In
this article we discuss who you
can look to for email spam help.
(article 2)
So here we sit, on the brink of
another exciting installment of
how to deal with spam, waiting in
earnest for more ammo for the upcoming
battles. So far we have covered
the basics of this email muck, we
definitely know who our enemy is…
it’s that hunched over one-eyed,
crooked toothed, drooling, dead
beat with bad body odor. (I like
to envision spammers this way as
it helps me reconcile what they
do to everyone else) But do we have
any allies? Do we have anyone that
we can unite with and sound our
war horns together with? Well, do
you use the internet? (It’s
rhetorical question, we will just
assume someone didn’t print
this article and hand it to you).
So maybe for your first ally, you
need look no further than your very
own ISP…
Maybe, and then again, maybe not.
What can your ISP do to help? Many
of the providers out there would
desperately like to close the spam
flood gates. For them it causes
bandwidth constraints, help desk
calls, angry users, server outages
and security issues. With all this
in mind one would think that anti
spam programs would be top priority
for providers. Unfortunately, it
is not always just that easy. Server
based spam filtering is extremely
resource intensive; add to the this
the cost of server based spam software
and it becomes a true challenge
for smaller ISPs to effectively
implement spam blocking software.
To make things even harder for these
email administrators, they have
to make doubly sure that no matter
what spam emails they drop, that
personal and solicited emails make
it through the system unadulterated.
A single inaccurately dropped email
can cost an Internet provider several
man hours in tracking down and retrieving.
That is assuming their system affords
them this ability, which many don’t.
Although there are many things ISPs
cannot do, there are some somewhat
effective things they can.
Isn’t caller ID the greatest?
Don’t we sometimes let the
phone just ring when we know its
someone we don’t want to talk
to? No Mom, I swear I would never
ignore your call ? Wouldn’t
it be great if we could use caller
ID when spammers come calling? Well
strangely enough, we can, to some
degree. You see whenever a server
sends an email to another server,
one of the first things it says
is ‘helo’… No,
that’s not a typo and yes
they really do say it. What is more,
servers can be made to say ‘helo
xyz.com’ which is mail server
talk for “hello I am xyz.com”.
Now, if a spammer is using an email
server we know is guilty of spamming,
it can be put in our “Black
List”, that is the list of
servers that we will chose to ignore.
Now we can make our nifty little
mail server check this list every
time before accepting mail. So why
would they ever announce themselves
you ask? Well, the receiving mail
servers can be configured to require
the sending mail servers to identify
themselves. This is a nice anti-spam
trick that does help some. Unfortunately,
we can’t always trust what
people say these days, that’s
why receiving mail servers can also
be configured to go the extra mile
and “check the caller ID”
by performing what is called a reverse
DNS lookup. This lookup can sometimes
backfire… How many times has
your called ID said “Out of
area” or “Unidentified
Caller”. Well, reverse DNS
lookups can return similar results.
And of course the problem is, if
I always accept mail from unknown
mail servers, spammers will get
wind of it and make sure their servers
come up as “unknown”.
And if you always drop mail from
unknown servers, you run a chance
of dropping legitimate email.
At the very least you should be
aware of what your ISP is doing
to help prevent SPAM. Ask they what
their policy, find out if they use
Reverse DNS lookups. Check if they
subscribe to an Internet based “Black
List”. They might not be able
to do a lot, but even if they drop
3 messages a day it helps, because
then you will only have 97 more
to delete. However, if your ISP
offers a spam protection service
for a fee, be wary. Ask questions
like “What is the percentage
of false positives”, i.e.
what is the likely hood that they
will drop valid messages. Where
does the junk mail go? In case they
do drop something important. Also
make sure they have a “White
List” option. This is in case
they detect your subscription to
CNN.com as spam, you can “White
List” CNN.com and the system
will let the mail pass even though
it is detected as spam. In short,
your ISP maybe able to help with
spam but it is unlikely they will
be your only solution. Next time
we will be discussing the even uglier
side of spam and why you need to
protect yourself from it.
Until then, remember to have fun
and take care.
Find
Email Spam Help with our Spam Blocking
Software - Click Here
Back
to Articles Home
