On 24 Nov 2003 14:38:51 GMT, "Ron White" wrote:

I recieve way too much spam, more than 100 per day on avg. I have MS IE set
up with message rules to route some of the junk to a junk folder. When I
block this stuff from being downloaded from my ISP server it eventually
piles up and slows my mail account to a crawl. So my question, do the spam
blocker programs make spam mail pile up on the server ?

This is going to sound like a commercial for one program, but it really isn't!
I'm just a satisfied user of an application from New Zealand, Mailwasher Pro.

First, I have to observe that you are *lucky* to get only 100 spams a day! I
regularly see 10 times that pass across my server.

In my opinion, one of the single biggest problems with spam filters is the issue
of "false positives."

Many ISPs have their own spamfilters in place. I have problems with this
approach because the user has no control over what gets blocked, and on what
criteria. For example, there is a fine e-newsletter about the Sacramento Delta,
"Delta Scuttlebutt." I forwarded a copy of the letter to my wife at work; it
was blocked by her employer's ISP because it contained the word "butt!"

I have long used spam filters on my email client (Eudora), but using that
approach alone, I'd still have to download all the crap before filtering it.

With Mailwasher, which I've been using for several months, I download only
enough headers from the server to determine whether they are spam or legitimate.
Then Mailwasher deletes them from the server.

At present, I am using a combination of my own blacklist, two network blacklists
(SpamCop and ORDB), a proprietary real-time blacklist, a whole arsenal of RegExp
filters and a whitelist of legitimate senders.

I have 100% confidence in several of my filter expressions, so I tell Mailwasher
to delete those spams without any intervention from me. Those that remain take
just a few seconds to skim over before deleting.

There's no "perfect" spam filter, but for my purposes, Mailwasher comes pretty
damn close.

HTH,
Joe Parsons