Can the spam...

[Lyte]

Many of you are probably concerned about the enormous increase in junk email, estimated to have grown about 42% during 2001. Worse yet, analysts predict that the volume of email on the Internet... most of we know is junk... will grow another 50 percent in 2002. And we won't even begin to talk about how much of it's X-rated email.

With estimates that the number of Internet users has reached the 1 billion mark, the amount of email floating around the Internet is only going to get worse. Many of you have asked if there is any sure-fire cure for all this junk email that we receive right now and any more that may appear this year.

The short answer - Yes.

Make good use of your delete button!

The long answer is - No.

No, there is no 100 percent cure for the spam that plagues us all, X-rated or not. But there are several ways to try and alleviate this problem. Most email programs, including Microsoft's Outlook Express, have custom filtering features that are built into the program but which are, more often than not, very much unused.

The big problem in using ANY email filter system is that they may cause blocking of legitimate email. Basically, you can set up filters to remove email that comes from a specific email address or set it up to block email which contains certain key words in either the Subject section or in the Body of the message.

Filtering will not eliminate all spam email but it can make your life on the Internet just a bit easier. Just keep in mind that filters are a constant, ongoing process. Spammers are always changing strategy to keep ahead of the Filters or other Spam Blocking software.

Here are a few of the most popular email management tools:

SpamKiller by Novasoft
Free 30 day trial. $29.95 w/free upgrades.

Spam Buster by Contact Plus Corporation
Free download for evaluation. $19.95 for registered version.

Brightmail
Considered one of the best, if not the top filtering program.

Elron Software
Internet filtering software. Free trial downloads.

Mailshell
Free 30-day trial. $29.95 per year. Use unlimited email addresses.

Once you decide how you want to approach this problem, then it is just a matter of keeping tabs on your email and making adjustments to block future changes that spammers might make.

Keeping on top of this will allow you to can the majority of the SPAM that is now finding it's way into your in-box.

[OulZac]

I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox.
I do not like them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.
I do not like green eggs and spam.
I do not like them, Spam-I-am.

I hate spam, its worse on the network level, Imagine what you get daily, and multiply that by 100, some days I could cry

[Lyte]

I don't think I could have said it better! lol

Lyte

[firestorm]

How creative

-O and I'm lovin' the new smiley's Lyte

[Lyte]

Originally Posted by firestorm

How creative -O and I'm lovin' the new smiley's Lyte

Tis the season!

Lyte

[dr911]

Ummmmm...Lyte.......you forgot "MailWasher.

Introducing MailWasher, a leader in anti spam software, the easiest way to check and manage your e-mails before you download them.

MailWasher is free to use and won't ever expire.

Use this powerful anti spam software, a reliable spam blocker, that will effectively stop email spam. Discover the safe way to stop unwanted e-mails before they get to your computer.

No gimmicks here, it is so easy to set up and use that you'll be managing your email like a pro in seconds. It can even be used as an effective privacy tool.

I think you will find this to be the easiest, most effective way to manage your incoming e-mails. You will be amazed at how quickly you will like using MailWasher.

Link: http://www.mailwasher.net/

I have been using this software for years now. Send that nasty spam right back to the "spammer" !!!

[derfy]

You cannot send the spam back to the spammer; in 99.9999% of all cases, the from address is nonsensical. Plus, in the rare .0001% chance it's legit, you're bombing the innocent user they spoofed.

Also, please do not JHD(just hit delete). Use spamcop to report it, parse the headers yourself...but do something to get the machine/domain stopped.

and NEVER. EVER. buy from spam.

[sics]

There is a company called postini that has some of the best spam filtering available, it's more ment for a corporate level filtering solution because you need to point your mx records to them, and they filter out the e-mail. We have had excellent results using their filtering techonlogy, and the users that we service, have seen a drop of spam from about 300 spams per week to about 2 per week.

[Lyte]

Hmm... I wonder if I can us that on my Outlook!! The level of spam coming through pc101's server has gotten really bad!

Lyte

p.s. Diggin' your avatar sics!

[sics]

I'm sure you can use it, you would just need to point your mx record to them, it's something like $4-5 a month per e-mail address, anything under 100accounts, you would have to go through a reseller. You can find one at postini.com

[sics]

also if you have your own server and linux you may want to consider looking at mail scanner. I would post the link but I haven't made my 10 posts yet to do so. We have this on our servers and it has reduced the spam a lot. It's not as good as postini but it is free, and can be tweaked to reduce the spam by more than half.