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Technical Help & Discussion => Broadband, Networking, PC Security, Internet & ISPs => Topic started by: holymoly on July 28, 2010, 16:18

Title: spam email protection
Post by: holymoly on July 28, 2010, 16:18
has anyone got any good tips on how to prevent spam emails?
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: Rik on July 28, 2010, 16:26
Your email provider will generally provide a good basic service, so make sure that's switched on. Your email client may also have a spam filter, so check that.

Failing that, try:

http://www.mailwasher.net/

Welcome to Pals.  :welcome:
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: sam on July 29, 2010, 00:23
the question is what, mail software are you using? Or are you using web mail?
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: chorleydave on July 29, 2010, 07:57
I use Eprompter to check the origins of emails and then delete them on the server before they ever have the chance to reach my email client, Thnderbird.  For anything dodgy (such as free prize draws etc. which mean loads of spam, I use a GMail account.
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: Simon on July 29, 2010, 11:10
I use MailWasher, which can also delete mail off the server, before it comes near your computer.
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: Clive on July 29, 2010, 14:11
That's the beauty of having a Yahoo account too. 
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: holymoly on July 29, 2010, 17:25
thanks for the replies. i use gmail and recently spam has become a bit of a problem.

i've heard of mailwasher and i'll definitely have a look at eprompter, it seems quite useful. the problem with mailwasher is you have to pay for the premium service.

is there anything similar that's free?
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: Simon on July 29, 2010, 18:12
I believe Mailwasher is free, for one email account, but it's worth paying for, in my opinion.

:welcome:
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: sam on July 30, 2010, 01:32
thanks for the replies. i use gmail and recently spam has become a bit of a problem.

but if you are using gmail, do you have it so it downloads to you machine? I use the webmail interface for gmail and I get one spam message into my inbox maybe once every 2 weeks. Gmail is very effective at removing the junk.
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: sam on July 30, 2010, 01:34
if you have a linux machine (not sure about windows) you could use spam assassin - http://spamassassin.apache.org/.
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: holymoly on July 30, 2010, 11:53
no i use gmail on the web but i still seem to be getting quite a bit of spam :(

i posted on a couple of other forums and someone suggested a mozilla add-on called cleanzer (i cant post the link - sorry)

it looks quite useful (although it can't do anything about the spam im already getting) but not many people have downloaded it. is it any good?
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: Rik on July 30, 2010, 11:56
Never tried it, sorry. :(
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: Simon on July 30, 2010, 14:37
I can't even find it - you can post a link by not making it a link, if you see what I mean, eg, pc-palsdotcom.  :)

Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: sam on July 30, 2010, 15:26
no i use gmail on the web but i still seem to be getting quite a bit of spam :(

well without redirecting the email elsewhere then I don't see how you can get between the spam and the gmail account. The thing about the ones that run on your machine is that intercept your incoming mail and then flag it as spam, whereas on gmail they do that for you - if you read it on the web then there is no way you can get in the middle of the process. All I can suggest is that you report it as spam inside of gmail and it will then learn and apart your spam filters. This is of course unless you are forwarding your email from some other account then maybe you can do something about it.
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: Simon on July 30, 2010, 15:36
Time will tell, I guess.
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: holymoly on August 02, 2010, 16:06
cheers guys...appreciate all the help.

the link is cleanzer.com if you're interested. it's quite a good service but not really helping me with my current problem.

i'll definitely do some more investigating with my gmail account though! :)
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: Simon on August 02, 2010, 16:24
Thanks, I'll take a look.
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: sam on August 02, 2010, 19:13
oh so this is all abit like mailinator etc - some temporary email service that you can give out - it won't help with the reduction of spam to your main account but will in the future by using this on sites that ask you to register to complete their survey or such... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/162019/ is the official firefox page.
Title: Re: spam email protection
Post by: holymoly on August 03, 2010, 13:43
yeah it is a bit. i like the fact the emails aren't deleted though so you can actually use it as an email service and forward the ones you want to your real email address.

hope you find it useful