| Web-based mail is often the best for fighting spam
Q: I'd like to know if there's something I can do to limit the amount of junk e-mail I get in Outlook Express. Each day, I receive dozens of messages offering everything from cheap mortgages to Viagra. [Podcast: James Kim on Sub-$50 MP3 players and the next gen Slingboxes. Also, David Einstein on standalone DSL service. ] A: You probably can't completely eradicate junk mail (also known as spam), but you can do a reasonable job of keeping it in check. If you use Outlook Express, you can create a "blocked senders list" by going to Message Rules in the Tools menu. You also can get anti-spam software. Popular programs include SpamBully ($29.95 from spambully.com), iHateSpam ($19.95 from sunbelt-software.com) and Cloudmark Desktop ($39.95 from cloudmark.com). SpamBully may have the edge because it doesn't charge for annual subscriptions to updated filter lists.
Norton Internet Security 2007
With so many companies now offering free protection against internet-based security threats, there are only a couple of reasons why you might want to fork out for software: complete security and a simple-to-manage package. Can the latest version of Norton Internet Security make the grade? Features We're well used to seeing security suites combine firewalls and anti-virus software to protect us, and Norton adds some more recent problems to its books, such as phishing, pharming and rootkits. However, it's what it leaves out that's most telling: no anti-spam, no internet filtering and no built-in back-up software. These can be purchased from Symantec separately, but to our minds that defeats the object of a security suite. Performance Symantec's record speaks for itself, and the company continues to have a virtually unblemished history of picking up viruses and other internet problems, and dealing with them before they have a chance to cause problems to the general public.
Strategies For Preventing Comment Spam
Bloggers are painfully aware of website owners who try to improve their websites rank by adding links to blogs. There are several strategies for combating this problem.
The first and most obvious method is to avoid free blogger sites. These are favorite targets for comment spam.
Bloggers who own their own software can add a no-follow tag. The rel=nofollow tag does not stop the spam, but it does stop robots from following the link. Blogger, owned by Google, implements these tags already. Wordpress has anti-comment spam plug-ins to help bloggers stop comment spam.
Do not bother banning the IP address - unplugging a computer for one hour can change the IP address, and changing a servers IP address is relatively easy. Some companies buy IP addresses in blocks of a hundred or more, and spammers also use open proxies.
PowerMail 5.5 comes to Intel Macs
CTM Development has released PowerMail 5.5, bringing native compatibility for Intel-based Macs to the anti-spam email software as a Universal Binary. PowerMail features enhanced filtering mechanisms which include a spam filter assistant and close integration of SpamSieve. The update includes the most recent Universal Binary version of SpamSieve, and Core searching includes the latest optimizations shared with FoxTrot 1.1 Personal Search. PowerMail 5.5 supports zip compression to replace the prior third-party solution, and can attach applications as well as other file packages to a message from the "add attachment" button or menu. The update is free for PowerMail 5 owners, e30 for PowerMail 3/4 owners or e45 with SpamSieve, and e50 for new users. PowerMail requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. The latest version of PowerMail fixes a bug where copying an email address from an address book contact window could fail, and fixes a crash that could occur when scrolling through certain HTML messages using a scroll-wheel.
Intermedia.NET Offers Free Upgrade
Features include unified messaging, integrating voicemail, instant messages and email together with antivirus, anti-spam and clustering. Intermedia.NET, a web hosting provider, announced on Monday that it is providing all its Microsoft Exchange hosting customers with free upgrades to Exchange 2007 following the release of the software.
According to the company, the version of Exchange will offer features including unified messaging, integrating voicemail, instant messages and email together with antivirus, anti-spam and clustering. "Our pledge is an important one, as it demonstrates both our market and technological leadership, as well as our commitment to offer customers the very best in hosted Exchange service," says Serguei Sofinski, CEO of Intermedia.
Fred opens the floodgates - a look at the anti-virus market
In this special security supplement we take a look at the growth of computer viruses and the ever-expanding industry intent on combating the threats they pose.
In 1983, Fred Cohen, a US student, created the first computer virus whilst studying for his PhD at the University of Southern California. He described a virus as 'a program that can 'infect' other programs by modifying them to include a. version of itself'. The virus hid inside a graphics program called VD and used the permissions users had to look at other parts of the computer to spread around the system. In all of the tests Cohen carried out, the virus managed to gain the right to reach any part of the system in anything between five minutes and an hour. They were then able to transfer to other computers via floppy disks.
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