Why do I need it?

TMDA is quite possibly the most clever and safest way to keep spam out of your e-mail in-box, but it was designed by programmers for programmers. It has no "user interface" to speak of, unless you count commands that can be entered at the *nix command line.

Not all users have shell access, and some users who have it are hesitant to use it. We can't really blame them. The shell can be a pretty intimidating place for a newbie.

Fortunately for non-geeks, once TMDA is set up, you seldom have to "mess" with it. In fact, there are only two times when you should have to:

• When you sign up for any automated mailing (a mailing list, automated news alert, e-mail verification of identity, etc.) where there is no human being present to respond to a challenge request.

• If you need to revoke a keyword address that a spammer has harvested.

tmda-cgi makes it easy to deal with automated mailings by providing an easy way to:

• generate "keyword" and other dynamic addresses
• edit your whitelist
• view your pending directory and manually release unconfirmed e-mails

Spammers who do harvest any of your keyword addresses (if you even use them) are easily blocked by:

• adding the harvested address to a "revoked" list

In addition, tmda-cgi is a great way to keep an eye on your pending list for the first few weeks or months you use TMDA. This will help you catch any automated mailings for which you have already signed up, and add them to your whitelist.