Cycling UK Forum

I just discovered why our email hasnt been working for a while. Part of the problem was that our ISP had, without telling us, rearranged things so that the inbox on a webmail account we didnt know we had became the inbox for all our email. The significance of this is that we are now responsible for managing S P A M and if we dont the box will fill up at the rate of a couple of hundred undesired messages per day. Under the previous arrangement we didnt have to bother about such things, it was someone elses task to keep the server unclogged
Anyway, we seem to be stuck with a system that allows us to block senders one by one - slowly. Or we can develop a list of words to be banned when found in the subject line, which seems to be much less labour intensive - if I can get the thing set up.
A large proportion of the dross begins with " ***SPAM*** " Unfortunately the system tells me that the character * cannot be used in a filter. Is there a way around this?
To clarify, I cant add any software as this is a web based inbox (similiar to hotmail). I'm just asking for clues about using the settings provided more successfully.

I suggest you change your ISP.

We are with PlusNet http://www.plus.net/ They are great. We hardly have any spam, and if any gets through, it's just a click and it's gone.

£14.99 a month. As much GB as we can use.

DaveP

As a computer total non-expert, I'm amazed a load of computer buffs haven't come in on this.

I think the point is, if it arrives marked ****spam**** or ****phish**** somebody has filred it already. (Spammers don't label their own stuff.)

If it auto-deleted all the stuff the filter thought was spam, you might miss some important stuff.

I think it's a waste of time manually blocking senders. Very little spam will come from the same address twice.

In the end, I think the only way forward is to change your email address and make sure everybody you know gets the new one.

Well if someone has filtered it I wish they had had the courage of their convictions and routed it straight to my junk mail box, where I may or may not review it! Leaving it in my inbox doesnt help at all. TBH I was wondering if ***SPAM*** was some sort of cunning ploy to protect the sender from the full force of the law by allowing them to plead openness in mitigation while the use of the * prevents me from mass handling. Your right about the uselessness of address blocking! Grrr!

I think Mick has the right of it. New ISP required - thanks for the suggestion, Plusnet do seem to be doing rather well at the moment.
Its ironic really - part of the reason we stayed with the current service provider so long was because of the sheer inconvenience of letting every one know about a change of address. Someone always gets overlooked. But their attitude to it is finally going to drive us away. Just need to do a few password recoveries first

I tried a number of different isp's and techniques because the spam was killing me. In June 2006 I signed up with SpamArrest.com. I don't begrudge the $45 per year. So far it has intercepted 63909 spam messages (and passed on 8183 proper messages) - probably only a couple have slipped through their filters, but I can then go and block those senders so that they don't get through again.

You can keep your normal ISP and have spamarrest pick up from your mailboxes, or you can route your mail straight through your spamarrest account, which means that you have flexibility over changing or keeping ISP accounts. Also, you can set up 'sacrificial' accounts, for a particular purchase or period, say, and then kill it when you don't want to receive anything further on that email address.

Firstly, I don't use Windows (that's a disaster waiting to happen), I use Linux (Ubuntu) which stops a virus in its tracks.

Secondly, I use Mozilla Thunderbird, which you train to recognise spam. In using Thunderbird I also use IMAP not POP, this leaves everything on your server instead of downloading the files, when you delete them it deletes them from the server. If you move them to the Junk box, they are moved on the server. This makes for a quieter life.

DaveP wrote:Well if someone has filtered it I wish they had had the courage of their convictions and routed it straight to my junk mail box, where I may or may not review it!

...

I think Mick has the right of it. New ISP required - thanks for the suggestion, Plusnet do seem to be doing rather well at the moment.
Its ironic really - part of the reason we stayed with the current service provider so long was because of the sheer inconvenience of letting every one know about a change of address.
...

Not knowing the details of the webmail system and the spam filtering software that they have in place, everything I say is probably wrong. However:
If it has the ****SPAM**** in the subject line, that's probably because the spam detection system (or whatever) at your ISP provisionally marked it as spam but sent it to your inbox for verification. I would imagine that they changed the default settings to this (or somehow they changed) and you can pretty easily change them back if you want those messages to just disappear.

More fundamentally, however is the issue addressed by your second point-- the solution to which solves the first (usually). It's really not worth while for most people to have their ISP's email as their primary email account. It is much better to have an email account independent of your ISP so that you don't rely on them for your address (the analogue to this is having your mobile phone number restricted to one network-- to change your plan would require you to change your number. You shouldn't be locked into a phone number, and nor should you settle for being locked into an email address).

If you get an ISP independent email address (GMail, hotmail, yahoo-- the possibilities are endless, though I would recommend GMail as long as you don't mind the Google Borg) you don't have to worry about remaining with one (more expensive, worse customer service) ISP simply because you don't want to change your email address. These solutions will also allow you to use your own software (such as a mail client like Thunderbird) with built in, customizable spam filters, as long as the excellent ones provided by the email provider.

In short: Get a GMail address, ditch the bad ISP, and you'll be more in control of your email-- and your spam-- than you seem to be now. It's a bit of a bother up front (notifying your friends) that yields significant returns in the long run.

Firefox as the browser, email on the hotmail server. Let them deal with it, I only read the ones I recognise, anything else gets zapped.

Pleased to report I've just had a measure of success. It depends on the difference between ***SPAM*** and *** SPAM ***
Just been to have a look and its 169 in the junk box and only 47 in the inbox and one of those is genuine
Still and all, its time for a change. We havent used the address for nearl a twelvemonth so its never going to be less inconvenient than now.

Thanks for some interesting ideas Skiddie. I didnt know that sort of thing was possible.

skiddie wrote:If you get an ISP independent email address (GMail, hotmail, yahoo-- the possibilities are endless, though I would recommend GMail as long as you don't mind the Google Borg) you don't have to worry about remaining with one (more expensive, worse customer service) ISP simply because you don't want to change your email address. These solutions will also allow you to use your own software (such as a mail client like Thunderbird) with built in, customizable spam filters, as long as the excellent ones provided by the email provider.

In short: Get a GMail address, ditch the bad ISP, and you'll be more in control of your email-- and your spam-- than you seem to be now. It's a bit of a bother up front (notifying your friends) that yields significant returns in the long run.

Absolutely right! I was about to say the same. Using your ISP's email service is a big mistake.

I recommend Gmail. It's simple to use and lets you work through a web browser or an email program like Thunderbird (if you need to). I use Gmail (surprise!) but keep Yahoo & Hotmail accounts to compare them. Gmail does best for S*** filtering for me.