When you subscribe to a thread, I thought you was supposed to get an e-mail. I used to get e-mail, but it seems all of a sudden they stopped. Did something change? Also, the news letter stopped. I checked my account and nothing has changed, there. Later George
check your spam settings/bulk mail. I have SBC Global/Yahoo and for a while they started getting filtered in my junk folder.
How To Punch Through Spam Filters Posted by l33tdawg on Friday, March 03, 2006 - 12:28 AM (Reads: 546) Source: Information Week It was a typical first-thing activity. I'd turned my computer on, run the spam filter, and was checking through it for e-mails that shouldn't be there. As sometimes happens, there were a couple, and a couple of clicks later, McAfee SpamKiller sent them on their way to my e-mail. This is a habit that I've formed over the years because I've learned that despite the technology, false positives do exist and sometimes the e-mail that's on the kill list is important. This is made more complex because I have multiple levels of spam filters with the McAfee product somewhere in the middle. By the time my e-mail reaches me, nearly all the Spam has gone. Normally, that is a good thing. But when it contains my airline itinerary for a trip to CeBIT, it's less than optimal. How To Punch Through Spam Filters Tips for making sure your legitimate bulk e-mail gets through to its recipients, and doesn't end up in the garbage with the mortgage pitches and Viagra ads. By Wayne Rash Security Pipeline Mar 2, 2006 02:03 PM It was a typical first-thing activity. I'd turned my computer on, run the spam filter, and was checking through it for e-mails that shouldn't be there. As sometimes happens, there were a couple, and a couple of clicks later, McAfee SpamKiller sent them on their way to my e-mail. This is a habit that I've formed over the years because I've learned that despite the technology, false positives do exist and sometimes the e-mail that's on the kill list is important. This is made more complex because I have multiple levels of spam filters with the McAfee product somewhere in the middle. By the time my e-mail reaches me, nearly all the Spam has gone. Normally, that is a good thing. But when it contains my airline itinerary for a trip to CeBIT, it's less than optimal. The difference between me and many other people is that I actually check my spam filters on a daily basis. Most people don't from what I can tell. In fact, they may never check, and important e-mails can go the way of junk very easily. But suppose you're sending out e-mails that actually need to be seen by your customers? It's a waste of money and effort if they just end up in a spam filter on their way to oblivion. The key to preventing this, of course, is for security folks to work with their marketing department to design e-mails that will get to their intended destination, at least most of the time. To do this, you need to educate your users on what spam filters look for, so users learn what not to put into their e-mails. Your user base also needs to know how to create customer e-mail that doesn't look like spam or maybe a phishing attack so that the customer doesn't delete the message before reading it. http://www.informationweek.com/news...CKHSCJUMEKJVN?articleID=181500429&subSection= First, check the formatting of the e-mails going to customers. For example, make sure the sender's name is a real e-mail address and doesn't consist entirely of numbers or special characters. While you're at it, make sure the subject line isn't blank and that the To: line as a real e-mail address in it. Yes, you can send out e-mails with missing subject lines, and with all of the recipients on the BCC: line, but you'll probably trigger a bunch of filters along the way. Second, check your content. This means that you will need to avoid saying things that could be taken as spam. One e-mail I retrieved from my filters this week used the letter "X" to separate sections of the e-mail. The spam filter looks for that letter, especially when three or more of them appear in a line, and assumes it's an ad for porn. There are also other key phrases users should avoid, such as "Read this:" in the subject line, "This message is being sent to you because…" in the body of the message or references to weight loss or medications in the message. The specific items that can trip up email delivery can go on and on, and while neither IT folks or users can't figure all of them out, it helps to pay close attention to the most obvious. Plus, there are some that aren't so obvious but that will flag the spam filter anyway. If users include a link in an e-mail message, it should be the same in the text of the message as is in the embedded link itself. Some spam filters, including the one in Eudora, look for this and may send it directly to the junk file, or in any case alert the recipient that the message is a potential phishing attack. Likewise, including a link that's an IP address rather than a name can flag a message as spam because the e-mail software may decide it's deceptive. And of course, you also have to get smarter than the email users who actually know about spam and phishing and are on the lookout for it. The best way to accomplish this is to use an e-mail address for the sender that is both legitimate and understandable. Then use a subject line that clearly states what the message is about without hype, exclamation points or extra words. And make sure that everything in the subject line is spelled correctly--many spammers use misspellings to get through spam filters, but aware users will frequently delete those without reading them. Page 3: More Steps To Take The other step you should take is to test e-mail format and content. You'll need to dedicate a few computers with different e-mail systems and spam filters to this task. Send your customer e-mail to all of them, and see which ones catch the e-mail. You should also send e-mails through the larger ISPs, since most of them have their own spam filters running full time, and they can catch e-mail without your customers ever knowing it happened. If there's any doubt about whether your customer e-mails are likely to get caught, it might pay to send out an e-mail to your customers that alerts them to the fact that you'll be sending out e-mail. This e-mail should be formatted plainly so that it will get through. Then you might ask that the user change the set up on their e-mail account so that your messages will always be accepted. While testing and proper formatting are both key, users also need to make sure they don't do something stupid in your e-mails. For example, don't ask for personal or private information by e-mail. Don't ask for credit card numbers or bank information. Don't ask for Social Security numbers or other information that could be used in identity theft. If you ignore this and do those things anyway, maybe you should have your company's messages end up in everyone's spam filter. «
Thanks to both you guys, djscoop and ireland. Ya'll put me on to what to check for and sure enough Yahoo spam block had blocked Afterdawn's address. I don't know why, I didn't block the address.so thanks again. Later George
