Web Based Spam Filtering
- What Options Do You Have?

Having spam clog up your inbox is never fun. As has been discussed on other pages of JunkDemon.com there are anti spam software solutions available. The current generation of spam blocking software are really very good. What, however, if you won't always be collecting your email from the same computer. What if you're always travelling with work? What if you won't have access to your work or home computer for several weeks and don't want to be buried underneath a deluge of porn and Nigerian money letter emails when you do get back to your computer? I've done it - it's no fun. Ever.

Wouldn't it be nice to have the option of using a web based spam fighting solution - a sort of email spam filter - that you could access wherever there was an internet connection and a computer? Never fear because challenge response spam filters are here. What exactly are challenge response email filters? Think of them as a gateway to your computer that collects all your email (from several different accounts if required) and lets you browse, read, delete or block any email you find. So instead of worrying about checking your home mail and work mail separately you can simply have them both collected by the email spam filter and while you're away from home you can login and delete any mail you don't need, keep the stuff you do and block the crap.

So how does this type of spam filter work? Ok we already know that it can collect email from several accounts but how does it block spam? It does this by simply sending a quick customizable reply to any unrecognized email address from which a message is received. This requires that a human being at the other end clicks on a verification link within the email from the challenge response system. Hey presto the email is approved and placed in your Inbox. If, for whatever reason, the verification process is not completed that email will stay in a trashcan of sorts and will be automatically deleted after several days. A simple neat, process that has proven to be very effective for effective for tens of thousands of computer users worldwide.

So what choices do you have when it comes to email spam filters? There are two that come to mind. The first is Mailblocks which was once my challenge response tool of choice. That was, of course, until a large US based ISP (you know who you are!) took it over and ruined it (never seen a service plummet so badly so quickly! The service was down more often than it was up so I was forced to cancel my account and migrate to SpamArrest which has served me extremely well for some time now.

So if you find that you are travelling a lot with work or personal stuff and are having trouble keeping up with your email then consider adding a web based spam filtering solution such as SpamArrest to your arsenal - it's well worth it.

Spamarrest