Wondered what members are using against the ever-increasing blizzard of spam emails (on Windows)?
Having just recovered (with great difficulty) from a nasty virus imported when I foolishly clicked on an attachment in a realistic and innocuous-looking email, apparently coming from a friend (whose email account, I later discovered, had been hijacked), I would welcome any advice. Free or paid-for.
Spam filters that I've used in the past have had an unfortunate habit of removing genuine as well as phoney emails - maybe the technology has moved on?
Thanks for any suggestions.
I'm having spam, spam, spam, spam ...
I use Mailwasher Pro. You can see your emails on the server before you download them and delete and mark as spam as appropriate. Mailwasher 'learns' from your preferences and suggests what might be spam. It is pretty accurate. It adds a few seconds to receiving email as you scan down the list of emails on the server and approve deletion. I get hundreds of emails a day, the great majority spam, so it is well worth it.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat
If you are using hotmail / gmail type addresses you are at the mercy of their spam filters but most webhosts use some sort configurable spam filter these days - unix hosts tend to use Spamassassin and you can normally set the sensitivity and decide whether you want to delete it or have it sent to a spam account.
My set up filters out the most obvious offenders to an account I check once a fortnight or so but i still delete approximately 70% of what comes in without reading it. Some real spam , some just stuff that is repetitive, trivial and doesn't interest me right now. It doesn't take long at all.
As for viruses, even on a Mac they are a risk no matter what the fanboys say, but any decent AV product should scan downloaded email attachments for viruses. I use Sophos which is free. For windows Microsoft Security Essentials does the job and it's free too.
More dangerous are the phishing type emails that try to peruade you into divulging information (passwords etc), but again most AV products should identify these.
Your choices regarding spam is to be overzealous with your filter and maybe lose valid emails or to be more relaxed and deal with the spam, or do what Paolo suggests and deal with it before it gets to you some other way.
For me dealing with spam is just a few deletes every hour or so. I just live with it and don't stress any more.
More important to me, as I get quite a lot of email is establishing and keeping to some sort of workflow, so 90% of my valid mail is directed by rules to folders. Anything requiring follow up is flagged and nothing is now allowed to stay in my inbox for more than half a day.
It sounds a bit uber-organised but it keeps me sane. gone are the days when I'd have to spend an hour filing the inbox after a week of mail piling up, and I know now that I am always on top of my email.
My set up filters out the most obvious offenders to an account I check once a fortnight or so but i still delete approximately 70% of what comes in without reading it. Some real spam , some just stuff that is repetitive, trivial and doesn't interest me right now. It doesn't take long at all.
As for viruses, even on a Mac they are a risk no matter what the fanboys say, but any decent AV product should scan downloaded email attachments for viruses. I use Sophos which is free. For windows Microsoft Security Essentials does the job and it's free too.
More dangerous are the phishing type emails that try to peruade you into divulging information (passwords etc), but again most AV products should identify these.
Your choices regarding spam is to be overzealous with your filter and maybe lose valid emails or to be more relaxed and deal with the spam, or do what Paolo suggests and deal with it before it gets to you some other way.
For me dealing with spam is just a few deletes every hour or so. I just live with it and don't stress any more.
More important to me, as I get quite a lot of email is establishing and keeping to some sort of workflow, so 90% of my valid mail is directed by rules to folders. Anything requiring follow up is flagged and nothing is now allowed to stay in my inbox for more than half a day.
It sounds a bit uber-organised but it keeps me sane. gone are the days when I'd have to spend an hour filing the inbox after a week of mail piling up, and I know now that I am always on top of my email.
Thanks pete, Windy and LV for further suggestions.
The Mailwasher trial has been running for a couple of days and is looking decidly promising (thanks Paolo). My inbox this morning was more skinny latte than War and Peace (where's kindly Kofi Annan offering me money? Kofi, I'm missing you already).
Oddly enough, our website has generated very few spams (hope this doesn't open the floodgates) in three years - in marked contrast to almost every other commercial transaction on the web or in person.
The Mailwasher trial has been running for a couple of days and is looking decidly promising (thanks Paolo). My inbox this morning was more skinny latte than War and Peace (where's kindly Kofi Annan offering me money? Kofi, I'm missing you already).
Oddly enough, our website has generated very few spams (hope this doesn't open the floodgates) in three years - in marked contrast to almost every other commercial transaction on the web or in person.
Jim