> A friend is switching ISP's because her old one sold her email address so > often she now gets 100 spams a day! She is thinking about going with > Earthlink. Does anybody have anything nice to say about them?
There has been, according to one report last month, a 600% increase in spam since April of last year. No individual ISP (except those who let their patrons send it) is to blame, and switching ISPs is a short-term solution at best. (600% is the highest reputable figure I've seen; 300% (since 9/11) was the lowest.) My current job at Microsoft has me analyzing service problems all day, and spam is one of the biggest issues. I cannot overstate how hard Microsoft is trying to combat it, yet it still feels like a losing battle. We use the leading spam-blockage software, we apply server-level tricks, we block abuseful domains, and still it increases. Subscriber turnover at all major ISPs is shockingly high. It seems to take people a while to realize that, hey, if AOL, MSN, and Earthlink are all having the same problem, maybe it's not the ISP's fault. The only alternatives available with current technologies all have the adverse effects of (1) blocking legitimate mail and (2) seriously delaying mail delivery. Others' advice to the list on staying spam-free may help; switching ISPs almost certainly won't. If you surf, if you post in newsgroups, if you chat, you will get spammed. That said, I use Earthlink DSL at home. I get a lot of spam. I love Earthlink, but provisioning my DSL was so ugly that by the fourth month it became a comedy. To Earthlink's credit, I blame our local telco, the terminally inept SBC (no pun intended), for 99% of this. I'm about to give SpamFire a try, and I'm very interested in the anti-spam solution Steve Jobs discussed in this morning's keynote at MacWorld NY. I can't remember what he called the algorithm, but it looked very promising. Hope this helps. -Kennedy -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
