Spam email is an intrusion into our lives. We don’t want it, we don’t ask for it, and yet it comes straight to our house to annoy us. Some spam is very offensive. Some spam is X-rated and children may be looking over their shoulders. Spam can take a long time to deal with and can seem almost overwhelming. Most of the software that we use to read email and many of the Internet service providers offer effective ways to deal with spam. The problem is that a small investment of time and study is required to learn how to apply the spam archivers that we have at our fingertips.
There are two ways to filter spam: on the server and in our desktop email program. Since I previously wrote about setting up spam filters at the server level, on a hosting account, I will talk about spam filtering that works within POP email accounts.
Configure filtering with Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook 2010 has a very simple spam filtering system that will help you reduce the amount of spam you have to deal with. To get started, right-click on the spam in question. Go to the option titled “Trash” near the bottom of the menu. You will see options for “Block sender”, “Never block sender”, “Never block sender domain”, and so on. If you choose Block Sender, you will never receive emails from anyone at that address again.
There is an option called “Junk Email Options”. If you choose that, you will get a wizard in which you can activate spam filtering for your account. Your options are No filtering, Low filtering, High filtering, and Safe lists only. Below the low and high filter options is a line that describes the meaning of each option. “Safe list only” means that you will need to manually create a safe list. Then only email from your Safe List addresses reaches your inbox. Then all other emails are deleted. At the top of the Junk Email Options wizard is a tab called Blocked Senders. The Blocked Senders option prevents mail from all blocked addresses from being delivered to your inbox and routed to the Trash. You can complete the list of blocked senders by right-clicking on any spam email and choosing to block that sender.
Another important setting is the one that will permanently delete spam. If you choose this option, all junk mail is permanently deleted. This option is not recommended for many users, since the trash gives us a second chance to recover the email deleted by mistake.
If you choose high filtering, your email must meet a very high standard to avoid the spam folder. These filters are not perfect and you may miss a spam message from time to time. If you are waiting for mail and you are not receiving it, you can go to your spam folder and check if it is there. To find the spam folder, simply double-click the Inbox folder icon. The entire folder directory will open in your Inbox and you will see Junk Folder. Double click on the spam folder and you will see the messages in it. Go to your friend’s message and right click on it. Choose “Trash” near the bottom of the menu. Then click “Never block sender”. Now you will not lose mail from that sender.
Outlook filters aren’t perfect
The spam filters built into Microsoft Office aren’t perfect, but they do offer some level of protection. Spammers are deceptive, creative, and very persistent. You will find that some spam will reach your mailbox despite the filters. I recommended that you configure the spam filters with your Internet service provider to work in conjunction with the Outlook filters. Feel free to make some adjustments to your Outlook filters. If you do not receive the email sent by a friend; be sure to look for it in the Junk E-mail folder. The Microsoft website offers more information on Outlook email filters.
Spam filter settings for Mozilla Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a free open source email program offered by the Mozilla Foundations, which also produces the Firefox web browser. Thunderbird is one of the main alternatives to Microsoft Outlook. Firefox offers a very powerful spam filter system. We will see how to configure spam filters in Thunderbird.
When you have set up your email account in Thunderbird (you can have multiple email accounts within the program), you will see an icon on the left sidebar of the program. Highlight your account and you will see a list of options in the larger right column. Click on “View the settings for this account.” Click on “Spam Settings” on the left of the pop-up that appears. The first option that is available is “Enable adaptive spam settings for this account.” Check that box. The following option gives all addresses in your personal address book exemption from the filtering process. Check that as it approves of all those senders.
The next option to “Trust spam headers set by SpamAssassin” is very powerful. SpamAssassin is a very accurate spam scoring system that runs on many hosting servers and Internet service providers. If you have SpamAssassin on your hosting account or the ISP where your email originates, you can use this option. By using this option, you give Thunderbird permission to delete junk mail when the SpamAssassin program marks it as junk or spam. This means that once you have configured SpamAssassin at the server or ISP level, your email will receive a spam score before it reaches your inbox. Thunderbird will read this score and move all mail with a high enough score to your spam folder when it reaches your computer. This is very effective. Your only concern is if the punctuation is too severe and occasionally a good email goes to your spam folder. If this happens, you can put that email address in your address book and you will receive all mail from that person.
Finally, you chose where to put your junk mail. You can choose the spam folder for this particular account or another folder of your choice. Choose the one below this account and you will know where to look if you miss a good email. That’s it; Junk filters are now configured in Thunderbird.
Setting up junk or spam filters may seem a bit complex at first. At first, it may take a bit of study and trial and error. These filters will give you great relief once they are in place. The effort will be worth it if you hate spam as much as I do.