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

I've used the freeware version of Mailwasher, which I got before the Pro
version was available, and for which I made a $20 "donation," for about
a year. I've also been very pleased with it. It occasionally mistakes a
legitimate email for spam--for instance, I've made *free* a wildcard,
which caused it to bounce an email from a friend whose last name is
Freeman)...but that was easily overcome by adding his email address to
the "friends" list.

I prob'ly have at least 200 wildcard expressions, domain names and
subject line filters in place...and I just keep adding on as necessary.
Since spammers continually change domain names and email addresses, I've
also configured it to delete those that don't show up again within 90
days, which keeps the list down to a manageable size.

However, it seems to me that if I can cut spam by 90% with a freeware
program, ISPs have the technology to do it before it ever gets to our
mail servers. And it shouldn't require any filtering...only bouncing
everything to 10+ addresses from the same sender. Legitimate senders who
want to send new baby announcements etc to half the world would still be
able to do it by just limiting 'em to batches of 9 at a time. Prob'ly
wouldn't be foolproof, but would get rid of 90% of spam...and have the
added benefit of clogging up the spammers' servers with their own junk
coming back to 'em.


Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://www.seaworthy.com/html/get_ri...oat_odors.html

....only bouncing
everything to 10+ addresses from the same sender. Legitimate senders who
want to send new baby announcements etc to half the world would still be
able to do it by just limiting 'em to batches of 9 at a time. Prob'ly
wouldn't be foolproof, but would get rid of 90% of spam...and have the
added benefit of clogging up the spammers' servers with their own junk
coming back to 'em.

Wouldn't the spammers just send in batches of 9?