Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: E-Mail Router Has Anti-Spam Function > EMERYVILLE, Calif. (AP) -- Computer users tired of a > steady diet of ``spam,'' take heart: Internet service > providers are getting new tools to block junk e-mail > peddling everything from pornography to get-rich-quick > schemes. > > The author of Sendmail, the electronic post office > program used on about 75 percent of the computers that > route e-mail to its recipients, today announced > anti-spam additions to the latest version of the > software. > > Spam -- named after a Monty Python skit involving a > diner menu of ``Spam, Spam, Spam, bacon, eggs and Spam'' > -- accounts for an estimated 10 percent of all e-mail > worldwide, clogging recipients' in boxes and slowing > routing computers. > > The issue has pitted computer users, privacy rights > activists and Internet service providers against > companies that spit out millions of advertisements a > day. > > Most spammers conceal their own e-mail addresses, making > it hard for computer users to retaliate. The new version > of Sendmail, however, will verify return addresses by > looking them up on a central Internet registry before > relaying the e-mail. > > Sendmail author Eric Allman said the new version also > has the ability to reject mail from known junk mail > originators by checking a widely circulated list of > spammers, called the Realtime Blackhole List. > > Allman said he would continue to offer Sendmail as > freeware, meaning it is available for free on the > Internet. > > Randall Winchester, a computer systems administrator at > the University of Maryland at College Park who helped > Allman test the new tools, said the new software > deflects thousands of e-mail messages an hour from the > university's more than 40,000 student e-mail accounts. -- May the leprechauns be near you to spread luck along your way. And may all the Irish angels smile upon you this St. Patrick's Day. Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
