Stop the Spam--How to Filter Out Junk E-Mail
Stan Miastkowski is a PC World contributing editor. Contact him at stan_miastkowski@pcworld.com. Click here for past Step-By-Step columns.
We'll spare you the discouraging statistics on e-mail spam. Just look at your in-box. Day in and day out, spam costs individuals and corporations time and money. Purveyors of spam are getting cleverer all the time, but so are the makers of software designed to stop it.
Though the newest versions of Microsoft Outlook (included in Office 2003) and Eudora incorporate sophisticated spam-blocking features, users of older e-mail clients such as Outlook Express will need more-powerful blocking tools.
A wide range of reasonably priced and free spam filters are available. Some integrate with your e-mail client, and some are stand-alone. All employ combinations of automatic and semiautomatic spam-stopping techniques. See "Natural-Born Spam Killers" for an overview of blocking technology, and go to this link for a list of downloadable antispam utilities.
Every antispam package is different, but most share some core features. Below is a list of common settings for maximizing spam blocking, though your software may not have all of them. The examples shown are from Symantec's Norton AntiSpam 2004, Sunbelt Software's IHateSpam ($20), and MailWasher (free). We can't show details for every program, so read the manual and online help for your software carefully.
1. Try your ISP's spam-blocking features.
Many Internet service providers offer free or low-cost built-in spam blocking. Some providers enable it by default. Check your ISP's home page for details.
If your ISP has no integrated antispam software or if you decide not to use it, you should install your spam-filtering package now. The following steps apply to server-based filters like the ones your ISP uses, as well as to local software that you install.
2. Determine how aggressive you want blocking to be.
Most antispam packages allow you to adjust the level of spam filtering. The feature goes by various names (threshold, heuristic strength, and so on). Expect to do some tweaking of this setting. It's a trade-off: Aggressive filter settings may block some legitimate mail, but 'careful' filtering will often let more spam through.
3. Decide who your real friends are.
If you're new to antispam software, one of your biggest concerns will be to make sure that the e-mail you want to receive doesn't get blocked. Most packages import your e-mail client address book and let you choose which senders you want to mark as "friends." The antispam software will then admit any e-mail sent to you from those addresses. Don't worry about adding everyone you correspond with to the list right away--you'll have the opportunity to inspect what was blocked and mark additional addresses as friends.
4. Tweak and maintain the blacklist.
Spammers change e-mail addresses continually, so you'll want to pay close attention to your blacklist. This feature, sometimes called a blocked list or enemies list, collects addresses or entire domains from which you don't want to receive e-mail. Many packages populate the list by accessing servers that keep lists of known spammers. You can manually add problem addresses to your list at any time.
5. Enable special features.
IHateSpam, for example, can block messages with foreign character sets, and Norton AntiSpam can analyze outgoing e-mail to improve its spam-blocking accuracy. Read the manual or online documentation to see what additional features are available in your package, and then experiment with any features you like.
6. Be patient.
This is the most difficult step of all. Don't expect your antispam software to be 100 percent accurate from day 1. Be prepared to deal with some false positives (legitimate e-mail marked as spam) initially, along with junk that gets through as legitimate e-mail. Eventually, as you adjust the settings we've mentioned in these steps, your software will filter spam more accurately. Despite marketing claims to the contrary, no antispam software will catch all spam all the time, but well-tuned software should make your life much easier.