:
- Zone Transfer – ask a DNS server for all it knows about a domain
- SMTP Relay Check – check whether a mail server allows third party relaying
- Scan Addresses – scan a range of IP addresses looking for open ports
- Crawl website – search a website, looking for email addresses, offsite links, etc.
- Browse web – browse the web in a raw http format
- Check cancels – search your news server for cancel messages
- Fast and Slow Traceroute – find the route packets take between you and a remote system
- S-Lang command – issue a scripting command; useful for debugging scripts
- Decode URL – decipher an obfuscated URL
- Parse email headers – read email headers and make a guess about the origin of the email
Website history
The last fully functional version of the website was available 2004-02-26.[6] Since then it experienced various outage problems due to "blackholing of SamSpade.org by several RIRs and general heavy usage."[7] and is no longer online. The URL currently redirects to https://tools.wordtothewise.com/ which contains a similar set of web tools under the brand name "wiseTools" and hosted by Atkins's email software business Word to The Wise[8]
References
- ^ Moran, John (Jul 8, 2002). "Sick of spam, PC activists hunt for perpetrators". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ "How to track down and eliminate spam". Gainesville Sun. Apr 20, 1998. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- ^ Spring, Tom (Jan 19, 2004). "Spam Slayer: Why Spammers Love the CAN-SPAM Law". PC World. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- ^ Quittner, Josh (June 1, 1998). "Can That Spam!". Time.
- ^ Bray, Hiawatha (May 18, 2003). "LEAVE ME ALONE! WITH JUNK E-MAIL OUT OF CONTROL, INTERNET EXPERTS WANT TO REDESIGN THE WHOLE SYSTEM". Boston Globe.
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20040226184837/http://www.samspade.org/
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20040326111706/http://samspade.org/
- ^ https://wordtothewise.com/management-team/
External links
- Sam Spade home page (currently offline)
- Sam Spade download sites Windows client download page (currently offline, last archived here)
- archived Windows client software
- Download Sam Spade from MajorGeeks.com
- Using Sam Spade Sam Spade tutorial by Terry Pasley, 2003, maintained at SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room