Things You Can Do to Get Less Spam
By Ducky Sherwood - Posted Jan 23, 2004
Although anti-spam software works much better than it did two years ago, receiving and sorting spam remains the biggest problem for home email users. On today's "Call for Help" I'll reveal five easy things you can do to reduce the clutter in your inbox so you can end email overload.
Kaitlin Duck Sherwood is the author ofOvercome Email Overload With Microsoft Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002: Get Through Your Electronic Mail Faster and Overcome Email Overload With Eudora 5: Get Through Your Electronic Mail Faster.
- Make your ISP help you
Find out if your Internet service provider offers spam filtering. MSN, for example, claims to block 2 billion to 3 billion messages each day.
Many large ISPs offer anti-spam tools but frequently you have to configure your account to turn them on. To find out how to enable your spam-blocking tools, either search your ISP's help files or do a site-specific search on Google for "spam" on your ISP's site. For example, if you're an EarthLink customer, you'd type "spam site:www.earthlink.net" (without quotes) into Google's search box.
- Upgrade
Look into upgrading your email program. If you're using a relatively old email program, upgrade to a new version. Outlook 2003, Eudora 6, and AOL 9 all have much better anti-spam tools than their predecessors did.
- Use a DIY solution
Consider getting an anti-spam plug-in or program. I like SpamBayes, a free Bayesian filter that works with a lot of email programs.
- Dump OE
Most anti-spam programs have difficulty working with Outlook Express, and the program has a crummy feature set. Get a different email program.
- Be the master of your domain
Get your own domain name. It can cost as little as $9 per year and then you won't get tied to a particular ISP. If it turns out your current ISP has lame anti-spam software, you can move to a different ISP without notifying everyone in your address book that you have a new email address.
Kaitlin Duck Sherwood is the author of
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