Computer club learns about the fight against 'spam'

If you are on the Internet, you probably get "spam" -- and lots of it.

Black Butte Computer Club members learned last Thursday, June 19, about ways to stop those annoying, unwanted junk e-mails.

Cindy Hovey, a representative of Bend Cable, said that her solution required using a Bend Cable modem, requiring a subscription to Bend Cable as the local server.

For those not on cable, other suggestions were given by club members to alleviate the problem. AOL (America Online) and MSN (Microsoft Network) offer a spam protection service as do many of the independent servers, such as AT&T Internet -- all for a fee, according to members.

Yahoo has an Internet source without fee, but with limited spam protection. Several commercial programs are available for a fee, such as SpamKiller and SpamCop and Spam Stopper for $29.95.

There is a free program called MailWasher (www.mailwasher.net) that will help although "you will have to do some of the cleaning work yourself," one member said.

Bend Cable's Spam Pounder "is relatively new, put into service by Bend Cable only last May," according to Hovey.

"It is free to our customers," she said.

The company has about 200 homes using the service so far, out of 12,000 subscribers.

"The system has hundreds if not thousands of filters," she said, "and a new subscriber needs to determine how many of the filters to apply. A pound sign (#) -- hence the name 'Spam Pounder' -- is applied to anywhere from one to five categories depending upon how much mail one wants filtered. This is changeable at any time," Hovey said.

For cable users, instructions are available by logging onto the WebMail (www.spampounder.com) with your user name and e-mail password. You will create a spam folder. Follow the relatively simple instructions.

"You must determine what you want done with the rejected spam mail," Hovey said. "These choices include deleting it, rejecting it, saving it in a new folder for final review or redirecting it to an address of your choosing."

Suspected spam mail is stored on Bend Cable's computer, "not the customer's, so it does not take up room on your PC. Sooner or later, we will set up a system to delete or send back all that's unclaimed," Hovey said. "Even we have a limit as to the capacity for which we can store unwanted messages. We'll probably clean it all out after seven days."

The club members were told that it is not necessary to change a current e-mail address.

After the Spam Pounder has done its thing, mail cleared can be forwarded back to the original address without the sender being aware that all original messages were sent along to the checker, even the good ones.

"It hardly takes a minute," Hovey said.

All spam is checked the moment it arrives as well as private and e-mail that is desired so there is virtually no delay in getting regular, good e-mail, the group was told.

The Spam Pounder assigns a "#" sign based on the likelihood of an e-mail being a spam message checking for key indicators in address, heading and text.

"There are so many criteria that hardly any of the bad stuff gets through yet your personal mail or things to which you've subscribed passes the test and ends up on your computer at home," Hovey said.

Hovey offered her services free to those who call her. Her phone number is: 549-1911, ext. 6620