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7 Tips To Help You Avoid Spam Email
1. Use a catch-all email address such as those offered through Yahoo! or Hotmail for signing up for offers, contests, non-professional newsletters, etc. online. Periodically check this account and clear out all the spam. This will ensure that your e-mail account won't be closed due to inactivity.
2. Be careful what you sign up for online. Make sure you read the privacy policies of the site involved; some will sell your e-mail address and some won't. Be aware of check boxes in signup forms that, when left unchecked, allow the company to share your information with other firms. If you don't want your information shared, make sure you check that little box. (This may also work vice-versa, with the checkbox being left unchecked to ensure that your information is not shared with anyone. Read the instructions carefully!) Remember: Just because a company seems reputable and you trust them, don't believe they will keep your e-mail address private unless they specifically say so in their privacy policy.
3. Remember what you signed up for -- if you sign up for a newsletter in the middle of the month, it may take another month for the newsletter to arrive in your mailbox. Keep confirmation e-mails in a separate folder in your e-mail program so that you can double-check that you did indeed sign up for any e-mail you think you may have received in error.
4. When you forward e-mails, be careful. Continuous forwards can result in anyone being able to harvest several e-mail addresses from just one of these bulky e-mails! If you use Outlook or Outlook Express, use the BCC (blind carbon copy) feature to send mass e-mail. Simply enter all e-mail addresses into the BCC field. Eudora also has the capability to hide the recipient's e-mails. If someone is sending you continuous forwards, ask the sender not to send things like this to you any longer. (These kinds of forwards are also an excellent way to get viruses.)
5. Don't include your e-mail address when signing guestbooks or online forums. Doing so will make your address available to all and sundry as e-mail addresses can easily be harvested from any website. If you want to use an e-mail address on such things, use your "catch-all" e-mail address.
6. Along those same lines, be aware that posting to e-mail lists with publicly available archives will result in your e-mail address being shown to anyone who checks the archives or uses a bot to harvest e-mail addresses. You can find out where your e-mail address has been posted by typing it into a search engine and searching. I recommend using Google for this, as it seems to currently be the most efficient search engine for this purpose.
7. Never click on the "Remove" link found in many spam e-mails. This only enables the company or individual sending the spam to verify that their e-mail reached someone. Many will not remove you from their list as promised but will instead continue to send you spam (since they know they're sending it to a valid address) and may even sell your e-mail address to other spammers. If despite your best efforts you still receive spam, you can still do something about it. SpamCop.com offers an easy way to report spammers to their ISPs (or hosting providers) for terms of service violations. (It is a violation of most ISP's and web hosting service's Terms of Service policies for a customer to send spam.) To get the information needed to report spammers, you're going to need what is called the "header." The header of an e-mail contains all manner of specifics about who sent the e-mail and enables any ISP to determine who the culprit is.
To find the header in Outlook, first open the e-mail in a separate window. Now go to "View" and then "Options." At the bottom of the dialog box that opens, you will find a box labeled "Internet headers." Copy everything in this box and paste into the SpamCop.com form. Using Outlook Express, open the e-mail in a separate window. Click on "File," then "Properties." The dialog box is entitled "Highlights from report." Now click on the tab that says "Details." Beneath the words "Internet headers for this message," you will see a box containing all the header information. Copy everything in this box and paste into the SpamCop.com form.
We Want Your Comments!
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Absolutely Rockin' Recipe Section!
Chicken, chicken, chicken. Let's face it- it gets boring after a while. Click Here to jazz up an old boring favorite.
Ok...so chicken isn't your thing. How about a nice juicy steak? Click Here for a great guide to making yours the best!
And let's not forget our lovely vegetarian friends. Click Here for a whole site especially for you!
Lots and lots of cool, free stuff for you
If you're anything like me, you absolutely LOVE getting free samples of stuff in the mail. We have searched far and wide to bring you some of the best free sample sites on the internet! Enjoy!
This site has a ton of free stuff you can get plus some great deals. Click Here.
Here is another site chock full of great deals and freebies. Click Here.
Here is the Grand Daddy of freebies! Click Here for the largest selection of free stuff on the net!
New Year's Joke: New Year's Dinner
As in many homes on New Year's Day, my wife and I faced the annual conflict of which was more important - the football games on television, or the dinner itself. To keep peace, I ate dinner with the rest of the family, and even lingered for some pleasant after-dinner conversation before retiring to the family room to turn on the game. Several minutes later, my wife came downstairs and graciously even bought a cold drink for me. She smiled, kissed me on the cheek and asked what the score was. I told her it was the end of the third quarter and that the score was still nothing to nothing. "See?" she said, continuing to smile, "You didn't miss a thing."
Tommy's Top Sites
Even though it's a new year, Tommy is still up to his old tricks. He has found some fun and interesting sites for you to check out!
Andrew Jackson always welcomed visitors to his home. Since The Hermitage opened as a museum in 1889 over 14 million people have crossed its threshold. You can Click Here to visit The Hermitage!
Are you a fan of the classic video game Pong? If you are then this site is for you! The site is dedicated to Ralph H. Baer, the inventor of Pong. Click Here to check it out!
Of couse you know how to use the internet. If you didn't, you wouldn't be reading this right now, but do you know how the internet works? If you'd like to learn exactly what goes on when you use the internet, Click Here!
Would you like to enjoy free music without getting in trouble by downloading the legal MP3s many musicians provide as a way to promote themselves? Click Here!
Tech FAQ For The Month Of January 2006
What is a Firewall?
A firewall is a hardware or software solution to enforce security policies. In the physical security analogy, a firewall is equivalent to a door lock on a perimeter door or on a door to a room inside of the building - it permits only authorized users such as those with a key or access card to enter. A firewall has built-in filters that can disallow unauthorized or potentially dangerous material from entering the system. It also logs attempted intrusions. Firewalls are most needed by people who have a high-speed internet connection such as DSL because hackers are more likely to attempt an attack on their computers.
How does antivirus software work?
Antivirus software examines the code of files that it scans, looking for know bit patterns that are indicative of a virus. Antivirus companies form these bit patterns by examining the code of computer viruses, effectively reverse-engineering them to figure out how they work. A unique pattern of the virus can then be determined, and used to detect a virus. Another method employed by antivirus software is heuristic scanning. Heuristic scanning looks for code that is generally indicative of a virus, even if there is no bit pattern for that virus. Certain things "flag" the antivirus software, such as jump statements at the beginning of the program code, or other such commands which could allow the code to attach itself to another program. This is especially useful when detecting a virus that might have been modified from its original version. Enough of the virus code is similar to the original code, and the antivirus software is able to detect the program as a virus. |
Don't Forget To Get Your Discounted Cleaning Special Before Time Runs Out!
As an ongoing effort to help you keep your computer protected from viruses, spyware and other things that can reak havoc on a computer system, N2 The Net is offering a complete cleaning special for only $50 plus tax. Here is a list of everything that is included:
We will give your system a complete spyware and virus cleaning along with a system start-up and temp files cleaning. These 4 things together will help your computer to run faster and function better. We will give you a free pop-up blocker to stop those annoying pop-ups. We will install all of your Windows Critical Updates. This is very important for the security and complete functionality of your system. We will setup our famous Pristine Mail on your account to keep the spam out of your inbox. We just reconfigured this entire program for optimal spam fighting protection. It is now better than ever before! If you already have Pristine Mail, we will make sure your settings are configured in the best way. You will have a folder of our best and most useful favorites added to your favorites so you can enjoy them as well.
In addition to all that you read above, you will also receive the following... we will give your system a complete internet settings check to make sure your settings are configured for the best possible performance while surfing the net or sending email. We will set up a program called Logtime on your system that keeps track of the time that spend on the internet. This comes in very handy for you folks that have our 40 hour plan and need to keep track.
This next feature is sure to please. We have found great additional spam filtering software to help combat spam.The best part is that YOU will have more control over what is spam and what is not. This new hi-tech software integrates into your current email client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Incredimail, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc...) and once you train it to know what is spam and what is not, it works on it's own! You just have to try it and see how great it is yourself. It is very user friendly and easy to understand. We will install and configure this to work with your email client program This software along with our Pristine Mail program can filter out over 99% of spam that you may be getting in your Inbox.
Wait! We are not finished yet! Along with all of these wonderful things, you will receive a nice, big packet of our most useful tech tips in complete, step-by-step detail. In addition to this, you will receive a CD of all the programs that we are going to install on your system and a detailed instruction manual that walks you through setting them up again if you ever need to in the future.
If you are interested in receiving this unbeatable deal, please act now because we can only guarantee the low price of $50 plus tax until February 28th 2006. After this date, the complete cleaning will cost $80-$160 depending on how in-depth of a cleaning your system needs.
You do not need an appointment. Just bring your computer down to our office at 251 S. WIllow Ave in Cookeville. Get it while you can! If you have any further questions about this special, please click here to send us an email.
Keeping Your Kids Safe On The Internet
Millions of people are now using the internet to exchange email and instant messages; participate in chat groups; post and read messages in newsgroups, which are sometimes called bulletin boards; “surf” the world wide web; and many other online activities. Children are no exception in fact they are more likely to be online than adults. There are no censors on the Internet. Anyone in the world can publish material on the Internet. An ISP links you to these sites, but it can’t control what is on them. It’s up to individuals to make sure that they behave in a way that’s safe and appropriate. There is a site on the internet called SafeKids which has a TON of excellent information about keeping your kids and teens safe while they use the internet. If you are a parent, you really need to Click Here to read this.
In every Issue...
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