Andrew
02-15-2005, 12:41 PM
Here is a great way to drastically reduce the amount of spam in your inbox. It utilizes Google's Gmail (http://gmail.google.com/) free Web-based email service.
Gmail is still classified as a "beta" and is invitation-only, but every member is now given 50 invites (http://news.com.com/Gmail+gearing+up+for+full+launch/2100-1024_3-5565885.html?part=rss&tag=5565885&subj=news.1024.5) to distribute. Millions of users and the power of a single spam database have made Gmail's spam filter one of the best. Gmail also offers POP3/SMTP access to the service. Combined, these provide a perfect method to utilize Gmail's powerful spam filtering on my primary email address--without the trouble and fuss of actually changing addresses. Here's how I did it.
Create a new Gmail account, using an invitation from one of my existing accounts.
In the "Forwarding and POP" tab of the "Settings" section, set the following:
Disable forwarding (default)
Enable POP for all mail
When messages are accessed with POP, archive Gmail's copy
Redirect your primary email account to your new Gmail account. Note that this usually requires administrative access to your mail server, or a friendly mail administrator; some ISPs may offer this feature in their Web mail interface.
Configure (http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=gmail&answer=12103) your email client (Here (http://forum.seo4india.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=43) are settings for Opera's M2 mail client).
Note that I am using my existing SMTP settings, and am only using Gmail for POP3.
Now mail coming in to your primary account is automatically bounced to your Gmail account, where the Gmail spam filters are applied. Then your mail client downloads your mail from Gmail to your local inbox, just like normal. Since you didn't change your outbound settings, replies and new mail you send are not affected.
I set this up last week and so far Gmail has filtered almost every spam message I would have received. There have been one or two false negatives (that is, spam marked as non-spam) per day, from a total spam load of about 150/day. That's spam I didn't download!
Log in to the new Gmail account once a week or once a month to check the spam folder. This is just to check for false positives--"good" messages which may have been filtered as spam. It won't happen often but it's worth checking once in a while to make sure. At this time you can also go into the "All Mail" folder and tag any false negatives as spam. Doing this improves the overall spam detection of the system.
Let me know if this works for you or if you have any refinements. See the link in my signature if you need a Gmail invitation.
Gmail is still classified as a "beta" and is invitation-only, but every member is now given 50 invites (http://news.com.com/Gmail+gearing+up+for+full+launch/2100-1024_3-5565885.html?part=rss&tag=5565885&subj=news.1024.5) to distribute. Millions of users and the power of a single spam database have made Gmail's spam filter one of the best. Gmail also offers POP3/SMTP access to the service. Combined, these provide a perfect method to utilize Gmail's powerful spam filtering on my primary email address--without the trouble and fuss of actually changing addresses. Here's how I did it.
Create a new Gmail account, using an invitation from one of my existing accounts.
In the "Forwarding and POP" tab of the "Settings" section, set the following:
Disable forwarding (default)
Enable POP for all mail
When messages are accessed with POP, archive Gmail's copy
Redirect your primary email account to your new Gmail account. Note that this usually requires administrative access to your mail server, or a friendly mail administrator; some ISPs may offer this feature in their Web mail interface.
Configure (http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=gmail&answer=12103) your email client (Here (http://forum.seo4india.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=43) are settings for Opera's M2 mail client).
Note that I am using my existing SMTP settings, and am only using Gmail for POP3.
Now mail coming in to your primary account is automatically bounced to your Gmail account, where the Gmail spam filters are applied. Then your mail client downloads your mail from Gmail to your local inbox, just like normal. Since you didn't change your outbound settings, replies and new mail you send are not affected.
I set this up last week and so far Gmail has filtered almost every spam message I would have received. There have been one or two false negatives (that is, spam marked as non-spam) per day, from a total spam load of about 150/day. That's spam I didn't download!
Log in to the new Gmail account once a week or once a month to check the spam folder. This is just to check for false positives--"good" messages which may have been filtered as spam. It won't happen often but it's worth checking once in a while to make sure. At this time you can also go into the "All Mail" folder and tag any false negatives as spam. Doing this improves the overall spam detection of the system.
Let me know if this works for you or if you have any refinements. See the link in my signature if you need a Gmail invitation.