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How can I reduce spam in my inbox? (Spam is also known as unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE)) |
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The first
item to look at, has your email address been harvested? Refer to this
page which discusses how people get
your email address. Stop handing out your email address with every online
survey you fill in. Make sure you do not have any Malware on your
workstation. Confirm your email address is not listed on any website. (If
you need it to be listed, consider using terms like "myname [at] domain [dot] com"
so people can still work out your email address or alternatively consider attaching it to the site as
an image file containing text). You will fall into either of two categories. No server You are relying on your
Internet provider Email program Antivirus other software application
specific to Spam filtering External services (Usually
expensive) Many internet providers
offer Spam filtering when you sign up. You might like to look into on of
these services. If you are using an email
client
like Outlook 2003/2007 (Office 2003/2007) you have a junk email feature. This updates
descriptions of spam from Microsoft when you auto update your system with
patches. Other programs like Outlook XP or Outlook Express do not have such
junk features. The best you can do is use email rules. These get out of hand
quickly as Spam subjects and sender names frequently change. Most antivirus now plugs
into Email systems and check both what you are sending and what you are
receiving. This allows you to know you do not have a Malware sending out
emails using your email client and helps reduce incoming spam.
Trend Micro Internet Security is one
such great product. There are third party
solutions like Mail washer ,
Spam Assassin and many more.
Here is a link
to a number of such products.
There are also internet based solutions like
message labs and
hardware/firewall devices. These tend to cost more than home or Soho Users
can afford.
Note: These suggestions are general in nature and
only deal with Microsoft Desktop Operating Systems. If you run a Linux,
Macintosh, BEOS, Palm or other software, I have not included solutions for
you here.
Server
based
In a server based solution you will either
rely on the server to reduce spam or the desktop solution state above.
If you have Linux servers, you will need to
seek advice from an alternative source. The only experience I have with
Linux is Sendmail and custom Perl Scripts.
If you have a Novell, OS/2, Bayan, SCO, HP-UX or
AS400 solution, you need to speak with your IT support team for advice.
Microsoft based servers
If you are running NT4 or earlier version, I
can not give you advice. There is nothing I know of that will help
you reduce spam. This includes Exchange 5 and 5.5.
If you are running Windows 2003 server with
the built in IIS web server pop/SMTP email or an email package alternative to
Microsoft Exchange (Lotus notes, GroupWise etc) I have not provided a
solution for you here.
Microsoft Exchange Based servers
If you are running Exchange 2000 on Windows
2000 Server with your MX pointed to the server (and not bounced to a pop
account on your ISP) you will need to rely on your Antivirus Most antivirus now plugs
either into your Email system or clients client software and will check both what you are sending and what you are
receiving. This allows you to know you do not have a Malware sending out
emails using your email client and helps reduce incoming spam.
Trend Micro Internet Security is one
such great product. The Trend Micro and Symantec enterprise software will do
this for you. There are third party
solutions like
Mail washer ,
Spam Assassin and many more.
There are also internet based solutions like
message labs and
hardware/firewall devices.
You will get limited benefit by upgrading the
users workstations to Outlook 2003/2007 and using it's junk email filters.
If you are running Exchange 2003 on Windows
2000 Server with your MX pointed to the server (and not bounced to a pop
account on your ISP) you have
many options. You have the possible solutions as listed above (antivirus,
third party ISP solutions etc) and in addition, solutions built into the
email system.
Upgrade your Exchange 2003 to
Service Pack 2. You now have Tar pitting Intelligent
mail filter Recipient filtering Sender ID Other
Tar pitting is the practice of
deliberately inserting a delay into certain SMTP communications that are
associated with spam or with other unwanted traffic. To be effective, these
kinds of spam communications typically rely on generating a high volume of
traffic. By slowing an SMTP conversation, you can dramatically reduce the
rate at which automated spam can be sent or at which a dictionary attack can
be conducted. Legitimate traffic may also be slowed by tar pitting.
Eventually the spammer will need to go elsewhere if they want to get their
spam distributed.
Sender ID Exchange Server 2003 SP2
delivers Sender ID filtering technology, which primarily targets forgery of
e-mail addresses. The elimination of spoofed mail
will immediately cause a significant reduction of mail traffic into your
Exchange server. Enabling the Sender ID filter can allow you to achieve
approximately 10 percent net increase in spam capture before mail is
transmitted to Exchange Intelligent Message Filter for additional anti-spam
processing. Stopping spoofed mail at the gateway is important because the
reduction of mail traffic into the Exchange organization reduces bandwidth
consumption and eliminates the overhead of processing these messages in the
internal mail infrastructure.
The other items you can configure
are things like limit the amount of sessions from each email sending IP
address, limit the number of recipients per email, limit the attachments (or
remove them as in SBS 2003).
Exchange 2003 also works with
Outlook 2003/2007 and enhances the junk email filter.
On top of this, an email solution
from Trend Micro like IMSS and Scanmail reduces spam even further. Help make this article easy to find for others.
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