Bradley Chapple, IT Consultant & Owner of Aspen Computer Services, Loveland Colorado

Every day advertisers are finding new ways to get into your e-mail Inbox. Most of them want to sell you something.  When doing this door-to-door, it’s called soliciting.  When doing this via e-mail, without a prior relationship with you (or without your permission), it’s called spam.

Why do they do it?

Why do these advertisers send out all of those messages?

They do it because it works.

If after sending out countless unsolicited e-mails, people didn’t buy anything… spammers would have stopped long ago and we would all be living much happier lives.

If advertisements were the only problem, it wouldn’t be quite as bad (although still very annoying).  But, the truth is that some spam messages can transmit viruses, Trojans, Rootkits, Hijackers or Spyware (collectively known as Malware) on to your computer and cause problems.

HOW TO AVOID SPAM MESSAGES IN THE FIRST PLACE

Although there is no way to completely avoid spam, there a few things that you can do to stay off the major spam lists that are floating around on the web.  The best piece of advice I can give you is NEVER EVER, EVER put your e-mail on a web site that will display your full e-mail address on the site.  Signing up for newsletters, or using it to purchase something is fine… but, posting your e-mail address in a way that it continues to be displayed on the page is not okay.

Here are a few tips to help you avoid getting spam in the first place…

• If you have a web site or home page, DON’T put your e-mail address on it… Instead, have your web programmer design a web form that LINKS to your e-mail.
• If you must put your e-mail on your website, use the Hive Enkoder at http://hivelogic.com/enkoder.  The Hive Enkoder will encrypt your e-mail in JaveScript to protect if from e-mail harvesting web bots.
• Don’t put your e-mail address on any of your social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.
• If you post to forums, don’t put your e-mail into the comment.  Blog comments are okay too, as long as you don’t put your e-mail into the comments box.
• If you already get some spam, don’t try to reply to the message.  Some spammers make their living by sending out to random addresses.  If the spammers actually get a reply, you have just verified that they have a live body at that address.
• Also, don’t hit the “unsubscibe” link in the bottom of spam messages.  It does the same thing that replying does.  It gives the spammers more incentive to e-mail you, and sell your address to others who will overwhelm your Inbox with advertisements.

If you already get a lot of spam, there is not much you can do to stop it.  You can, however, filter it.  Filtering e-mail means that you are categorizing the e-mail, much like you would your own post office mail…

“Bill… Bill… Junk Mail… Letter from Aunt Maggie… Bill… Junk Mail…”

Where does the junk mail go?  In the garbage, of course.  The same will apply for e-mail.  You are going to want to toss that spam and keep your Inbox clean!

The only problem is, spammers can be tricky.  Sometimes spam can look like a legitimate e-mail… and then sometimes, a real e-mail can look like spam.  So, you don’t want a spam filter that is goign to just delete anything that it “thinks” is spam.  You are going to want it set off to the side, in another folder… just in case.

Any good spam filter will do this.  Even the built in Outlook spam filter has a very rudimentary detection system that filters spam into another folder, down below your Inbox.  But, the built in spam filter isn’t very good.  It doesn’t detect and remove nearly enough spam messages to be effective.

And, THAT is the hardest part about picking out a spam filtering application.  Finding one that is accurate, without catching too much legitimate e-mail is very challenging.

There are 4 things to look for when picking out the best spam filter for your computer.

What are these 4 things?

• The best spam filter blocks e-mail that is known to be spam – Many companies have already created a list of known spam.  It is usually updated constantly and rapidly.  A good spam filter will use this information to keep your Inbox safe and clean.
• The best spam filter will block “sporn” – All good programs allow you to block a high percentage of spam pornography – called “sporn”.  Some will also filter out “adult” content e-mails or block adult oriented images. Some even have picture analysis and can detect and delete pornographic pictures before you see them.
• The best spam filter allows you to LABEL what you think is spam or not spam – YOU, and not the spam filter, should be the ultimate judge of what is spam and what is not. When you have absolutely no control over what you see and what gets tossed out, you could be missing a very important e-mail from a friend, family member, or co-worker.
• The best spam filter has a self-learning system - Great spam filters will be able to keep the pace with changes in the shady world of spamming. It will be able to adjust its perception of what spam is and is not, and raise or lower the bar when deemed appropriate.

Now that we know what the best spam filters will have, let’s move on to what we recommend here in our office.

Software Recommendations

Personally, I’ve used a lot spam filters.  I still have my very first Hotmail account, so over the course of 13+ years, I’ve gotton onto a lot of spammers’ lists.  That Hotmail Inbox is so overwhelmed with spam, that I HAVE to have something to help weed out the spam.

Because I’ve used a lot of spam filters, I know the best from the mediocre.  And, when I find a good piece of software that excels at what it does, I don’t hesitate to preach about it to anyone who will listen.  This is what I recommend to anyone who is ready to take back their Inboxes…

SPAMFighter

SPAMFighter is the way to go.

It works by using a very unique principle to reduce spam.  SPAMFighter’s claim is that it will reduce spam by over 90%.  This is actually better than what most spam filters actually rate, without getting a lot of good e-mails getting caught in the wide net.

I’ve been using SPAMFighter for years, and 90% is pretty accurate.  Basically, if you get 10 spam messages per day, you might see 1 slip through… maybe two on an off day.  If you get 100 spam messages per day, you will probably see around 10 or so slip through the cracks.

How does it work?

You see, when you download SPAMFighter, you join an online “community” of other SPAMFighter users. You never see these people. You never talk to them.  You don’t even know who they are. But, they help you identify and flag suspected spam messages.

Here’s an example: Say that Larry, Moe, Curly, and YOU were all using SPAMFighter.

If a spammer sends out roughly the same message to 100,000 people, chances are good that Larry, Moe, Curly and you are among that list of 100,000 people.

Larry might get the message and flag it as spam. Moe gets the message second and flags it as spam. Curly gets the message third and flags it as spam. At that point the SPAMFighter system would kick in and say, “OK. These three users of the Spam Fighter community flagged this message as spam, so it must really be spam.” So, when you open your Inbox, you will never see the message, because the SPAMFighter system blocked it, based on other people’s opinions of what is considered spam.

This simple concept behind SPAMFighter is amazing, and very effective. I love it when programmers can find ways to harness the collective intelligence of millions of internet users and utilize it for the common good.  It’s like letting the millions of Internet uses out there be the spam filter, each person contributing a tiny bit of the computing power.

If you want to give it a shot and see if it works for you, they have a fully functional trial of SPAMfighter Pro available for download.  Although the company provides a completely FREE “standard” version, I recommend the SPAMFighter PRO Edition because it provides better protection and doesn’t attach a SPAMfighter advertisement to your outgoing messages (that’s my only gripe with this program).  Besides, $29 is definitely a small price to pay for a cleaner inbox.

They have a Server Exchange Module, too.  I use this on a few of my clients’ Windows Server 2003 boxes.  I haven’t had a chance to test it on Server 2008 yet, but I probably will just any day.

Luke Sinden, IT Consultant, Loveland Colorado

“I need to buy my college student a laptop for the upcoming fall semester. What should I buy?”

A friend of the family asked me that the other day, and the question is a bit more complicated to answer today than it might have been in years past.

For one thing, you have the Apple products to take into consideration. Also consider how people despise Windows Vista, and whether Windows 7 will be legitimately better than Windows XP. But aside from choosing which platform and operating system to choose, you also should consider whether a netbook would be a better choice than a full sized laptop.

So let’s break some of these things down.

As for Windows 7, most of the hardware vendors will provide an upgrade path from Windows Vista. Sure, you’ll have to pay for it, but just about any hardware out today will be fine with the new operating system. In other words, you won’t need to buy an entirely new laptop or upgrade the RAM just to load Windows 7. But the larger question is whether it will be really any better than Vista. A good friend of mine has been running a pre-release version of Windows 7 on his laptop for a while and swears it is better. However, I have also seen it, and there are things I wasn’t so fond of, such as the naming convention for all the folders in My Documents. Microsoft made – in my opinion – a mess of the naming scheme. Moreover, a survey was just published indicating only about 60% of IT departments have any plans on the table to deploy Windows 7 (it’s coming out in October this year). So the answer to this is really convoluted. For most people Windows XP is still a perfectly functional operating system – beloved, even. Vista is kinda sucky, and “7” is not getting rave reviews yet, even if you can get a cheap upgrade.

As for the form factor question, I think netbooks are incredibly convenient. Your college student can throw it in a backpack and run off to class and take notes on the darned thing. How cool is that? The battery life will leave you wanting, and the cramped keyboards are a few of the issues you’ll need to keep in mind, though. And you’ll also probably need to fork out a few extra bucks for an external DVD drive (they will almost certainly be required to install some software for some class with a “progressive” professor who expects them to keep up with the times – sheesh!). But the benefit of a smaller screen is that they’ll be less likely to watch movies on it or play video games on it. They’ll be forced to go to a friend’s dorm room and play on the big screen TV. You can almost hear the complaints now: “How cumbersome my social life is, dad.” *sigh* So, the benefits of a netbook are pretty compelling, if you look at it in just the right light. Another compelling factor: most netbooks still ship with Windows XP. Bear in mind though that Windows 7 will change that, as “7” was designed to run well on netbooks. So hurry, while supplies last…

Finally, as for the Apple Mac question, we should take a moment to consider what a Mac really is. A Mac is an expensive, user-friendly UNIX computer. Without equivocation, a Mac computer is a well designed, stable creature. But that comes at a price. Furthermore, some websites are programmed with certain features that do not work on a Mac, and some programs simply won’t be compatible with the Mac OS. Period. There are hoards of Mac loyalists whose blood pressure just shot up when I mentioned that, and I understand their protestations. You can buy Microsoft Office for Mac (but the equivalent of Outlook, called Entourage, is crap), or you can set the Macbook up as a dual boot to load Windows if you really must (but you have to purchase a license for the Microsoft OS), or you can use a virtual machine (a program to run Windows as if it were an application loaded inside the Mac OS). Those are all fine options for people who are interested in fooling around with technology, or don’t have expectations in terms of productivity. But if you really want a machine that is going to do everything you need for a college degree program, you cannot – I repeat: cannot – guarantee that with a Mac. I love Apple to death and wouldn’t trade my iPhone for free Starbucks for a year. But I do not think productivity should be thrown under the bus for style and trend.

So keep those things in mind when you go to buy your college student a new laptop. Netbooks offer a great price point and you can still buy them with good ol’ Windows XP. But there’s a good likelihood that they’ll be interested in buying a new laptop within the next few years… or upgrading to “7”…Oh, and as for Linux, don’t even think about it unless your student already has considerable experience with Linux.