On Sep 3, 2006, at 11:06 AM, Alan Frayer wrote:
Thank you, Ross. It wasn't my issue, as I don't try to use
Earthlink to work with this list, but FWIW, Earthlink's filtering
(aka SpamBlocker) isn't configurable. At best, the OP can turn it
down or off, letting in spam.
If Earthlink gave subscribers more control, I'd be less inclined to
forgive them, but they can't practically subscribe without turning
off their spam filters, and if I were them, I'd probably feel the
same way.
I use earthlink, use the medium level "Known spam blocking,"
subscribe to several lists, and have minimal problems with spam. For
anyone who is interested, here are the details.
I use a Mac running OS X. I could lose offers of freelance work if it
was a pain to send me an email! Only one of the four earthlink email
accounts that I use ever gets any spam. Currently, about 2-3 messages/
day get through, while 33 known spam messages got caught by
SpamBlocker in the last 14 days (I just found this out by checking
Web Mail), so, about half of the spam sent to me is getting blocked.
If I thought they were accidentally catching messages that were not
spam, I could have the contents of the "known spam" folder "held for
my review" in a folder on Web Mail.
(Whatever OS you're using, you can increase security when using
earthlink's Web Mail by going to "Preferences -> "Web Mail Options."
Once there, set "Session Expiration" to the shortest time possible,
turn "Message Preview," "HTML message view," and "Automatically Add
Recipients to Address Book" Off, set "Message Display" to "Hide
Images," turn "Session Security" On, and make sure to sign out when
you're done. Mac OS X-wise, I also make sure that my keychains are
locked when using Web Mail, although that may be unnecessary.)
Dealing with the few pieces of spam that get through is a minor pain
(I forward them w/ long headers to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" and mark
them as "junk" in Mail, although I could simply delete them). If I
was getting a lot of spam, I could use Web Mail to view my email, and
use the "report message as spam" feature, which seems to enable the
system to catch more stuff than forwarding the message to junkmail does.
On a Mac using Mail as an email client, especially with the firewall
turned on, there are no known problems with viruses or spyware
getting through, so spam is an inconvenience instead of a potential
security problem. For extra security, in Mail's Viewing preferences
you can turn off "display remote images in HTML messages" and only
load images in individual messages (makes for faster email downloads,
too).
So, I have not found it necessary to inconvenience anyone by using
earthlink's highest-level spam blocking, which essentially bounces
people's email, asking the sender to "submit an allowed sender
request" before their mail will be delivered.
I think it would be possible to set up good security on other OSs
(even on Windows systems if you use an email client other than
Outlook and keep anti-virus software up to date - earthlink runs a
Virus Blocker by default, but you could add an extra layer). I am not
as happy with earthlink right now as I used to be, but other
broadband providers available to me are no better, and some are
worse. And I also hate changing my email address. So I put up with
dealing with 2-3 spam emails/day.
Fran
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