Archive for spam
A Look at Various Anti-Spam Packages
Posted by: | CommentsPerhaps it shows how ubiquitous the concept of unsolicited electronic communications is that we didn’t even have to define the word “spam” in the title of this article. In the 90′s it was common to explain to the reader that no, we didn’t mean the canned meat. Now it’s arguable that fewer people even know of that definition.
There is a entire cottage industry of anti-spam products out there. This type of software lends itself very well to factual, objective analysis. It is easily measurable how much it lets through that it should, and how much it doesn’t let through that it shouldn’t. There are other considerations, of course, so let’s go through a brief listing of some of the most frequently mentioned anti-spam software packages out there.
Cloudmark Desktop
We’ll start with the worst part about this package: not only is it fairly expensive, but it must be renewed annually. For a good package this can be seen as fair, given that the filters for a quality spam filter must keep rapid pace with the times, and all reports say that Cloudmark does exactly that. It’s easy to use with its drag and drop methods, easy on your system, and almost never blocks legitimate mail, though some spam does make it through on occasion. It uses ongoing feedback from a community of more than a million users to identify spam.
Spamfighter
Spamfighter gets high marks across the board from its user community. It is fantastic on both sides of the spam war, letting in almost none and blocking almost no real mail. It functions on the network level, meaning that it requires no training and is effective right out of the gate. The price of “free” is hard to beat, though that software (ironically?) places ads in outgoing email. Upgrading to Spamfighter Pro for $30/year takes care of that.
Mailwasher Pro
Mailwasher Pro has about the longest list of features of any of the software out there. Among these are Bayesian filter, image blocking (few software packages offer this), telephone support, and compatibility with just about every mail client in existence. It comes with a 90-day money back guarantee as well.
Spam Bully
Spam Bully is one of the best packages out there for giving you the information you need to combat spam. The user is given extensive information about every email they receive so that they know which rules are doing which. The overall effectiveness is also detailed to the user by graph. “Auto revenge” is also included as a feature whereby the spammer receives their mail back, though do note that there is some community debate over whether this practice is either effective or advisable.
There are many more antispam options out there, with a wide variety of features. Look for community reviews: this is one area in which there is a lot of user feedback for both the good and bad software packages, and they don’t appear shy about expressing their opinions about it. With some estimates saying that 75% all of email today is now spam, it’s hard to blame them.
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Spam Assassin – Your Savior From Spam
Posted by: | CommentsHow many times have you been put off by scores of spam mails when you open your email client, hoping to be able to find that elusive contract mail from a client? Website owners and administrators would vouch for the fact that there is hardly anything as irritating as being caught in a flood of spam mails. And when you are left battling it out without a complex spam avoiding and removing tool, the irritation heightens into sheer anger and frustration. Thankfully, cPanel takes care of your administrative troubles dealing with spam mails through the amazingly efficient and useful Spam Assassin.
All You Need To Know About Spam Assassin
The Spam Assassin is disabled by default, and you can find the option to activate it under the Mail Tab once you login to your cPanel. You click on the link and are then taken to the main customization page. This is where you are introduced to all the options and configuration tools that allow you to make the best use of the Spam Assassin. Hit the ‘Enable Spam Assassin’ button and strike the first nail in the coffin of all the future spam racing towards you. Check our Top 10 cPanel hosting for web hosts with Spam Assassin.
Who Decides the Strictness of the Spam Check?
You do. That is the whole point. By default, the Spam Assassin starts off at a strictness level of 5, and that is the medium level. Of course, you can change it to 8 or even 10. You may make these adjustments in case you wherein you feel that a strictness level of 5 would cause you to miss emails which were not spam and specifically intended to reach you.
Additionally, you have the option of configuring the Spam Assassin to either automatically delete any mail that is tagged as spam according to your set filters, or simply tag the suspected mails with the word SPAM in the beginning of the subject. If you choose the ‘Auto Delete Spam’ option, you can also have the spam mails moved to separate folder on your server. However, there is a slight downside with this method that you might have to consider. If you get unusually high spam mails, you would have to login to your cPanel more frequently than normal in order to get rid of the space occupied by the spam mails. However, on a whole, Spam Assassin is a wonderful anti spam tool that makes life a little easier for you.
Check Spam Assassin’s FAQ at http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.
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How to Conduct a Background Check for Web Hosting Providers
Posted by: | CommentsWith the explosion of web hosting providers emerging advertising free and unlimited features, it’s often a daunting task to opt for a legit provider that actually fulfills its promise to deliver reliable services. There are several proactive steps that you can take to ensure the web host that has caught your eye is actually worth your time and resources for perusing to manage your web hosting needs including:
- Carbon Dating Web Hosting Services – Ok, not exactly actually carbon dating that goes back over centuries, however, it’s important to perform a WHOIS lookup to obtain information on when the web host was initially purchased and how long it’s been in business.
- Verify the address of the web host. Again this step can be performed by a simple WHOIS lookup to discover the domain name.
- WHOIS Lookup – DNS Stuff grants users access to IP WHOIS lookup. This step allows you to locate the IP block and which data center is being utilized. Also use this option to ensure your respective hosting company isn’t in fact hosting a server from a home ISP connection.
- Ping – To assess the time it takes you to access your host simply bring up the DOS, and then type “ping DomainNameofHost”. In return you’ll receive a specific number which can be compared to various other hosts. Additionally, it’s possible to inquire from the host to obtain the URL of a test file to verify download speed.
- Monitor traffic and growth potential. Alexa is a vital tool for keeping track of traffic patterns. Simply by visiting the website and typing in a specific address, you can easily obtain a general estimate on current and potential future traffic.
- Reviewing older web pages – Wayback Machine is an essential tool for accessing any older web pages from the hosting provider as well as if the domain name was used for other purposes.
- Spam Check – Although it’s rare, but often your hosting provider may be included on a spam list. It’s very important to check to see if your web host is listed on a spam list, if so, you should opt for another web hosting provider.
While there are numerous of other ways to perform a background check of your own, the above points are excellent suggestions to serve as a general benchmark to weed out the shady web hosts from the more trusty-worthy and reliable web hosting providers.
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The Release of the February 2011 Email Security Report
Posted by: | CommentsThe February 2011 “Email Security Report” was recently released by German email security firm eleven. The report highlights a temporary decline in spam toward the end of 2010 accompanied by the rise of virus outbreaks and botnet infrastructures. In the history of spamming, since 2003, there has never been such an extreme fluctuation in spam volumes as witnessed in December 2010 and January 2011.
On December 25th, 2010, spam volumes were reported to decrease by 80 percent, remaining at that level until January 10th, 2011. On this date, spam volume significantly rose six-fold reaching the levels prior to December 25th. Simultaneously, the quantity of virus outbreaks rapidly increased indicating some type of collaboration.
The company states in the report these two events (spam and virus outbreaks) are related and the decrease is likely to be planned by the spamming community. Spammers took the time between these two dates to rebuild botnet infrastructures while replacing lost capacities. This defends these individuals from external factors. In turn, this task was accomplished by sending massive quantities of new virus, trying to infect as many computers and servers as possible.
Prior to the Christmas holiday, spamit.com was terminated while many botnets were eradicated. This is said to be a contributing factor to the major dip in spam. Other trends were reported including:
- The US is the leading source with 11 percent of the world’s spam
- Brazil produces 8 percent
- India and Russia share 7 percent
- Germany outputs 4 percent
In addition to the drastic increase of spamming and virus outbreaks following this break in nefarious activity, the report also stated that malware levels increased by 21.5 percent in the month of January. Therefore, these three malicious activities are unlikely to be coincidental. It is more logical that this was a planned event intended to rebuild and then release a significant amount of malevolent activity on the world.
This report is a vital aspect of the internet community. These statistics prove that there are many individuals or groups collaborating to wreak havoc on internet users. It seems with the shutdown of major components that are the source of spamming, viruses and malware, the attacks increase greatly as a result. It is unlikely spam, viruses and malware will ever completely be eradicated as there is always an expert out there looking to cause problems across the globe.
The Disadvantages Associated With POP3 Email
Posted by: | CommentsThere are many advantages that make the POP3 email platform attractive to email clients. This is the most common and popular email platform but is becoming outdated. Therefore, an update needs to be released in order to keep pace with ever-increasing technology.
Along with the many great features we have seen over the years from the POP3 email platform, there are a few noteworthy disadvantages including,
- Opening attachments
- JavaScript issues
- Corrupt email folders
- Disappearing of privacy
- Potential for infection
- Consumption of resources
- Downloading large files
While opening attachments within an email client that utilizes this platform is a quick and simplified process, the efficiency slows down greatly when the attached file contains a virus payload. Another disadvantage is the potential for JavaScript issues. If enabled in your email reader, you could be the target of a nuisance JavaScript file embedded in your email. This can cause computer issues and create a security hole.
Additionally, email folders can sometimes become corrupt and lost along with all the emails in that folder. Recovery can be an arduous task and may not always be an option. Furthermore, since POP3 uses your local hard drive to store messages, your privacy disappears when someone sits down at your computer. Even if the email reader contains a password, an individual that knows what they are doing can find other ways to access these folders and read your emails.
Also, your locally stored email files are subject to viruses that may be embedded in your machine by other means. Using an effective virus scanner will help with this issue but is only effective on 60 percent of emails being sent to other recipients. Additionally, after a while, these emails will collect (if not properly maintained) and begin to eat up valuable system resources like storage space.
Finally, the POP3 email system is set to download attachments one at a time. Therefore, messages sent with large files can take a great deal of time to download resulting in an unmanageable, counterproductive system. Utilizing mobile devices and dialup connections can cause even greater frustration and difficulty.
Despite the many advantages developed over the years, the disadvantages seem to have gone overlooked. Therefore, POP3 needs a vast update or overhaul in order to keep up with the demands of modern technology. There are other platforms in the works that will fix the shortcomings of the POP3 email platform.
3 Tips for Preventing Excessive Hosting Spam
Posted by: | CommentsSpam is perhaps one of the most hated terms on the internet, and this is not surprising, considering how many people lose hours of work each day in an effort to prevent and eliminate spam form their inboxes and web sites. Conventional email spam is bad enough, however there is another type of spam that is even more annoying – web hosting spam. This type of spam usually plagues your web site in the form of user comments, repetitive user posts, and an overwhelming amount of junk emails via your site’s “contact us” form. Unfortunately, this type of spam is much more difficult to prevent than conventional email spam, which can be combated with a simple spam folder and a blacklist. The following tips can help you overcome web hosting spam and keep your web site free from this type of spam.
Preventing Spam Comments
There are many webmasters that will attempt to build backlinks to their web site by leaving spam comments on your pages automatically with the help of automated software. To prevent such spam attacks you will need to make sure you are actively monitoring your site comments, as well as utilizing anti-spam tools within your web hosting control panel. All modern web hosting accounts have anti-spam utilities such as Spam Hammer that will let you set filters and prevent comments that may be easily identified as spam. For example, you can create a filter to prevent comments form containing links, which would greatly eliminate spam by discouraging spammers form leaving links on your site.
Securing Contact Forms
Some spammers will spam your web site’s contact form, sending automated emails repeatedly to overload your inbox and make your job as a webmaster difficult. This is often done by the competition, so it is very important to make sure measures are taken to prevent such spam attacks as quickly as possible, especially if you have an eCommerce site or a site that advertises your services, as you will need to be able to respond to customer and client inquiries. Fortunately, you can set filters and limits within your web hosting control panel that will keep a single IP address form sending too many emails in a row. This will greatly reduce the amount of spam emails you’ll receive.
Using Captcha Images
One of the best ways to deter spammers is through the use of Captcha forms that will prevent spammers from using automated software to attack your web site with spam. Captcha forms are basically images that contain letters and numbers that are difficult to read, and nearly impossible for a software to decipher. Thus, using Captcha forms on your web site will greatly reduce the amount of automated spam on your web site. Since spammers will no longer be able to use automated bots to fill in forms, create user accounts, and post content on your site, you will be eliminating the majority of web hosting spam.