Features And Benefits Of Anti-Spam Software

The best anti-spam software is the one that gives you your privacy. Ideally, an anti-spam device should be the one that delivers only the emails you want, and blocks 100 percent of the emails you do not want. This, though, is never going to be possible. Spammers are always one step ahead, and the manufacturers of anti-spam filter tries to catch up.

Most anti-spam solution can be customized to your needs, and only the approved emails come into your inbox. Such software always presumes that all the incoming emails are spam, and only allow those, from the people you know, to come in.

Benefits of Anti Spam Software

Let us look at some of the benefits and features of anti-spam software:

• Blocking Spam - Certain anti-spam solutions not only block specific email addresses, but also look for subject lines and text in the email messages. You can arrange to block incoming emails based on senders, and also if your email address is not in the recipient field.
• Automatic Filter Updates - Most software programs for filtering Spam come with hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of filters built in. In addition, companies offering these software release new anti-spam filters regularly. This ensures that your anti-spam software is always up-to-date.
• Creating Custom Filters - Some anti-spam programs allow you to create your own filters, depending on the spam you receive.
• Quarantining Spam -
• Anti-spam filters automatically quarantine the spam emails, ensuring your inbox is spam free. Such quarantined emails are held for a fixed number of days, say 30 days or so, and then dumped. The delay allows you to check and recover any legitimate email that may have been quarantined.
• Your Personal Whitelist - A feature in certain anti-spam software allows you to maintain a 'friendly' list of people whose emails you wish to accept. These emails are never mistaken for spam as against the blacklist of spammers. You can always update your 'whitelist', as and when you wish to.
• Monitoring Multiple Accounts - Other than deleting spam from your email account, this feature allows you to monitor and filter your email from multiple accounts. It allows you to filter your home email from work, and vice versa.
• Reporting Spam - There is an option in certain anti-spam software to report back to the company supplying the program. This allows the companies to develop new filters based on the analysis of the reported spam.

Some anti-spam software allow you to block attachments. Certain executable attachments could damage your computer.

Emails have become a very popular way of advertising, and it is time that you start filtering your emails, to avoid spam. Most software available can be customized to suit your requirements, whether they are the home or the business versions. A variety of anti-spam software is available from a number of online sources.

By: ArvindSingh

What Is Anti-Spam Software

Before we learn about anti-spam software, we need to first know what is spam. To put it succinctly, spam is unsolicited and unwanted email. Other names for spam are Unsolicited Bulk Mail, Excessive Multi-Posting, and Unsolicited Commercial email, in addition to the more common - spam mail, bulk email or just junk mail. The advent of email brought in an era of instant communication, where information reaches our desktops, at negligible cost, and in no time at all, from across the globe.

Along with the benefits, came the negative aspects of email. For the multitudes of marketing hawks out there, this was an opportunity to send unsolicited promotions of their products, instantly, and at a very low cost. Today, spam has reached such monumental proportions that 10 out of every 13 emails (76.9%) we receive are spam, one way or the other. This is why anti-Spam filter has become a must have software for almost all PC users.

Stopping Spam

Simply put, anti-spam software helps detect spam. It is a software program that detects unsolicited and unwanted e-mail, and prevents them from reaching your inbox.

Anti-Spam software is also known by many different names, such as: Spam Filters, Email Spam Filtering, Spam Blocking Software, Anti-Spam Filter, Spam Filtering Software, Spam Blockers, Bayesian Filters, and Anti-Spam, among many others.

Anti-spam software is installed in your machine to divert the spam coming in. If installed in the mail server, you will never receive the spam, to begin with. The filtering is configured based on a number of criteria. These could be specific words in the subject line, in the body of the message, and the type of attachments accompanying the mail. You could arrange to filter out even the sender's email address. Certain Internet Service Providers (ISPs) maintain a blacklist of habitual spam senders - known as spammers. Anti-spam software detects these blacklisted senders and rejects them per se.

Over time, anti-Spam software has become sophisticated to match with the wiles of the spammers. They use techniques that do not trash genuine emails by effectively analyzing the content of the email. Such software looks for keywords and tries to interpret their meanings in the sentences. Certain spam filters do not accept emails that come to you in the form of "Undisclosed Recipients". They accept emails where your email address is in the "to" or "cc" fields.

Anti-spam software has become an essential part of your computer's security, to ensure that you only receive the emails you want, and not others. To help eliminate spam, look for anti-spam software that has the following features, among many others:

    * Blocking emails using both lists and preset filters - blocks specific addresses, watches subject lines, and messages within.
    * Updating filters automatically.
    * Isolates spam outside of your inbox.
    * Puts acceptable emails automatically into your safe list.
    * Monitors and filters multiple email accounts.

Now that you know the basics about the need and importance of anti-Spam filter, select the right one for your computer and get rid of the menace of Spam.

By: ArvindSingh

Spam Filter - Features And Working

Spam software is one of the most commonly employed tools against spam. There are many available spam softwares in the market today. They make use of a variety of methods and techniques. In choosing the right spam software for your company, you should at least know the concept behind them. This will help you choose the most suitable spam software to meet your needs.

Spam filter's objective is to clear your inbox from unwanted messages that is spam mail protect. This is primarily done by analyzing the received email and marking it as spam or legitimate. The analysis varies depending on the type of filter used - content-based filter, white list-blacklist filter, etc. Though filters vary in detecting spam, the important features are quite the same and true to all spam filters.

The primary feature of a filter is its capability to detect spam. Once a new message prompts, the filter gets an alert and automatically checks if it is suspicious in nature. The checking could be based in the content, subject line, HTML code of the message, or the blacklist and whitelist embedded on the filter by the user. If the message is confirmed as spam it will be placed in a junk folder or deleted instantly, depending on the chosen option.

In addition, spam filters use point system. Messages coming from unknown senders are given corresponding points. This means that the higher the points the more 'spammy' the message is. This message is either blocked or deleted automatically depending on the scale given by the user, say 5 'spammy' words or symbols in a message will cause it to be blocked (delivered in the junk folder) and 10 'spammy' words or symbols will cause it to be deleted. But remember not all blocked emails are spam, some are legitimate.

If your IP or email address is included in the blacklist, your emails will not be received unless you apply for white listing. Another feature of a spam filter is its ability to update blacklist and whitelist. If the address is not found in either the blacklist or the whitelist, the filter checks the message. Whenever the message is confirmed as spam, the email address on which that message came from is added to the blacklist. But if the message is accepted due to further actions done by the sender, to confirm his intention, the address is added to the whitelist database.

A lot of emails contain attachments where in some cases, unlikely graphics, pictures and messages are embedded. Spam filter can also check not only the message but as well as the files attached on it. They accordingly block them. Some of the programs filter the emails based on the keywords used in the mails. Some of the spam mail blockers are configured and you can easily customize it or the network administrator can also customize it according to the requirement of the company. With the help of their unique features, the spam filter gives you a clear and spam free inbox.

By: David Done s