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Small Office Computing Newsletter |
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| In This Issue: | [SOCN] March 2004 - Controlling Spam |
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| Intro |
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Dear Subscriber, I probably don't have to tell you what spam is. Just about everyone is getting inundated with unsolicited junk email offering to help you make money fast, get prescription medications, or enlarge certain body parts (for both men and women). Recently the government passed a bill to try to reduce spam, but the amount of spam people recieve has gone up since the legislation took effect. Yesterday Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, and Earthlink filed six suits against currently unknown spammers in an attempt to shut them down. Let’s hope they are successful. So today I’m going to help you reduce the amount of spam that’s sent to you and deal with what's left over. As always, if you like this newsletter and know someone who you think would be interested in it, feel free to forward it to them (in its entirety). They can subscribe themselves by going to our web site and clicking on "Newsletter". The link is in the footer. Also, if you have topic suggestions, please email them to newsletter@bluegraniteconsulting.com. |
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| First, reducing the spam you get |
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1)
Don’t show your email address on your web site. One of the places
spammers get email addresses is by combing web sites for addresses. By
saying “Send us email to address@domain.com” on your web site, you’re
telling spammers that someone reads email going to that address. Use a
web form or use a graphic instead of the text. 2) Do not post to newsgroups. If you don’t know what a newsgroup is, don’t worry too much about it. It’s an older way that people on the internet used to exchange information, but is going out of style and being replaced by forum software on web sites. Anyhow, it’s very easy for spammers to filter out email addresses from newsgroup messages. 3) Create a free account on Yahoo or Hotmail for giving out to web sites that insist on confirming an email address for access. When you go to a site that makes you give an email address even though they don’t really need it, you can give them the alternate address. When they send out their regular announcements or news, it won’t clutter up your primary email box. |
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| Now, dealing with the spam you still get |
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1)
Update your mail client software. Newer versions of Outlook, AOL,
Eudora, and Mozilla now have better integrated filtering technology for
reducing spam. I really like the Mozilla email software and web
browser. But, many people need the calendaring functionality of
Outlook. Be sure to get the latest version. 2) Stop using Outlook Express. OE is a very basic software package that is included with Windows. Unfortunately, it’s poorly written and full of security flaws. Also, some anti-virus and anti-spam software packages don’t work well with it. 3) Make your Internet Service Provider do some of the work for you. Many ISPs have implemented software for filtering out spam. AOL and MSN say they block over 1 billion spams every day. 4) Get your own domain. If you have your own domain, you can transfer your service to a company that will provide better spam filtering software without loosing your email address. It gives you control. 5) Keep your anti-virus definitions up to date. Many new email based viruses use unwitting people to send spam out for them. Keep current on the anti-virus definitions to keep that from happening to you. 6) Keep your operating system up-to-date with all security patches. Many viruses that hijack your computer to send out spam take advantage of vulnerabilities in Windows. I have an article on how to keep your computer up-to-date on our web site in the “Resources” section. 7) Use a third-party service like www.mailblocks.com or www.spamarrest.com. You give them a list of people in your address book. When someone who is not in your address book sends you an email for the first time, they have to go through a challenge/response procedure to show that they are a real person. They get an email with instructions to go to a specific web site and enter the code they see. If they do, their mail gets delivered and all their mail from that point onward will get delivered to you without incident. It almost completely eliminates spam, but is a little bit of hassle at the start. |
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(C) Blue Granite Consulting If you know anybody who may be interested in our newsletter, feel free to forward them a copy in it's entirety or point them to the web site. This is also where you can view archves and see some upcoming topics. Check out our newsletter web site |