[at-l] Stopping Spam while Hiking

[papabear.nyc@xxxxxxxxxxx (Papa Bear)]

Jan Leitschuh wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>Since I am changing my physical address and phone number, I wanted to
>keep my e-mail address constant.
>BUT - I realize my mailbox will fill up quickly with junk spam.
>
>I'll try to use libraries and such to clean out the box as I go, but
>this is obviously not a top priority for a hike.
>
>So, I've checked out some spam filters. Can anyone see a flaw in this?
>The terms of service seem to state that they will stop spam, but
>reserve the right to nail me with THEIR spam...
>otherwise, see any flaws? I get to use it free for awhile, in order to
>see.
>
>Anyone have any other tips for keeping mail accounts open?
>
>Jan

Jan

There have been a number of good ideas posted in response to this query.  I
would just like to offer two points:

First Point) The mail you get resides in two places: 1) it goes first to
what's called a POP server at your ISP (for me this is Verizon.net), 2) Then
when you run your mail program on your PC, the mail is downloaded from the
POP server to your PC and appears in you inbox.

The problems with filters that you can set up, is they only work on the mail
coming into your inbox.  If you never log in and run your mail program, the
mail will just pile up on your ISP's POP server and eventually that will
fill up with various consequences.  Some ISP's will offer filtering on their
servers (Yike Yahoo's SPAM-Guard) which filters it at their end.  But even
so, it usually  stays on their server in a different folder.  Bottom line:
you have little control over filteriong this stuff unless you actually log
in and down load the stuff.

Second Point) What I do when I'm away for a while is use a Yahoo account
which is Web based and which I can generally get to from anywhere.  I use
the option provided that lets me download my real mail into my Yahoo mail
account.  That means I can occasionally clean out me real mail POP Server,
delete unwanted stuff, save a few things and then move on to the trail.  I
assume Hotmail has a similar feature but since I've not used it I don't know
for sure.


If you're interested I will mail details (OFF LIST) of how to set this up.

Pb