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Archiver > BYGONES-USERS > 2003-09 > 1062903088


From: Lance <> (by way of Troy Adair <>)
Subject: RE: [Bygones] Good Spam Solution
Date: Sat, 06 Sep 2003 20:51:36 -0600


Yes, I read Dick Eastman's recommendation in his newsletter for these
types of utilities, Troy. However, for a home user, I believe it is
probably a bit of "overkill" for the volume of mail received.

The volume of mail I receive in a day would probably be above average
for a home user, and included in that is usually at least 30 to 60 spam
messages. That still wouldn't necessitate the expense of subscribing to
such a system.

To this end I use Mailwasher PRO. It allows me to do basically what the
paid service you described does. I can preview, if I wish to, each
incoming message from all of my email accounts (ISP, Hotmail, Yahoo). I
can setup filters to bounce, blacklist and delete unwanted messages. And
once these are setup, Mailwasher PRO will just mark them accordingly in
the future, without any intervention on my part. Then when that has been
done, I can click "Process Mail" and I only receive the messages I want.
Not only does this mean I get what I want to read and save, but it cuts
my download KB's considerably. The whole operation can take less than a
minute or two each time I run Mailwasher PRO. After having used it now
for several months, I would not use any other system currently
available.

Find Mailwasher PRO at:
http://entier.ecosm.com/system/redir.php?ad=15&aid=2359

For someone like Dick Eastman and yourself, in business, receiving
hundreds of messages per day, I can understand that a filter system
would be necessary, but for the average home user, Mailwasher PRO is a
more effective solution.

Just my thoughts...

Lance


Got Outlook? Get NEO and have instantly organized email...
http://www.caelo.com/a/rl.php3?i=GKM65

-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Adair [mailto:]
Sent: Sunday, 7 September 2003 1:19 AM
To:
Subject: [Bygones] Good Spam Solution

This is off subject for this list, but since I have been very pleased
recently with a spam blocking solution, I wanted to share this
information
with my friends on this list.

As a genealogist, we often post messages on this and other genealogical
mailing lists. Unfortunately, our email addresses can then be
"harvested,"
or collected, by robots that search such mailing lists for email
addresses
to send spam to. That results in most of us genealogists getting a lot
of
"spam" emails.

I've tried several solutions over the last year to deal with spam, and
the
only type that I've found real effective are the services that do the
following (which have been spoken of lately in the "plus"/fee edition of

Dick Eastman's Genealogical Newsletter) :
1) They route your incoming emails through their own servers,
2) Check them against an "accept list" you have set up, then
3) Let those on your "accept list" through to you, and then
4) Send an automated email to those who are not on your "accept list,"
to
let them know their emails didn't get through to you. But it also tells

them that if they are a real person rather than a spam robot, they can
easily add themselves to your "accept list" by answering a simple
question. (Usually it is looking at a small graphic/picture of a word
or
number, and then simply typing the word/number that graphic/picture file

shows.)
5) Spam robots won't respond to the emails sent in step 4, so their
emails
to you won't get through to you. But it is then easy for humans to
answer
the simple question, and add themselves to your "accept list" by doing
so. Then, their current, and all future, emails will get through to you
fine.

The service I have started using is
www.knowspam.net
It costs $20 per year. You can try it out for a few weeks for free
before
you have to pay. I have been very pleased with it so far.

Another similar service is
www.spamarrest.com
I've heard good reviews about it, but it costs a bit more--$35 per year.

These services do work well with mailing lists such as this, but you do
need to make a little initial "time investment" when you first start
using
them, to put the mailing lists on your accept list.

For people who may try out the knowspam.net service, note that it really

separates incoming emails into two groups, which it processes
differently:
(1) Those that have your email address in the "to" line. If the sender
is
not on your "accept list," they get sent the automated email spoken of
above.
(2) Those that do not have your email address in the "to" line. This
will
include mailing lists like this one, because the value in the "to" line
will be either "" (if you subscribe to the
normal version of this mailing list) or ""
(if
you subscribe to the digest version of this mailing list), rather than
your
email address. If I understand it correctly, these senders are NOT sent

the automated email spoken of earlier. These emails are initially held
by
knowspam.net for a while. They are displayed on a "possible mailing
list"
web page, that you can review, and click on a button if they are a
mailing
list you wish to receive. IF you don't do that, they will be deleted.
So,
when you first subscribe to this service, you will need to spend a
little
time reviewing that "possible mailing lists" page, and clicking on the
button to set it up to let legitimate mailing lists messages get through
to
you. But after a few days, you shouldn't need to that anymore. But if
you
later subscribe to a new mailing list, you will need to remember to tell

knowspam.net to let those emails through to you.

I hope some others will find the above services useful too.

Troy

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