Hi all,
I'm interested in finding a free or inexpensive second email address where I can get some control over the mail I receive. I have one now that is web based and I can't use any kind of spam control. I just spent the last hour deleting all that email crap and decided this has got to stop. I like the blocked senders list in Outlook Express and would love to find something like that.
Does hotmail allow for any kind of selective mail?

Hello, I don't know anything about hotmail, but I've got three free Yahoo addy's for this purpose. I keep a couple just for those websites that require a "sign-in with e-mail address" type thing. So I'll use one of my junk addy's, because sure as the sun will come up tomorrow, so will come the junk e-mails.
I keep three or four addy's through Comcast, and these are just for my family and friends, so much junk e-mails are kept to a minimum. Hope this helps out a little.
~Tommyo

Hi All,
Here is a e-mail program that allows you to check or delete your mail from your server before you get it
Geminisoft Pimmy

" IF IT AINT BROKE - LEAVE IT ALONE "

Sorry to say, the block senders list won't help you much. These guys bang out SPAM from a bag of random invalid addresses. You stop one, you get another, and so on.

Bouncing back SPAM to non-existent email addresses is also pointless. This is why I stopped using programs like MailWasher which I found time consuming yet largely ineffective. Far too much to wade through with precious little long term improvement.

There are definitely ways to make OE rules work for you but it is a very long winded process and may not suit all users. My current count is around 60 binned, 2 or 3 left to look at. I regard that as a very good result.

If your usuage permits you to make the first rule accept all known emailers (stop processing more rules) then this is a very good start. Takes time to set this up.

You can then bin emails with "odd ball characters" (often inserted by spammers) which helps considerably.

Often they spam addresses similar to your own so you can also do things with the last alphabet letter or two before the "at" sign (To & CC addresses). Only works if you don't have many genuine emailers who use the same ISP as yourself.

Fiddling around rejecting words in the text or subject line is only of value when you have got things to the point that you are scraping the barrel to reject the last few. Often coding is used, especially in the message body, which stitches you up.

It takes a long time to win and even then there are the odd one or two that are virtually impossible to bin with certainty. Ensuring these drop into a bin called "Probably SPAM" is about the best you can achieve.

Derek.W

I have my hotmail set up to accept only people on my list to the IN-BOX the rest is sent to junk. I think it can automatically delete any not on safe list.I do let it go to junk because i sometimes get real e mail if i give someone my addy. then i just add them to accept list

Marshall

I know little about Hotmail but with OE rules you can always add a subject line keyword in OE rules that allows acceptance (an unreal word like "okmail" which wouldn't normally appear).

You can then give that keyword out to any new contact to ensure that you don't reject them before you've had a chance to add them to your approved list. They keyword can always be changed.

Perhaps you can do something similar in Hotmail.

Derek.W

Wow 5 replies. Thanks

Tommyo,
I've been using the extra web email address that I have now for junk mail, but I need a better system. I'll check out yahoo.

Big Bob,
The Geminisoft website looks interesting, but if understand correctly it sounds like the instructions for the process are written in Italian.

Derek,
I haven't been getting any spam in my OE inbox by using my junk email address for everything but personal mail from friends and family. Unfortunately I think someone else using this computer has registered the OE address somewhere and now it is out there for the spammers to use.
I found this website, http://cexx.org, which tells how to trace spammers and give them a hard time. It sounds like the person who wrote the article found a way to make the spammers pay him (at least in theory) for sending him spam. At times I feel ready to resort to that.
Sounds like I can filter OE better than I have been doing. Thanks for the tip about putting a keyword in OE messages. I may have to try it.

Marshall,
You can sift and sort hotmail? I'll check it out.

www.nachos.tk
there u can get your own free e-mail account for free, unlimited inbox (well not unlimited but WAAAY ENOUGH)
a friend of my hosts it and i dont have any problems whit spam and all those things

Another thing, change your email address then never put your email addy on a website.
Similarly be careful filling it in on web forms - only when absolutely essential.

With a bit of luck you will then need no email rules at all.

Following suggestion #7 should work but mainly because you will get a different email addy (unless it has spam filtering built in).

Derek.W