Tips & Tricks-October 2002

Spam-I Hate It, I Hate It, I Hate It

There are few things in our computing lives more annoying than SPAM email messages-the cockroaches of the computing world. They are almost everywhere and difficult to get rid of once you find them.

A number of anti-spam sites and software are available to help out, but since I haven't had time to review them all, here are a few tips to make it harder for spammers to find you in the first place.

Filters

Most browsers have filtering built in. In Outlook Express, you can select Tools, Message, Rules and Mail. Then follow the instructions. Think of words that might appear in the subject line of your emails such as "Free," "Hot," "Naked," "Money" and whatever you see being used on the spam you've been receiving. Create a folder to contain the spam and configure the filter to move the message to that specific. You will still have to check to see if it really is Spam or your Aunt Mildred sending you the latest round of jokes (almost as bad as Spam).

In Outlook select Tools and Rules Wizard to set the rules. In Netscape, select Edit, Message Filters. Then follow the dialog boxes.

If you are using an Internet Email account, such as Hotmail, enable the junk mail filtering and designate SPAM to be blocked by clicking on the "block" button when you receive a message you know you don't want.

Avoid Email Offers on Web Sites

Almost every site that sells a product offers you an opportunity to receive email notices about upcoming products or services. Unless you are absolutely positive you want the mail, don't check the box or forget to uncheck the box. Sometimes these folks can be very tricky-you may have to check a box to opt out. The sites with better privacy policies ask you to opt in.

Get an Alternate Address

There are many sources for free email accounts, such as Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. Sign up for an account and use that address for all the web site requests. I use a Hotmail account whenever I purchase something so most commercial email goes there instead into my home account.

Personal Web Sites

If you put your email address on your personal website, it will be "harvested" by bots that gather addresses. I had a site with an email address on it and in the space of about 18 months I received more than 3,500 spams, ranging from Viagra offers to the Nigerian bank scam (I'm still getting those-they found me again somehow. After switching ISPs, that volume decreased to less than one per day.

Avoid seeing offensive material

Turn off your preview pane. Then you can look at the subject and sender before viewing the really obnoxious stuff. This also helps when you receive a very large message. You won't have to wait so long for a download.

You will not stop all the spam using these techniques but it helps. With Hotmail you may have to learn to live with it-the spammers are there big time. Blocking the SPAM using Hotmail's block button has two problems:

a. The number of blocks you can do is limited to 250. (Ask me how I know.)
b. The spammers I see there either jump from ISP to ISP (or use fake return addresses) or they simply modify a few characters in the address. One particularly obnoxious set comes from an address that looks like
"offers@8e0pgt1o1xpbdy4a1k6upv0m8sho0.u.directoffers.net"
That address is impossible to block because the next one will come with a few changed characters.

I don't have a clue as to what will solve the SPAM problem. Legislation probably will be about as effective as it was for stopping junk faxes, but may be the only route-at least if enforceable penalties are included.

Windows XP Activation

This tip is from Smart Computing's "Troubleshooting Windows."

As everyone knows by now, Windows XP usually requires that you "activate" the system by connecting to the Internet or calling Microsoft. (Some systems with WinXP preinstalled will not require activation.)

If you change components on your computer, you may have to re-activate WinXP. WinXP looks at 10 components of your system when you start up to determine if you have to activate. You can change six of the ten components within a 120 day period with triggering activation. The system resets itself to zero every 120 days. Enough suspense-the components are:

1. Display Adapter
2. SCSI Adapter
3. IDE Adapter
4. Network Adapter
5. RAM amount range
6. Processor Type
7. Processor serial number
8. Hard Drive
9. Hard Drive Volume Serial Number
10. CD-ROM/CDRW or DVD-ROM

You can almost rebuild your computer without triggering the activation.

Until next time, keep stomping those cockroaches.