The Worst Anti-Spam Advice Ever?

Martin,

Here's what I'd tell your friend:

Dump that host. Immediately. If they screwed up something this simple, this badly, they're not to be trusted with anything complicated.

They also seem to want to take the easy way out, which is rarely a good sign when the easy way doesn't consider the consequences.

Now...

Spam doesn't go to domains. It goes to addresses.

If you must dump something, make it the old address. Create a new one and watch where you use it. Better yet, have a public and a private address. Never use the private address ANYWHERE on the web, or for email lists, or subscriptions, or anything else along those lines. Send it only to close associates, and family members who are computer savvy enough to be unlikely to have their computers compromised by a virus or trojan.

A better solution would be to create a private address and use it for the purposes above, and take steps to block/reject the spam sent to the existing public address(es).

Since you're looking for a new web host anyway, make sure you get one that allows you to pick your spam filtering options. You want, at least, to be able to use the Spamhaus SBL and XBL lists. Better to get the combined list, if possible.

If you can use SpamAssassin, that's a plus. Set the system to tag spam, rather than delete it, and set the threshold for tagging to 7 or 8. Create filters in your email program that move anything with the [spam] tag to a separate folder, which you can check occasionally to make sure you're not deleting anything important.

Tune the threshold as you go.

Find a Bayesian filter that works with your email program. These allow you to "train" your system to recognize spam, and move it into a junk mail folder.

If any of this seems complicated, find a 17-year old. They're better trained with computers than most people. Just don't take their advice on what to do, as they rarely understand your goals well. Make sure they do what you want.

I went from literally thousands of spams every day hitting my mailbox down to a few hundred, most of which get filtered automatically by the Bayesian filter for Pegasus Mail - Spamhalter.


Paul