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In this article we discuss how
to pick a spam filter that works
the best for you (article 8).
My inbox says 47 unread emails,
seems I must have stepped away for
a minute or 30. I wonder exactly
how many of those are legitimate,
I can take a guess and say probably
about 5, I am basing this off of
the fact that I get about 10 real
emails an hour during the day. So
what should I do with the other
42? Unfortunately, you can’t
take spam anywhere to get the bits
recycled, so the obvious solution
is to try and block the spam before
it becomes a hassle.
In this 8th issue of our series
on spam we will be covering what
you can do to your machine to stop
spam. So find a comfortable position
and prepare to be enlightened.
Email Spam filters, there are hundreds
out there, how do you know which
ones are any good? How do you know
they will block spam but allow legitimate
emails to pass? Well for most people,
you don’t have the luxury
of buying multiple products and
testing each of them out before
picking one.
If you are going to try a spam filter
out, let me give you a list of things
that, at a minimum, you should be
looking for. Beacon Blocking (sometimes
known as tracking bugs), for those
of you unfamiliar with the term,
it is a portion of the email that
once viewed reports back home that
the email arrived and that you are
a live email address. If your computer
is shared make sure the filtering
can be customized by email account.
Also check for “updatable
spam definitions”, what I
mean by this is some online update
system that informs the program
of new spam messages and techniques.
Most of us have a hotmail or msn
account, so if you do, make sure
that that account is protected as
well.
Lastly, make sure you get a free
trial. Any spam
blocking software worth having
will give you a chance to see their
product in action before buying.
Now, I myself have tested quite
a few spam blockers because the
nature of my job. I am also, to
my great displeasure, currently
running without one because of my
job. I am an email administrator
and as such have had the misfortune
of dealing with spam on all of its
slimy facets. The only pleasure
I derive from spam is watching it
get blocked or dropped due to a
new technique.
Is there one ultimate spam filter
that will handle it all for you?
Well, that all depends on what you
mean by handle it all. Let’s
take an absolutist position and
read the label of “Spam Filter
X” and see what they mean.
I have a box here and it indicates
that with this product, I will be
able to stop 100% of spam. Elsewhere
on the box it claims to be over
95% accurate. How is that possible?
Is the other 5% coming out of my
legitimate emails? (ouch!) My point
is, decide what you deem more pertinent,
absolute spam blocking, absolute
data integrity, or somewhere in
between.
If there is anything that can be
gleaned from my experience with
spam blockers, it is this: The programs
that do best are the ones that are
compatible with more clients. (i.e.
outlook, outlook express, Eudora
etc) The products that do well are
not pricey, usually less than $40.
Also I have found, if the company
backs an anti-spam non-profit organization,
its usually top notch.
The products that do poorly are
the ones that are vague about how
their filter works. Also be wary
of statistics, I have found several
products that have contradictory
statistical claims, usually between
their website and the box. Lastly
if the product does not make reference
to a method of spam blocking OTHER
than the blocked senders list, don’t
bother with it. You’ll be
returning it before the day is out.
The most effective spam filters
out there are ones that “learn”
from your email. This is an important
point, because where content filters
fail, these “Bayesian”
filters will succeed. Because of
the current anti-spammer sentiment,
spammers are having to find ways
to get past email filters. They
jumble up word order, they scramble
words, and they add garbage text,
hidden fonts, and even make letters
out of pictures as well as all other
kinds of nonsense to thoroughly
confuse the filters. This technique
does not work well against Bayesian
filters because once it has learned
what your proper emails look like,
those scramble up ones are so completely
different, they simply get dropped.
Hopefully these hints will direct
you to a product that you will be
very happy with.
In our next installment in our spam
series we will cover some of the
hidden dangers associated with spam.
Until then, remember to have fun
and stay safe.
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