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HOME TOPICS SEARCH ABOUT ME Your kids will never get another peekaboo mailing inviting them to click here to chat with Lori and all her friends so they can "have a good time." |
technofile Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983 Make your own 'mailwall' to block junk e-mailDec. 19, 2001 By Al Fasoldt Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt Copyright © 2001, The Post Standard I've come up with an absolutely foolproof method of getting rid of junk mail. I call my method a "mailwall." It's a firewall (a computer intrusion blocker) for e-mail. My mailwall is as simple as possible. People who want to reach you have to put your secret mailwall password in the subject of each letter they write to you. The password doesn't have to be the first word in the subject. It can be anywhere, as long as it's in the subject line. You don't have to buy or download any new software to set up a mailwall. As long as your e-mail program uses filters (also called rules), you should be able to create a mailwall. You simply create a filter or rule in your software to block all mail that doesn't have the password in the subject line. It really is as simple as it sounds. Ordinarily, a filter like this might block important mail that comes in blindly, without your password on it, but my mailwall doesn't delete mail by itself. It diverts non-password mail to a folder. You should check that folder now and then for important mail, then delete all the junk in the folder. The mailwall is guaranteed to block all spam (all junk mail). You'll never have to delete another sales pitch. Your kids will never get another peekaboo mailing inviting them to click here to chat with Lori and all her friends so they can "have a good time." You'll never have to suffer through another fake appeal to help Little Dorrie, the 12-year-old who has been dying of cancer for 37 years. To get the mailwall to work, you have to persuade all your friends and relatives to put your mailwall password into the subject of their letters to you. Make sure they understand that if they don't do that, you won't get their mail until you've had a chance to look at the rejects. Making the appropriate filter might be one step or two, depending on how your mail softare handles message filters or rules). You'll have to create a "Mailwall" folder first. Name it "Mailwall" if you want and make sure it's a valid folder by moving a few test messages into it manually. (Drag them ovewr and drop them in.) Then you can make your mailwall filter or rule. The best kind of filter would be one that acted on all letters that do NOT have your secret password in the subject. If your software can do that, simply create a filter that moves all incoming mail without the password into the Mailwall folder. The mail left in the Inbox will be letters that have the password in the subject. I suspect that many mail programs aren't that sophisticated. Many of you will have to create a two-step filter. Here's how a two-step mailwall filters works: The first filter moves all acceptable letters (ones that have the secret password in the subject) into a specific folder. Create that folder beforehand and call it "Incoming." The second filter then kicks in and moves all the rest of the mail -- all the letters that were left alone by the first rule -- into the Mailwall folder. Your Inbox will be perpetually empty if you use the two-step method. Good mail will go to the Incoming folder; junk mail and important letters without passwords will go to the Mailwall folder. You must make sure the two filters operate in the correct order. The first filter MUST run first. Otherwise all your mail will go to the Mailwall folder and you'll get no benefit from the filter. Even if you've created filters before, be extra careful to make sure your mailwall works right. Don't give your password out until you know your mailwall is working. Test it by sending yourself some mail. Send a few letters without the password in the subject and a few with it. See if the right letters get through your mailwall. Choosing a secret password is fun. Don't pick one that has any chance of showing up accidentally. Choose a password that is guaranteed to be unique. Make it six to eight characters in length, and make sure you avoid a password that might appear in subject lines by chance. |