Stopping Email Spam

Getting spam can be downright frustrating and annoying when you are trying to work. Some organizations get thousands of spam emails per day. What happens to them? Sometimes they end up in your email but hopefully your company has a method to eliminate them. In this article I am going to try to describe the different areas on a network that spam can be stopped.

The most common area that spam is attempted to be stopped is in your desktops email software. A lot of organizations use Outlook, or a program such as Thunderbird to view mail. When mail arrives on your computer, it is passed through a junk mail tool which is built into your email client. Although this method eliminates some spam it still lets a lot of spam through.

The second area where spam can be stopped is at your organizations email server. When email gets sent to you it must pass through an email server. Normally it is stored on the email server until it is downloaded to your computer. The server runs an application which checks the mail to see if it is spam and then takes action on it. For example, it could flag the email as spam, it could delete the email, or it could move it into a special folder for you.

The third area that spam can be stopped is at a third party companies anti-spam servers. There are several companies on the internet that offer a solution to rid all of your spam. Your IT administrator can setup your email so that it passes through this server and pay a small fee to have them manage and eliminate your spam.

Although these are the most common areas that spam is stopped there are definitely other solutions or areas out there that are used. The most important thing is to remember that there is always a way to eliminate your spam. It may be as simple as upgrading your software. Don’t put up with spam, make sure it is eliminated!