Does such a thing exist? Is it even possible?

[vvaannmmaann]

Is there a programme to totally eradicte Spam? I know about firewalls etc,but stuff still gets through.So is there a programme whereby Spam can be "dragged and dropped" into so it destroyed,and more importantly,not allowed back into my computer?

[Stationery-Direct]

If you use Microsoft Outlook, spam bayes (http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/) works REALLY well.

[Place of design]

Is there a programme to totally eradicte Spam? I know about firewalls etc,but stuff still gets through.So is there a programme whereby Spam can be "dragged and dropped" into so it destroyed,and more importantly,not allowed back into my computer?

yes and no

The real issue is you are not sending the spam, some scum bag is - meaning you are not in control of it

With out "human filtering" you will never eradicate all of it

Heavily filtering spam is not the answer either
real example: I have a frind who sells pharmacuetical products to South america. He gets an email "how much to supply 1 tonne of the sex hormone Oestreogen"? his spam filter deletes it, he lost the customer. It came to light, because the customer said to him at a trade fair "i wanted to give you the work, you never responded to my e-mails"

You are thus in a position of "taking the most sensible approach"
1. dont publish your e-mail address anywhere
2. use a honey pot email address for online activities which you ignore in the main
3. filter spam on your machine, and electivley delete it when your want to
4. on your website, use a form, rather than publishing your e-mail address
5. speak to your isp

1. publishing your e-mail address: basically programs are set up to filter e-mail addresses out of webpages, forum postings etc. dont put it online, and your address wont be harvested, thus reducing spam

2. honeypot e-mail - use a second "junk" account, which you use when you leave your e-mail address anywhere online (like when you fill in a form" or register for something. You can then go check that mail when you need to, keeping your main e-mail address free

3. get a good spam filter, we use spam fighter http://www.spamfighter.com
Spam is filtered into a spam folder, which i flick through to check if it miss-placed a good email in perodically. Best thing with this is it is really easy to decide that somthing that has arrived in your inbox is spam - you just click the button, from that point onwards, those messages frm that source are filted into the spam folder

4. if you have a website, using a form, rather than putting yoru e-mail address on stops the programs that harvest e-mails collecting your e-mail address. This isnt a perfect soloution, because nowadays, the spamming scumbags, have programs that jsut fill the forms in and send you spam from your own webform. there are ways arround that. One of my customers gets 2 "hand filled in" spams a day from her site nothing you can do to stop that

5. your isp may be able to filter the "vey bad spam" on the server, preventing it from getting to you. This is good, but be prepared to loose the odd mail

TACTIC: use a very private e-mail address for the very important people you deal with, and never, ever publish it anywhere

[MartCactus]

Is there a programme to totally eradicte Spam? I know about firewalls etc,but stuff still gets through.So is there a programme whereby Spam can be "dragged and dropped" into so it destroyed,and more importantly,not allowed back into my computer?

Will never get rid of spam entirely.

But we found switching to google mail for organisations eliminates 99% or more of it. I used to get 50 spams a day, now I get one or two a week, and very rarely see a good message lost in my spam bin.

Lots of other benefits too, and its free assuming you don't need hundreds of pop boxes.

[Tin]

I've been using Mailwasher (http://www.mailwasher.net/) for years. It's installed on your pc and lets you see the emails that are waiting on your server before you actually download them. You can 'mark' whichever emails you deem as spam and the tolls learns along the way. Mailwasher can auto delete the emails you've marked as spam from the server for you without you having to even see them.

You're never going to be rid of spam but the software does the best job of auto managing spam that I've come across.

Hope that helps.

Ray

[crossdaz]

Will never get rid of spam entirely.

But we found switching to google mail for organisations eliminates 99% or more of it. I used to get 50 spams a day, now I get one or two a week, and very rarely see a good message lost in my spam bin.

Lots of other benefits too, and its free assuming you don't need hundreds of pop boxes.

I'd second this. On one account I can 50 spam emails in an hour so I re-directed to gmail.
The spam still comes through but google efficiently divert it to the spam folder. A brief glance to confim and one click to delete.
So far I've only had one message incorrectly filtered and that was because they had copied and pasted the contents of a spam email in the body text.

You can also set messages to go out as your own email address.

[Chris H]

There is a system known as challenge/response that claims to be 100% effective.

Basically when someone sends you an email, if they aren't in your whitelist then they get an email automatically sent to them usually asking them to fill in a captcha or something like that. Once this gets received correctly then the original email is allowed through and you have the option of adding them to the whitelist. All this happens without your interaction so for the receiver of emails it can be a good thing.

The claimed downside is that it's an extra step for someone to get in touch with you, it can put people off contacting you etc.

I did use a client called choicemail a few years ago and I have to say this type of system worked 100% for me.

Most people prefer to use traditional email filters though.

[stugster]

Is there a programme to totally eradicte Spam? I know about firewalls etc,


Hi mate,

A firewall stops unauthorised access from outside IP addresses, it wont really stop spam unless you've got a stateful packet inspection firewall in place - and I'm guessing that's not what you're talking about.

The key to combating spam is having the correct strength algorithm filtering your email. There's loads of fantastic software available for you to use server-side or client-side.

Can your webhost not help?

[WillowJim]

Hi there,

We provide a managed anti spam service that stops 95% of it before it hits your mailboxes. We also provide a daily report of what has been blocked to make sure you do not miss anything important. If you would like me to have a chat to you about it, PM me with your contact details and I will give you a call.