I've been using Outlook 2003 with Hotmail for quite some time, and have
always had problems with the Junk Mail Filter.  I'm nearing my wits end and
frankly, my tolerance, but thought I'd try yet one more time to find a
solution.

The symptom is the same as many have posted here before: the filter will
send names on the safe list to junk, send names on the block list to my
inbox, and will also do the right things by names on both lists.  It is
unpredictable.

I've done the detect and repair, I've tried new profiles.  I've tried
deleting names from both lists, running the detect and repair, then adding
names back to the safe and blocked lists.  This seems to help for a few days
and then I'm back to the same problem.

Let me ask for a frank opinion - are there people out there for whom the
junk mail filter really works?  Or should I shed the optimism of a Microsoft
stockholder and conclude I should either turn off the filter and/or seek
other software?

Thanks for whatever guidance you can provide.....