What's the best anti spam software then?
Discussion
_DeeJay_ said:
philthy said:
The only thing against them, is safetybar downloads the mail, then checks it (easy for the missus to use)
If the spam is actuially downloaded, can't the spammers tell that it's an active account? That's why, IIRC, deleting it at the server is best.
Downloading it uses bandwidth. However, I'm not idea how a spammer would work out it had been downloaded.
The tell tale signs of an active accounts are:
1) If the mail client returns a delivery reciept (but this is never used because the sender address is usually bogus)
2) You click a link in the email (to unsubscribe usually). The URL has a unique reference which identifes your email address and that's flagged as active.
D
Html mail will link back to a websrver controlled by the spammer. His weblogs then confirm your address. Using this technique all you need to do is preview or read a spam email and you have confirmed you're live and kicking and now screaming at the amount of spam you get
b'stardsPetrolTed said:
I do indeed get hundreds of spams a day.
Safetybar is the best client software I've tried.
I've yet to find an affordable and effective server side tool as that would be preferable
Ted, if you fancy moving over to unix there are many products that can filter mail on the server. Not only for spam but also viruses.
I am running a postfix email server with clamav (www.clamav.net/) virus scanning and spamassasin / bogofilter (http://spamassassin.apache.org/ & http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/) for spam filtering and find it very effective.
Not one virus email has got through yet to my desktop and identified by my client commercial scanner.
Bogofilter I have also found to be very effective, and you can train it based on what you class as spam.
Could be worth a thought.
Lake
Just an idea, but how about changing your email program?
I've installed Thunderbird (also from mozilla, as is firefox). It's got a built-in item that filters spam and puts them in a separate folder, so you can delete the mails before opening them. It's also intelligent, as it allows you to mark emails as junk and using that info to improve it's filtering actions.
(oh, and you can import emails and server settings from MS progs)
Alex
I've installed Thunderbird (also from mozilla, as is firefox). It's got a built-in item that filters spam and puts them in a separate folder, so you can delete the mails before opening them. It's also intelligent, as it allows you to mark emails as junk and using that info to improve it's filtering actions.
(oh, and you can import emails and server settings from MS progs)
Alex
I have a completely different approach which is 100% effective.
I use Mailtrack, which is a free (4 email addresses) Mail Server program. As I have a PC which is on 24/7, I have installed this software and it has now become my Mail Server. I can picke up mail from any machine on the network via Otlook Express etc or using Webmail (even from work). The added bonus is that as Mailtraq is a professional product it has its own built in $Pam F1lter, which using 'Bayesian Inteligent Anti-spam' stops 100% of my spam.
The downside to it is that you have to teach it what you classify as spam. This has taken me about a month of sifting through emails on the server when they come in and before they are picked up by the local machines, and saying "Exclude". But without any anti spam software you would have been doing that with every mail you received anyway so theres no real problem here.
As all the mail is left on the Mail Server, if you do delete a mail by mistake, you still have the original.
Where this system is brilliant is that it learns games by spammers like "H1 y0u have w0n a c0dp1ece" and it looks for numerals in text. Once you have shown it this it then chucks everything into another email account called a honeypot and all spam ends up in here. Naturally the system notifies you if any spam has been sent to the honeypot.
I have three email addresses working and 1 configured as honeypot and its free. Anymore than four requires licensing and prices start at $75 for a 5 client license, which is very good value for money considering what you get. It also has an AVG Plugin which can be downloaded for free to check all your mail in and out and it certifies it. I havent bothered with the plug in as my existing AVG Pro does this anyway.
Details are here for Mailtraq
www.mailtraq.com/
and here for the Antispam description
www.mailtraq.com/300/
I use Mailtrack, which is a free (4 email addresses) Mail Server program. As I have a PC which is on 24/7, I have installed this software and it has now become my Mail Server. I can picke up mail from any machine on the network via Otlook Express etc or using Webmail (even from work). The added bonus is that as Mailtraq is a professional product it has its own built in $Pam F1lter, which using 'Bayesian Inteligent Anti-spam' stops 100% of my spam.
The downside to it is that you have to teach it what you classify as spam. This has taken me about a month of sifting through emails on the server when they come in and before they are picked up by the local machines, and saying "Exclude". But without any anti spam software you would have been doing that with every mail you received anyway so theres no real problem here.
As all the mail is left on the Mail Server, if you do delete a mail by mistake, you still have the original.
Where this system is brilliant is that it learns games by spammers like "H1 y0u have w0n a c0dp1ece" and it looks for numerals in text. Once you have shown it this it then chucks everything into another email account called a honeypot and all spam ends up in here. Naturally the system notifies you if any spam has been sent to the honeypot.
I have three email addresses working and 1 configured as honeypot and its free. Anymore than four requires licensing and prices start at $75 for a 5 client license, which is very good value for money considering what you get. It also has an AVG Plugin which can be downloaded for free to check all your mail in and out and it certifies it. I havent bothered with the plug in as my existing AVG Pro does this anyway.
Details are here for Mailtraq
www.mailtraq.com/
and here for the Antispam description
www.mailtraq.com/300/
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