J. A. Powell, Jr.
I hate spam. No, I am not referring to the kind found in the can where every part of the hog including the squeal is ground up and pressed together to make something resembling food. I am referring to unsolicited e-mail that is flooding the Internet.
I get between 50 and 100 spam messages every day offering everything from printer cartridges to herbal drugs guaranteed to enlarge body parts that I do not have. I get dozens of spams hawking human growth hormones, home mortgages, flat hoses, $500 loans, work at home plans and cheap long distance. The spam advertising naked women doing everything imaginable is even more aggravating. Mind you, I am an admirer of the female form. I have been since I was a lad. But when it invades my computer dozens of times a day it gets on my nerves.
The best way to stop spam is also the best way to get rid of kudzu ... move. Spam works because the spammer knows your address. If you get a new address every so often, the spammer will lose track of you. Short of moving, here are the six rules to keep spam out of your email:
1. Do not reply!!! Never, ever, reply to a spam email, even if it offers to remove you from their email list. All you are doing is confirming that your email address is still valid. Also, turn off your preview viewer. Email that is in HTML format will reach out on the Internet and retrieve information thus letting the spammer know you are there. The preview viewer triggers this when it shows the mail.
2. Use "throw-away" email addresses. Go to Hotmail or Yahoo and open up an email account to use in all public forums. Keep your business email address private by limiting who you give it to.
3. Turn on the spam filters for your email program. In Outlook 2000 click on the "organize" button and then on the "Junk email" button. Set the Junk email and the Adult content to delete the mail. Then whenever a piece of email comes in that you want to block, highlight it, click on "Actions" on the menu bar and go to "junk mail." Then click "Add to junk senders" button. In Outlook Express, right click on the offending email and select "Block Sender." Eventually, a spam blocking list will be built and will block most spam.
4. Buy a spam blocking program or service. Spam Arrest, Advanced E-mail Protector, Spam Cop, and Spam Exterminator are just a few of the attempts to block email with a third party program. They work pretty well.
5. When you forward that joke email that your sister sent you to all of your buddies, take the time to remove the hundreds of email address that are on the joke. These jokes are used by spammers to collect valid email address.
6. Forward the spam to your Internet service provider. Most ISPs will ban spammers.
Maybe someday Congress will pass a law that limits what spammers can do just like it limited unsolicited commercial faxes a few years ago. Until then, the burden is on us to try to limit this loathsome nusance.
While at the grocery store picking up some Spam, I saw Rick Katz. He said that he was just dying to find out the latest developments with the IEEE 802.11a standard. Well, Rick, here it is:
In the past, I have written about the IEEE 802.11b standard for wireless networking. If you will remember, this standard allows computers to be networked together at speeds slightly faster than that of typical ethernet without using wires.
This year, products using the 802.11a standard began appearing. (Seems like it should be 802.11c) This standard allows for speeds about five times faster than typical ethernet for distances of up to 300 feet. My experience is that the distance is more like 100 feet but that should be adequate for most offices. The distance is limited by walls and electrical interference.
Wireless network cards are used in the computer. A wireless router is used to connect the cards to each other. If the signal does not reach the entire office, a second router can be used.
If you have an old house or building that needs to be wired for a network, consider going wireless. The cost is about the same as for hard wiring but when you get ready to move, your network goes with you.