90. Configure Outlook Express Rules
The Outlook Express email client provides only minimal spam protection by itself, because you have to create the rules that move the spam from your Inbox to a specified folder or to the trash. But the spam protection provided by Outlook Express rules is better than no protection at all, and you should be aware of how to configure email rules or block senders. For more complete protection against spam, you might want to purchase a spam blocker program. There are a number available. Some antivirus software such as Computer Associates's EZ AntiVirus also offers spam protection such as EZ Anti-Spam, which provides spam protection for Outlook Express and Outlook. One of the best antispam products on the market is Mail Frontier Desktop, which provides antispam and antiphishing capabilities to Microsoft Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook. Note In the Windows environment, Outlook Express and Outlook are the two most commonly used email clients. So, you will find that most antispam products are designed to work with these two Microsoft email clients. Products such as Mail Frontier Desktop also use a set of rules to identify and deal with spam, such as moving it to a special spam folder. Because spam products such as Mail Frontier Desktop are updated periodically with new rules and also have the ability to learn from your interaction with your email (you can add blocked senders and also specify mail as being spam), spam is actually dealt with more effectively the longer you use the antispam product. Tip Devising rules that will help cut down on spam email is an ongoing process. Take a look at the spam you receive and determine whether certain words are consistently used in this message that you do not necessarily see in regular email. You can then use these words as a way to construct a rule to negate that particular type of spam. However, spammers are pretty smart; they will misspell keywords to keep antispam rules and antispam software from flagging a message as spam. So, although you can never stop all the spam, occasionally revising your message rules can help to keep some of the annoying clutter out of your email inbox. In terms of general rules related to spam, I suggest that you never open email attachments from senders you do not know. Also, never respond to a spam email, particularly to remove your email from their sender's list. In many cases, spam is sent as a domainwide message, and you receive it because it blankets all the email addresses in a particular domain. Answering that spam message places your email address on their list, which only leads to more spam. Configure Outlook Express Rules
Note The blocked sender list won't necessarily cut down on spam because spammers don't typically use the same sender address over and over again. They "spoof" any number of sending addresses so that you really don't know where the email is coming from. However, blocking senders can stop marketing or advertising email from some solicitors and companies that use a consistent email address or domain name to send out email advertisements. Having the capability of blocking certain senders is better than not having the capability at all. |