SPADE Application

The SPADE Application, or Sam Spade, is a program designed to track down the sources of email spam and provide users with access to similar tools for collecting online information. The main query tools offered by this utility enable users to check whether a certain mail server allows third-party relaying, browse the Web in a raw format (http), decode a disguised URL, scan IP addresses, find the route of packets, crawl a website for offsite links and email addresses, issue a scripting command, ask a DNS server the information it has on a certain domain, and read the headers of emails and determine their origin.

The interface of the SPADE application comprises a menu bar and an address bar at the top. Along the screen’s left side is a tool bar. At the center is a window that shows the current task, and at the bottom of the screen is a bar that shows the previous windows. Under the menu bar is the address bar where the application applies the selected tool to. There are three other boxes, all part of the Options bar:

• Spin box – this is where users can select the number of packets in a ping operation. It is set at a default number of 10.
• Whois server text box – this contains pre-configured servers to use for examining a given address. Users may add on to the list as well.
• DNS server – used for directing queries to. Users can also add on to the list.