Ok, it seems like email is now working… It is being directed through PowWeb.Com rather than through my own server. That does mean that any mail I want to send within the house needs to go via the USA, but for most people there will be no detectable change in email. OOps… There are two or three other accounts that I use for various purposes… I think I have caught up – it is amazing what accounts and email addresses I have…

Yesterday I was speaking to a friend and he commented about the number of SPAM messages he sees. I see about 2-5 a day – and I am not doing much that is special. The first thing is that I use grey-listing on my server – that is I always say that the server is presently un-available the first time someone emails me from an address. What happens is that their mail server tries again a minute later and it works. Most SPAM software does not do retries. Then I have Anti-SPAM settings on my firewall. These just use some common rules, and are not that great. Then the important one is Microsoft Outlook.

The current version, 2003, is actually significantly better than most older versions. All the complaints that people have about old versions automatically downloading pictures and the like have been fixed. But the SPAM FILTER in the latest version is fairly good. But there is a trick. KEEP YOUR OFFICE UPDATED. You might need to visit www.officeupdate.com and download any patches, but this WILL make a big difference. Auto-update does not work with Office. You need to do this and it helps. Try it, and you will be surprised…