Clean Spam Email before it gets to your Inbox

“Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter.” Satchel Paige

If your inbox is anything like mine, you may be dealing with 50, 100 or more emails each day. In my case, you can find me handling anywhere from 250 to 500 emails each business day. Out of all that email, only a relatively small fraction of them ever reach my inbox.

I've used and tested many systems over the years but I have always come back to my all time favorite, MailWasher Pro. I use it as my front end system. Unlike most of you, I have many email accounts so it is by no means the only system I use.

Before I introduced them to Mailwasher, many of my clients dealt with hundreds of emails with 80+ % of them being spam.

Many users have only one email account and for these people the FREE version of Mailwasher is probably all you will need to prescreen and automatically set for deletion spam email before they ever arrive in your inbox. If you have more than one email account you can download the trial version before deciding if the $30 PRO product is for you or not.

If you run a business with your own Email Server, Mailwasher Enterprise may well be the product you have been looking for. There are solutions other than Mailwasher if you run a business but use another company's email server.

For those that only use webmail, sorry but Mailwasher is probably not for you. On the plus side, many webmail services have great built in spam filtering which can be configured by the user. This could be the subject for a future post.

I will not get into the details of how to configure the product since the help files that come with it do a great job of setting this out. Some of you will never have to read a word since the product is quite intuitive. Of course there may also be some of you that need the help of a certified technician from a company like GEEKS UNLIMITED. (I know.... blowing my own horn again)

I can give this word of advise and say that the best results are obtained by turning off the automatic send/receive function of your email client. You then use Mailwasher as your front end. The fact is, you can read and reply to many of your emails using Mailwasher by itself.

Go ahead and try it out. You won't regret it.

Antivirus Programs: A False Sense of Security?

“I ain't ever had a job, I just always played baseball.” Satchel Paige

Like Satchel, I love what I do.... most of the time. One aspect I dislike is having to answer the following question:

"How can I be infected? I use an anti-virus product......"

I'm not going to blow a lot of smoke, life's just too short for that. The real cause of 99.9% of infections is a phenomena technicians in my industry refer to as the "PEBKAC" syndrome. Never heard of it? It's not surprising since I myself had to think long and hard before making any reference to it. In the end, I love to help people and I wanted to be honest and upfront about this and everything else we talk about. Based on past experience, the experience has not always been a positive one for me, some people don't want to hear this. On the other hand, those that did listen have not been re-infected since the reveal.

One good example of this syndrome is the person who, after receiving a curious email, decides to take a peek at the attachment. After all, that person has an anti-virus program running........

Most people will not admit that they are a carrier of the "PEBKAC" syndrome..... and I don't blame them.

When a problem exists between keyboard and chair, it's often difficult to take responsibility. It's just human.

Top rated anti virus programs are tested continuously at security labs. If you check out some of these studies you would realize that NONE of them catch 100% of what is out there 100% of the time. How can they; there are literally hundreds of new or modified ones released every hour or so. What's more, many will not even scan for malware which can be a simple script that turns off your anti virus program or changes your settings so that the internet is redirected to a false or bad website.

If you are running a Linux or MAC computer, you are not immune in spite of what you hear. If you had seen as many infected computers as our company has, you would know this as well.

All you can do is minimize your exposure. Fight off the PEBKAC syndrome and don't peek at that attachment, surf the net responsibly, make sure your anti-virus software is updated on a daily basis, use anti malware software in addition to your anti virus solution, make sure you download and apply operating system updates regularly (Windows, Mac OSx, Linux etc...)

Specially if you own a business (but not limited to business) you can also use filters which sit between you and the internet to block access to certain types of websites in addition to those known to be problematic. I know this is blowing my own horn but companies like GEEKS UNLIMITED can help you implement this type of protection.

Just know that it's possible to keep yourself safe while on the net. I know many individuals who have never ever been infected. Some of these same people, for a long time, didn't even have anti-virus or anti-malware software installed (They do now however, It's possible that I had something to do with that). These very same people dealt with the "PEBKAC" syndrome in a very positive way and took responsibility for the way they used their computers.

Teach your Children Well

Emergency Post

It's all over the news but just in case you haven't heard:

If you receive an email supposedly from FACEBOOK saying that your password has been reset. They want you to open an attachment to reset it.

What it actually does is attempt to steal all of your user names and passwords.

BEWARE

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/03/18/warning-follow-open-password-reset-email-facebook-support/

FACEBOOK: How to protect yourelf (Part 4)

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. Albert Einstein

This is the last in a series of posts relating to the safe use of FACEBOOK. The feedback has been tremendous. Many thanks to all. This post will be kept as short as possible. Read as I share my personal view of keeping things safe on FACEBOOK.

I hope I have convinced many of you that FACEBOOK is a GREAT! concept but comes with some baggage that many of us need to address if we want to keep ourselves safe from those that want to take advantage of any weaknesses that allows them to steal our identity or worse. Organized crime has been having a field day.

A casual glance at the profiles of my friends indicated many were allowing anyone to see their date of birth, home address, the email used to register with FACEBOOK, telephone number, Instant Messaging details, place of work etc....

In my personal profile, I haven't even entered my home address, telephone number, place of employment plus I hid the email I used to register with FACEBOOK from everyone but me.

After all, my friends and family already know where I live. If they don't, they can always send a private FACEBOOK message which appears nowhere but in my private email account.

FACEBOOK was designed to facilitate relationships with family and friends, old and new. I choose not to extend it beyond that, for all of the reasons i explained in my previous posts.

This is a great overview of just some of what you need to know about keeping safe and your privacy settings. If someone so young has learned to be so smart about this, why can't you?


NEXT WEEK: I can hardly wait!

FACEBOOK: How to protect yourself (Part 3)

"My feet ain't got nothing to do with my nickname, but when folks get it in their heads that a feller's got big feet, soon the feet start looking big." Satchel Paige

In our first two posts we touched on various safety issues related to using FACEBOOK. At the risk of repeating myself, I will say again that I love FACEBOOK for what it does best, keeping me connected with friends and family, many of whom I had lost contact with some time ago until FACEBOOK became a reality.

On our FACEBOOK home pages, if we click on Account, you will see an option to click on Privacy Settings. Too tough? Just click here, or better yet, right-click on open this on another tab or page. From there you will see various options that you can set to protect yourself from the various potential attacks that can affect you. Here are my privacy settings related to my contact information edited to exclude my email address.
Check out yours . Does it look like mine or does all of the options say "Everyone". If you have read the two previous posts then you probably have realized by now that it shouldn't. "Everyone" means everyone in the world. If you haven't read the previous two posts or if you want to review them, go here and then here.

In next weeks post, the last in the series, There will be an overview and I will show you more on how to change these and other settings. This will be of interest to Doctors, Teachers and anyone else who might want to keep their FACEBOOK page away from search engines etc.....

If you find this whole privacy issue daunting, don't want to give up FACEBOOK and feel you need help, companies like our own GEEKS UNLIMITED can help. (Tooting my own horn!, excuse the blatancy of it all :o) )

In the meantime, check out some of these related videos dealing with privacy settings. If you are having trouble sleeping, you might also want to read up on FACEBOOKS policy on Privacy by going here:

Here is a broad overview related to just some of the privacy settings:


Is it even legal (Looks Amusing but isn't, WARNING SOME MAY VIEW THIS AS X-RATED, I included this for effect):


Even the US president weighs in on the subject: