I've been getting ridiculous amounts of spam these last few months, on some
days it's more than 50% of my e-mail.
I read the advice here some time ago regarding spyware, downloaded the
software recommended, but was not particularly impressed. It seemed mostly
interested in promoting itself, by telling me each time that dozens of
items of "spyware" had been removed, when in fact many of them were known
legitimate cookies and therefore many more were possibly legitimate and
innocent cookies. It also didn't slow the spam. I've come to the
conclusion that most of the spammers know who I am already!
For some time I've been using "Mailwasher" which lets me look at my mail on
the server and delete and bounce spam before downloading it. Fairly
effective, but time consuming, and sometimes slips mails onto the bounce,
when I've set them up to be just deleted (like my own mails coming back
from this list and the yahoo groups).
I'm trying "Spam Assault! Professional" at the moment. It has a word based
filter, so you can get it to automatically spot most of the porn, financial
marketing, and spam promoting anti-spam software (!) But in a number of
irritating minor respects, it's less finished than Mailwasher, and works in
basically the same way - I still have to run it, and sort out the junk mail
by eye, every time before I download.
I read about an authentication service, where anyone mailing gets a
response asking them to prove they're not a computer. They have to visit a
web page and copy a handwritten number onto a box, to have their e-mail
"passed" and thereafter they're always authorised to mail you. Seemed good
in theory, but there was a fee, and I could imagine tech shy and casual
visitors to my web site simply not bothering, so I'd never get to meet the
new people, who e-mail me about my Mepbm, books and genealogy stuff.
I've just been tempted to download a trial of "Spam Inspector" The
Freeserve site says "
This great program offers spam protection integrated directly into Outlook,
Outlook Express, Eudora, IncrediMail and Hotmail giving you the power to
clean your inbox, protect your family, and fight back against spam. Based
on personal and global learning networks, Spam Inspector adapts itself to
your e-mail automatically, filtering out all of the junk mail with close to
100% accuracy... "
But will it? My question then, to anyone who's patiently read this
far: Is anyone using anti-spam software that they're very happy with?
With my time being eaten up by spam editing, and my family wanting to use
e-mail more and more, I'd be really grateful for any personal recommendations.
mefacesmo.gif
Laurence G.Tilley
http://www.lgtilley.freeserve.co.uk
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