Anti-spam software: Not a plug-and-play solution

     Soon after installing anti-spam software, Maryland-based marital therapist Laurie Thorner saw a welcome reduction in the amount of spam she received. Unfortunately, after a few weeks she also noticed an unwelcome reduction in the number of Internet-based referrals she was getting for her business.

Only after she spoke directly with one of her colleagues who claimed to have e-mailed her multiple times did she link the installation of the anti-spam software with the reduction in business.

"It turned out that the anti-spam software was identifying a lot of legitimate personal mail as spam, and I never saw it," Thorner told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "That software definitely cost me money in lost business and lost time."

Like many adopters of this still developing software category, Thorner learned the hard way that anti-spam solutions virtually never provide the "install it and forget it" solution that marketers promise.

To make anti-spam software work for you rather than against you, you need to arm yourself with information before you purchase any anti-spam solution and after you install it. Use these guidelines to get started.

--- Choose the anti-spam software carefully

Not all anti-spam software is created equal. Each program on the market uses different algorithms for detecting spam and different methods for sequestering it. Some anti-spam software works without making you change your e-mail habits at all, while other programs require some readjusting. Most importantly, however, you should choose your anti-spam software based upon how well it detects and removes spam and how adept it is at recognising messages from legitimate sources.

Read as many reviews as you can get your hands on before trying one product over another. Currently Cloudmark's Desktop (http://www.cloudmark.com/desktop) and eTrust Anti-Spam (http://www.qurb.com) get high marks from many independent reviewers, while Symantec's Norton Anti-Spam and Mcafee's Spamkiller rank lower. Regardless of which program you try first, take advantage of the free trial version before handing over your cash for a licensed copy.

--- Know how it works

Even more important than choosing an anti-spam software solution is knowing how the one that you've chosen works. All anti-spam software on the market is designed to free you of the hassle of wading through dozens of spam e-mail messages every day, but all of the programs on the market also make mistakes.

So it's important for you to know three things about your anti- spam solution: where does it stash e-mail messages that the program has flagged as spam, how can you view those messages, and how can you tell the program that it has made a mistake so that the mistake is not repeated in the future.

Every anti-spam program on the market expects you to help it improve its performance over time by identifying e-mail messages that it has mistakenly marked as spam as well as those that it should have marked as spam. If you fail to do this, you'll end up with more spam than you should - and you'll miss legitimate messages that your colleagues or friends sent you.

--- Monitor its operation

Anti-spam software, unfortunately, cannot be categorised as "set it and forget it." For the first week after installation, you should carefully monitor the e-mail that it is flagging as spam and, when necessary, correcting its mistakes. Once you are confident that the anti-spam software is doing a reasonably good job, checking its performance on a weekly basis should suffice.

Often an anti-spam program, whether it's the one built in to Microsoft's Outlook or a third-party solution such as Cloudmark Desktop, will create a special folder in your e-mail program called Spam or Junk E-Mail. It is into these folders that suspected spam will go. It's easy to forget these folders exist, but you shouldn't. It will only take you a few minutes each week to browse through the messages that have been routed into the spam folder.

--- Keep it updated

Spammers never stop trying to get your attention. Like virus writers, they're constantly trying new tactics. For anti-spam programs, this means that updates are needed at least on a quarterly basis to stay effective. Sometimes updating your anti-spam software is a matter of clicking a button; other times, you have to visit a Web site and download a new signature file manually. Regardless of the method required, it behooves you to keep your anti-spam solution current.

While purchasing and using an anti-spam program may sound tedious, it's far worse to have to pick out a few desirable e-mail messages from a pile of junk e-mail. The time you spend researching and training an anti-spam program will more than pay off in time saved when reading your mail.

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    马里兰的一个婚姻心理医生Laurie Thorner在她的电脑里安装了反垃圾邮件软件，之后,她发现她收到的垃圾邮件明显的减少了.可惜，在几周后,她发现她在互联网上的定单数量也下降了。
她立即告诉了她的一个同事,她的同事也认为她得到的生意量的减少同安装反垃圾邮件的软件有很大的关系.
“这证明反垃圾邮件软件把许多的合法私人邮件作为垃圾邮件,但是我从来没说过此事。” Thorner告诉德新社,“那个反垃圾邮件软件浪费了我很多的金钱和时间。”Thorner认识到反垃圾邮件软件和许多发展之中的软件一样，并不是像提供商在市场上承诺的那样实用，“安装反垃圾邮件软件后就不在会收到垃圾邮件”,反垃圾邮件事实上从来就不可能提供这样的解决方案，为了使反垃圾邮件软件更好的为你的工作服务而不是影响你的工作,在你购买任何反垃圾邮件产品之前和安装它以后，你需要了解到相关的信息.利用软件使用向导去使用反垃圾邮件软件.

——仔细的挑选反垃圾邮件软件
    并非所有的反垃圾邮件软件都是一样的,市场上，每个程序用于识别垃圾邮件的方法都是不相同的,阻止垃圾邮件的方法也是不一样的.当另外的程序要求一些调整的时候,一些反垃圾邮件软件工作根本没有改变你的电子邮件的习惯.最重要的，无论怎样，你在选择反垃圾邮件软件的时候应该基于该软件如何能够很好的识别、删除垃圾邮件,以及它能擅长识别合法的消息来源.
在试用反垃圾邮件软件产品之前，尽可能的多阅读一些相关的评论对你是很有帮助的，目前，Cloudmark's Desktop (http://www.cloudmark.com/desktop) and eTrust Anti-Spam (http://www.qurb.com)得到评论家很高的评价,而Symantec的诺顿和Mcafee的Spamkiller 级别要低些的.不管你 首先试用的是那个软件,在购买软件前可以充分利用三个免费版本.

——了解软件如何工作
    了解如何使用你所选择的反垃圾邮件软件比选择反垃圾邮件软件处理方案本身更为重要。市场上所有的反垃圾邮件软件都是用来帮助你摆脱每天大量垃圾邮件的干扰，.但是,这些程序也会出错.
因此，了解反垃圾邮件的三点很重要的:软件在那里中断那些被其视为垃圾邮件的邮件信息,你怎样观察到这些信息,以及怎样去告诉程序出现了错误,并且不希望这些错误不要再出现.
在市场上所有的反垃圾邮件程序希望你能够通过识别邮件信息来提高软件程序的工作性能,它错误标出垃圾邮件和它本应该识别的垃圾邮件而没有识别出.如果你没有做到这些,你将收到更多的垃圾邮件，而且你也将丢失你同事或者你的朋友发送给你的消息.

——监控软件的运行
    不幸的是，不能把反垃圾邮件软件分为“安装和忘记”。在安装软件一周后，你应该认真的监控被软件识别为垃圾邮件的电子邮件,必要的时候,纠正软件的错误.如果你确信这个软件能够正确的运行工作,每周对软件的工作运行作以下基本的检查就够了.
通常，一个反垃圾邮件软件，不管它是否建立在 Microsoft's Outlook或者是第三方的方法如 Cloudmark Desktop的软件系统上，,都会产生一个特别的文件夹在你的电子邮件程序里，这种叫做垃圾邮件或者垃圾电子邮件.被怀疑是电子邮件将被防入这个文件夹,这些文件夹的存在很容易被忘掉,但是你最好别忘了，你每周只需花几分钟去浏览一下垃圾邮件文件夹中的信息就可以了。

------保持更新
    垃圾邮件发送者从来不会停止设法吸引你的注意,像病毒程序作者,他们总是不断变换新的策列.对反垃圾邮件程序来讲,为了保持软件的有效性，每年至少更新四次。更新你的 反垃圾邮件软件有时候就相当于按一个按钮那么简单;有的时候，你不得不浏览一个网页和手动下载一个新的签名文件。不管要求用什么样的方法,你应当使你的软件程序保持更新，合乎当前。
听起来，购买和使用一个反垃圾邮件程序可能是鼓噪无味的,但更糟糕的是，你不得不从大量的垃圾邮件中挑选一些有用的电子邮件信息。花费在研究和培训反垃圾邮件程序上的时间将弥补你在读邮件时从垃圾邮件中挑取有效邮件的时间.