Comments on: Using Gmail to Filter Spam On Existing Mail Accounts http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/ Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:13:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Bobhttp://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/comment-page-1/#comment-31413 Bob Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:40:35 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/#comment-31413 I've been using gmail to filter spam out of my ISP email account for quite a while now. The delays are not anything I ever noticed to be significant and for a free effective way to remove the hundreds of hundreds of spam messages per day that I was getting in my mail box, I couldn't have asked for a better way to get rid of unwanted spam.Its not perfect but for some people the gmail as an external spam filter is an excellent solution and highly recommended. I’ve been using gmail to filter spam out of my ISP email account for quite a while now. The delays are not anything I ever noticed to be significant and for a free effective way to remove the hundreds of hundreds of spam messages per day that I was getting in my mail box, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to get rid of unwanted spam.

Its not perfect but for some people the gmail as an external spam filter is an excellent solution and highly recommended.

]]> By: Antonyhttp://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/comment-page-1/#comment-29689 Antony Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:04:09 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/#comment-29689 No, the only way around it would be to use your ISP's STMP server for sending E:Mail, and G:Mail for receiving.It does provide excellent spam filtering though :).Yours - Antony No, the only way around it would be to use your ISP’s STMP server for sending E:Mail, and G:Mail for receiving.

It does provide excellent spam filtering though :) .

Yours – Antony

]]> By: Bradhttp://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/comment-page-1/#comment-26634 Brad Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:14:16 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/#comment-26634 Do you know of a way to use Outlook to retrieve mail via gmail, BUT then send mail via our 3rd-party hosted service? The problem is that, after setting up Gmail to grab my email via pop and setting up outlook to grab it from gmail, if I send from outlook, it looks like it's coming from gmail, not from my company. Even sending from gmail shows my company email, but then also says "on behalf of xxxx@gmail.com" I want to keep the process opaque so no one knows I'm using gmail. Is this possible with outlook 2007? Or even another mail client? Do you know of a way to use Outlook to retrieve mail via gmail, BUT then send mail via our 3rd-party hosted service? The problem is that, after setting up Gmail to grab my email via pop and setting up outlook to grab it from gmail, if I send from outlook, it looks like it’s coming from gmail, not from my company. Even sending from gmail shows my company email, but then also says “on behalf of xxxx@gmail.com” I want to keep the process opaque so no one knows I’m using gmail. Is this possible with outlook 2007? Or even another mail client?

]]> By: Reda Urestehttp://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/comment-page-1/#comment-23637 Reda Ureste Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:44:29 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/#comment-23637 My God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insight at the end there, not leave it with we leave it to you to decide. My God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insight at the end there, not leave it with we leave it to you to decide.

]]> By: AlanWhttp://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/comment-page-1/#comment-20468 AlanW Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:44:36 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/#comment-20468 Re my comment of a year ago: I now think the problem wasn't with gmail but with the interworking of Thunderbird with AVG antivirus. Re my comment of a year ago: I now think the problem wasn’t with gmail but with the interworking of Thunderbird with AVG antivirus.

]]> By: Keshavayahttp://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/comment-page-1/#comment-20462 Keshavaya Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:28:16 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/#comment-20462 What is captcha code?, pls provide me captcha code codes or plugin, Thanks in advance. What is captcha code?, pls provide me captcha code codes or plugin, Thanks in advance.

]]> By: AlanWhttp://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/comment-page-1/#comment-16336 AlanW Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:04:53 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/#comment-16336 I've been using gmail as a spam filter, using the double yank as VanguardLH describes, since early July, and so far I've found it quite effective. But, I'm now stopping because I suspect the process loses emails. Certainly, since I've been using it, emails yanked from the gmail server sometimes show up in my Thunderbird client with the body belonging to the adjacent email; and occasionally an email that I know was sent to me falls into a black hole and seems to be untraceable. I'd rather have to deal with some of the spam manually than have this happen. So, it's back to a client-side spam filter (any recommendations received with interest). btw, yes I know Thunderbird has its own spam filtering, but I believe I'm not the only person who has found it decreasingly effective. I’ve been using gmail as a spam filter, using the double yank as VanguardLH describes, since early July, and so far I’ve found it quite effective. But, I’m now stopping because I suspect the process loses emails. Certainly, since I’ve been using it, emails yanked from the gmail server sometimes show up in my Thunderbird client with the body belonging to the adjacent email; and occasionally an email that I know was sent to me falls into a black hole and seems to be untraceable. I’d rather have to deal with some of the spam manually than have this happen. So, it’s back to a client-side spam filter (any recommendations received with interest).
btw, yes I know Thunderbird has its own spam filtering, but I believe I’m not the only person who has found it decreasingly effective.

]]> By: VanguardLHhttp://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/comment-page-1/#comment-14580 VanguardLH Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:50:15 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/#comment-14580 I tried using Gmail as a go-between spam filterer. It would yank from my POP3 account and I would yank from the Gmail account. I had 6 accounts so I had 6 separate Gmail accounts (so I could differentiate via rules as to which original POP3 account the e-mail got sent based on through which Gmail account it got retrieved). Alas, the ever lengthening mail poll intervals that I mentioned before eliminated using Gmail as a spam filter. It was not a viable option because of the super-long delays in getting e-mails, especially those that I wanted to get now (because I was waiting for them).For Todd, I also started getting "replica watches", "discount shoes", and other spam through the Gmail accounts. So as Todd mentions, Gmail is not a perfect solution for server-side spam filtering using a free e-mail service. Yes, I could define server-side rules in my Gmail accounts (duplicating those rules in each of them since I had one Gmail account to track from which original POP3 account the e-mail got delivered) but why should I? The point was to eliminate me having to define rules in a never ceasing loop of getting spam, define another filter, get spam, define another filter, and repeat.No matter how I've tried to use server-side anti-spam solutions using free services, like Gmail, and making sure I don't get stuck with a provider that likes to pretend they have a unique and 100% filter (which is nothing but another resurrection of the irresponsible challenge-response scheme), I still can't get away from using my own client-side spam filter, which is still SpamPal. It gives me DNSBLs (DNS blacklists - just don't use any that are DULs, or dynamic user lists, of dynamic IP addresses since SpamPal checks all headers and most trace back to the sender's host which is likely to have an dynamic IP address). It also provides Bayesian filtering (a statistical guessing game) which isn't useful unless you get hundreds of e-mails each week to provide a decent sized profile of historical data that is effective against the short-term spam spewages. The URL body plug-in lets you apply the DNSBLs against URLs in the body of an e-mail since many spammers need to point at their site and some of them operate their own web server on their own domain from which they spewed their spam (so it is not effective against mailer trojans that send spam). SpamPal isn't perfect, either. You can get false positives and why I use its UserLogfile plug-in to keep a plain-text version of every spam-tagged e-mail (so when my rule deletes it there is still a safe backup copy that I could look at).Some ISPs are very weak at spam filtering. My ISP (Comcast) has (or had) very loose filtering so lots of spam slipped through their filter. I have a free AOL e-mail account (using their www.tunome.com service so I can pick one with a domain that is NOT aol.com) but they are also too weak. Not only do they miss a lot of spam (false negatives) but I had a lot of good mails (false positives) stuck in the spam folder that required me to waste time going online to my AOL e-mail account to check the spam folder. So I'm still stuck using SpamPal as a client-side spam filter.There are plenty of alternative client-side spam products. Many of them hide they use Bayesian or challenge-response behind a barrage of marketing blitz to hide that they offer nothing unique or new. I tried using Gmail as a go-between spam filterer. It would yank from my POP3 account and I would yank from the Gmail account. I had 6 accounts so I had 6 separate Gmail accounts (so I could differentiate via rules as to which original POP3 account the e-mail got sent based on through which Gmail account it got retrieved). Alas, the ever lengthening mail poll intervals that I mentioned before eliminated using Gmail as a spam filter. It was not a viable option because of the super-long delays in getting e-mails, especially those that I wanted to get now (because I was waiting for them).

For Todd, I also started getting “replica watches”, “discount shoes”, and other spam through the Gmail accounts. So as Todd mentions, Gmail is not a perfect solution for server-side spam filtering using a free e-mail service. Yes, I could define server-side rules in my Gmail accounts (duplicating those rules in each of them since I had one Gmail account to track from which original POP3 account the e-mail got delivered) but why should I? The point was to eliminate me having to define rules in a never ceasing loop of getting spam, define another filter, get spam, define another filter, and repeat.

No matter how I’ve tried to use server-side anti-spam solutions using free services, like Gmail, and making sure I don’t get stuck with a provider that likes to pretend they have a unique and 100% filter (which is nothing but another resurrection of the irresponsible challenge-response scheme), I still can’t get away from using my own client-side spam filter, which is still SpamPal. It gives me DNSBLs (DNS blacklists – just don’t use any that are DULs, or dynamic user lists, of dynamic IP addresses since SpamPal checks all headers and most trace back to the sender’s host which is likely to have an dynamic IP address). It also provides Bayesian filtering (a statistical guessing game) which isn’t useful unless you get hundreds of e-mails each week to provide a decent sized profile of historical data that is effective against the short-term spam spewages. The URL body plug-in lets you apply the DNSBLs against URLs in the body of an e-mail since many spammers need to point at their site and some of them operate their own web server on their own domain from which they spewed their spam (so it is not effective against mailer trojans that send spam). SpamPal isn’t perfect, either. You can get false positives and why I use its UserLogfile plug-in to keep a plain-text version of every spam-tagged e-mail (so when my rule deletes it there is still a safe backup copy that I could look at).

Some ISPs are very weak at spam filtering. My ISP (Comcast) has (or had) very loose filtering so lots of spam slipped through their filter. I have a free AOL e-mail account (using their http://www.tunome.com service so I can pick one with a domain that is NOT aol.com) but they are also too weak. Not only do they miss a lot of spam (false negatives) but I had a lot of good mails (false positives) stuck in the spam folder that required me to waste time going online to my AOL e-mail account to check the spam folder. So I’m still stuck using SpamPal as a client-side spam filter.

There are plenty of alternative client-side spam products. Many of them hide they use Bayesian or challenge-response behind a barrage of marketing blitz to hide that they offer nothing unique or new.

]]> By: Toddhttp://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/comment-page-1/#comment-14551 Todd Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:56:03 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/#comment-14551 Unfortunately gmail's spam filters aren't perfect - I get about 6000 messages per month, and most of those are spam....no matter how many times I mark the message as spam I continue to see them in my inbox..I would like a spam filter external to gmail. Unfortunately gmail’s spam filters aren’t perfect – I get about 6000 messages per month, and most of those are spam….no matter how many times I mark the message as spam I continue to see them in my inbox..

I would like a spam filter external to gmail.

]]> By: VanguardLHhttp://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/comment-page-1/#comment-12995 VanguardLH Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:17:16 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/using-gmail-to-filter-spam-on-existing-mail-accounts/#comment-12995 While it does work to have your Gmail account yank from your other POP account to do additional filtering and then have your local e-mail client yank from your Gmail account, be aware that you have no control over the mail poll interval. Gmail will poll your other POP account at various intervals depending on how often it finds e-mails in that other account. The more mail polls that result in no e-mails retrieved results in lengthening the mail poll. It might start out at 5 minutes for each mail poll after you first add your account to Gmail but this mail poll interval can go up to 50 minutes if Gmail repeatedly sees no e-mails to yank from your other account over successive mail polls. As an example, you might be expecting an e-mail very soon after registering for use of a web site that sends you a confirmation e-mail which you must use to complete the registration process to use that site. You cannot login into that site until you complete their registration process. You keep waiting for their e-mail to show up. Gmail won't poll your other account for up to 50 minutes and you're left wondering why you never got their confirmation e-mail. So either you wait or you use the webmail interface to your other account to get at that e-mail now. Using Gmail as a server-side filter to yank from your other POP accounts and using your e-mail client to pull from your Gmail filtering account will result in very long delays in receiving e-mails if you don't get that many to reset Gmail's poll interval.By the way, you do NOT need to configure your original e-mail account to forward (push) to Gmail. If it has POP access, you can configure Gmail to pull your e-mails from your original account. So you can push or pull to your Gmail account.Since Gmail accounts are free, create a new one for each original account from which you yank and use Gmail for additional filtering. If you have N accounts, create N Gmail accounts. Each Gmail account yanks from just one original account. That way, you can track through which original account an e-mail was delivered, and it can help in configuring your e-mail client to use that original e-mail account when you reply to an e-mail that was delivered to it (and then yanked to the matching Gmail account). While it does work to have your Gmail account yank from your other POP account to do additional filtering and then have your local e-mail client yank from your Gmail account, be aware that you have no control over the mail poll interval. Gmail will poll your other POP account at various intervals depending on how often it finds e-mails in that other account. The more mail polls that result in no e-mails retrieved results in lengthening the mail poll. It might start out at 5 minutes for each mail poll after you first add your account to Gmail but this mail poll interval can go up to 50 minutes if Gmail repeatedly sees no e-mails to yank from your other account over successive mail polls. As an example, you might be expecting an e-mail very soon after registering for use of a web site that sends you a confirmation e-mail which you must use to complete the registration process to use that site. You cannot login into that site until you complete their registration process. You keep waiting for their e-mail to show up. Gmail won’t poll your other account for up to 50 minutes and you’re left wondering why you never got their confirmation e-mail. So either you wait or you use the webmail interface to your other account to get at that e-mail now. Using Gmail as a server-side filter to yank from your other POP accounts and using your e-mail client to pull from your Gmail filtering account will result in very long delays in receiving e-mails if you don’t get that many to reset Gmail’s poll interval.

By the way, you do NOT need to configure your original e-mail account to forward (push) to Gmail. If it has POP access, you can configure Gmail to pull your e-mails from your original account. So you can push or pull to your Gmail account.

Since Gmail accounts are free, create a new one for each original account from which you yank and use Gmail for additional filtering. If you have N accounts, create N Gmail accounts. Each Gmail account yanks from just one original account. That way, you can track through which original account an e-mail was delivered, and it can help in configuring your e-mail client to use that original e-mail account when you reply to an e-mail that was delivered to it (and then yanked to the matching Gmail account).

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