Bothered by Spam? Are you kidding?

[janlafata]

Once again, this is probably the gazilionth post on this frustrating topic since computers were invented. But I just have to find a solution!.

First problem. I am running Windows XP Pro x64 and there is a definite lack of good Spam filters available for x64. When I ran x32 bit XP I ran Cloudmark Desktop and it worked great. But over the past three years I have light spam loads and not so light spam loads depending on if I was running some type of filter.

And right now it's heavy again and to make matters worse I'm just getting blitzed to death with "*censored* Enlargement" messages. Luckliy I'm secure enough in my manhood to not take these all seriously, but I'm just getting hit with tons of them. And it drives me and my inbox crazy! And why is it these types of ads lately? Like ten a day!

So now on to the probably one of the most asked questions in web tech forums and discussion groups! What do I do about it?

If I had the money, I'd probably go with OnlyMyEmail, that nice server-based program that I hear is pretty good. I like community-based Spam programs where your mail gets compared with what a huge network of members are getting, like Cloudmark or SPAMfighter. Neither of which work on XP x64.

Do you know of any others of this type? If not, what would be your best recomendation for the best bayesian filter (I think that's what they call it) type, which really never deletes the Spam, but just puts it in a seperate folder. By the way, a freeware utility would be nice too. SpamBully has at least something different, where you can actually bounce back messages to spammers. Know anything about that?

So that's it. Just one more question about this mystery that we all hate, called Spam

[Dusty]

MailWasher - but remember, if you use the Bounce feature the spammer gets to know your e-mail addy is "active" and you just clutter up the WWW sending the notifications to the spammers.

[soybean]

Who is your ISP?  Can you logon to your email account via web browser?  If so, take a look and see whether they have a spam-blocking features that you can enable.  I used Earthlink for several years and they had an excellent system for controlling spam.  I could logon to my email account via browser and select from three levels of email security.  At the highest level, only senders in my Earthlink/online address book were allowed to come through to me.

[janlafata]

First of all and off the subject for a minute...Dusty and Soybean. I am new here and this is only my second post. The first time I posted a question there were two replies from two different people, just like there are with this one. But I'm necer sure who the reply is going to go to.

For example, Dusty, under your post, there is no "reply" button, like there is in the same blue box and Soybean's. So say I want to reply, just to Dusty, do I still use that reply button in Soybean's box and do you see it after it's posted?. Atre you then notified by email or are both of you notified by email.

I'm thinking that's the case, so when using the reply button I just have to make some kind of mention of who I am replying to and both of you will get it right?
(see this is why it took me 13 years to finish college!)

Anyway this is going to be for both you...So Dusty, you like Mailwasher then? Do you use the pro version? Personally I don't like having more things run in my system tray than are neccesary. (yes I'm one of those picky computer guys!)

Soybean, I use Time Warner or Roadrunner internet and I just checked with them and they offer no filtering at their server level. Actually, now that I have been thinking about it and making all of these posts, I would really like to go with a service called OnlyMyEmail. It's got good reviews yet it is a little expensive. $4 a month paid quarterly. But there's no software to install and it filters the email at their server level. That also means it will work fine on x64 too

So in the meantime, untill I can afford it, I'll probably just use the Spam filter that came with my Kaspersky Internet Security.

Thanks again for both of your replies

[drmsucks]

@janlafata: <-You can do something like that to address your remarks to a specific person. It makes no difference which 'Reply' button you hit - all Replies go to the bottom of the 'thread' (specific topic). Also experiment with the use of the 'Quote' button.

On to the business at hand. How do you get your email - webmail (like Yahoo and Gmail) or with an email program like Outlook Express or Thunderbird? Different FREE strategies can be invoked depending on how you access your email.

[soybean]

Soybean, I use Time Warner or Roadrunner internet and I just checked with them and they offer no filtering at their server level.

From http://www.rr.com/rdrun/: "Road Runner is committed to making your Internet experience fast, fun and as safe as possible. We assist with Virus and Spam protection through the use of some of the most powerful and effective anti-virus and spam blocking technologies available today.

Again, have you logged onto RoadRunner's WebMail to see what options are there?

[janlafata]

DRM..Nice to hear from you again. For my mail routine I use use good ole' unreliable Outlook Express 6. I have a Gmail account but I only use it as a backup.

Soybean. What a difference perseverance makes. I intially had told you that I had called Roadrunnner to check on their filtering at the server level. Well the girl that I talked to was not obviously that knowledgable. All she talked about was installing their security software. But after I just saw your second reply I decided to give them another try and I got a different representitive.

She told me that if I set up a filter in the webmail, even if I don't use it, that it will filter down to the email client level. So I set up a filter to delete those wonderfull *censored* Enlargement ads I've beeen getting. So we'll see if this works.

Thanks for following up all this for me. Now I can once again open up my inbox and not feel like I'm am somehow a loser with women!

[drmsucks]

DRM..Nice to hear from you again. For my mail routine I use use good ole' unreliable Outlook Express 6. I have a Gmail account but I only use it as a backup.

Trust that you got your motherboard issue straightened out!

Okay - sounds like you're accessing your rr email account with OE6 via POP mail. In that case, activating rr's spam filter ought to work. However, be sure to find out what folder the anti-spam filter puts the spam in so that you can check it periodically in case of false positives - the spam filters aren't perfect and may stick a valid email into the spam folder. In case the rr filter doesn't meet your expectations, take a look here (http://www.maclean-nj.com/compute/oespamblocking.htm) to implement spam control via OE.

Finally, FYI, you can set up your Gmail account to be accessed by OE, if you wish. Look here: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=12805.

Best of luck!

[Dusty]

So Dusty, you like Mailwasher then? Do you use the pro version? Personally I don't like having more things run in my system tray than are neccesary. (yes I'm one of those picky computer guys!)

I do not use the pro version, never found it necessary to upgrade.  Mailwasher needn't run in the background and, IMHO, it should only be run to check the emails awaiting you in whatever mail service is set to default, then closed.  I.E. Mailwasher delivers details of emails before you download them to your pc.  You can select the options available (Delete, Bounce etc.) and emails are deleted from your email service without being downloaded.  So Spam and any suspect emails can be deleted from the mail service.

I have used Mailwasher since it first came on the scene some years ago without any problems with it at all.  It's always done precisely what the supplier says it does.

Edit: There is only one Reply button for each topic, if you wish to address a Reply to a specific post then just address the sender.  Email notifications are only sent if that option is selected, most posters opt for that in order not to miss a response even if the response is addressed to another member.

Good luck

[janlafata]

I spoke too soon guys! Remember I said that Roadrunner helped me set up some filters in my RR Webmail? Well I found out that you can only filter whats in the header, subject line, CC etc, not in the message body. And that's where you see those wonderful two words "*censored* Enlargement"

So then I decided to use OE6's own Message rules which allows you to set up a rule for the message body. So I set it up to delete the message if "*censored* Enlargement and a few other, ahem!...words are in the message body. But it didn't work and I think I know why. The spam that I'm getting is contained in a kind of border box, similiar to something you would create in a Word doc. Boy these creeps are crafty! So I don't think OE is able to actually look for those certain words. I could be wrong about that, but it's my only theory right now. Any other ideas on this are welcome.

Dusty I think I might give Mailwasher a test flight. But (and I know this will drive you crazy with this thinking) isn't it really just the same as opening up your email client and deleting the bad stuff in there? I mean your still having to delete something right? Or am I not getting it? I'll probably have to try it to understand. Hope it works on XP x64. Also what about Norton Anti-Spam. Heard anything good about that?

DRM...Thanks for asking about my motherboard issues. What ended up happening is that because I've been through so many of them now, and still have two of them that are being RMA'd, I just put that steady, reliable ASUS on that I bought. But it only runs XP. So I threw on XP x64 and am having such a blast with it, that I may wait awhile before I go back to Vista. Besides I really don't feel like doing another motherboard swap right now.

By the way, I found a good anti-spyware app for XP x64. a-squared AntiMalware 3.5. Won't run onVista x64, just XP x64. Really like it.

[drmsucks]

@janlafata: Glad that you got a board that at least works with your XP64! I think I can say that I never had a failure with an ASUS board.

I never get spam so I am out of suggestions.

Best of luck!

[Dusty]

I mean your still having to delete something right?

Correct, but then I don't like automatic updates on anything either!

Hope it works on XP x64

That's one of the 'requirements' here..

Also what about Norton Anti-Spam. Heard anything good about that?

Haven't heard anything good about any product associated with Norton for many years.  Would not touch a Symantec/Norton product with yours let alone my own.

Cheers.

[drmsucks]

By the way, I found a good anti-spyware app for XP x64. a-squared AntiMalware 3.5. Won't run onVista x64, just XP x64. Really like it.

Avast! 4.8 will also run on XP 64 as well as Vista 64; antivirus, antispyware, antirootkit.

32 bit versions work great in my experience.

Good luck with the spam!