Sam Spade (software)

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Sam Spade is the name of a Windows software tool designed to assist in tracking down sources of e-mail spam. It is also the name of a free web service that provides access to similar online tools. The Sam Spade utility was authored by Steve Atkins in 1997. It is named after the fictional character Sam Spade. The main features (query tools) are:

• 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

[edit] External links

• Sam Spade home page
• Word to the Wise – the privately owned company in Palo Alto that now hosts Sam Spade and related services.

NOTE: As of January 2008 (perhaps before) neither the samspade.org or wordtothewise.com websites actually had the Sam Spade software for download. Too bad. It was a great tool.