| Missing E-mail |
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 E-mail has recently become considerably less reliable. As spam clogs up and slows down e-mail servers around the world, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are becoming more and more aggressive in their efforts to remove the spam.
They use computers running programs like Brightmail and Postini to filter out the spam before the e-mail reaches their subscriber’s in-boxes. Individual computer users are also using filtering programs to get rid of spam. Billions of pieces of e-mail go through filtering systems each day.
The problem is that not all the mail marked as spam is actually spam. Unfortunately, spam filters are often inaccurate. So when the spam is being removed some legitimate e-mail inevitably goes along with it. It is a case of the baby being thrown away with the bath water. This happens when your ISP filters e-mail and it also happens if you use your own mail filtering program. How much and which legitimate e-mail is marked as spam depends on the filtering program as well as the type of computer user you are. For instance, I use Eudora 6.1, which is an e-mail program that has spam filtering built into the program. If I put a person’s address in my address book, it tells Eudora that I would like to receive e-mail from that person; so much of my personal mail comes through just fine. But I receive a lot of mail from people that I don’t know, people with questions, manufacturers with products, newsletters, important e-mail alerts, etc. Much of that mail ends up in my junk mail. So everyday I must go through my Junk folder and check for legitimate e-mail before I send everything to the trash. The same thing happens when I use other e-mail filtering programs. Depending on how your mail is filtered, you may also want to regularly check the e-mail that has been marked as spam to seek out any valid e-mail. Yes, it is a pain, but if your e-mail is important, it is a necessity. Your email account should provide a junk mail, bulk mail or spam folder. You should regularly check inside that folder to see if it contains any legitimate e-mail. If your ISP is filtering your e-mail and you don’t know how to access your junk mail folder, check your ISP’s homepage or call them for details. If you do find legitimate e-mail in your junk box, click on the icon, tab, or menu selection that indicates that it is not junk mail. If you expect to get more mail from the sender in question, add them to your address book, “safe list,” or “white list,” so that future mail will appear in your in-box rather than your junk mail box. (The terminology varies depending on the program used). This e-mail filtering is a huge problem for newsletter creators and subscribers. Many legitimate newsletters are thrown into junk mail bins everyday. If you have subscribed to a newsletter and it is not showing up in your in-box, you will probably find that it has been thrown in with the spam. This is happening for valid newsletters, like the Compu-KISS newsletter. So when you check your spam, be sure to look for newsletters that you may have subscribed to. Add the address they came from to your address book, “safe list,” or “white list” to ensure proper delivery. Good News!! You can get the latest Tech News and Alerts from CompuKiss here.
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