Perhaps $20 a year may be excessive for some, especially when you can use YPOPS to do it for free: http://www.ypopsemail.com/ No matter what service you use, your address will eventually be subjected to spam, and more especially if you subscribe with that address to a Rootsweb list. Yahoo, Gmail, Inbox, Hotmail all have excellent spam filters in place. They don't guarantee to catch every single one, but they do a great job. You can also use Mailwasher PRO to check mail you download to your computer - either ISP mail or web mail you download: http://fta.firetrust.com/index.cgi?id=4622 > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > Sent: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 07:20:04 -0600 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [GEN-COMP-TIPS] GEN-COMP-TIPS > > Try Yahoo. For $20 a year or something you can even have it download to > your e-mail program. > > Yours, > Dora Smith

n.east wrote: >No matter what service you use, your address will eventually be subjected to spam, and more especially if you subscribe with that address to a Rootsweb list. > I can't tell if you are saying that subscribing to rootsweb causes you to get spam or that you get spam though rootsweb. Either assumption is incrorrect. bob gillis

That's an interesting statement: "Either assumption is incorrect". How do you know :-)? Let me relate some experiences to you which may reverse your decision. A good friend of mine, also a Rootsweb member (at that time), observed some years ago that spam was becoming a major problem. As an experiment, he subscribed to several lists with new email addresses, not using for names in the address, anything that resembled an English word. Those addresses were only used with the particular Rootsweb lists, nothing else. It was only a matter of time before spam started arriving at those addresses. Interesting, to say the least, isn't it? When he wrote to me about this experiment, I too used a couple of new addresses exclusively with Rootsweb just to test it. And similar to my friend's experience, spam commenced within a short period of time. As a result of our experiences then, I stand by my original statement: No matter what service you use, your address will eventually be subjected to spam, and more especially if you subscribe with that address to a Rootsweb list. The reason behind spam arriving to addresses used with Rootsweb lists is reasonably simple. Rootsweb archives are freely available to anyone (try it by accessing lists you are not subscribed to). Each message can be displayed with not only the sender's address, but any other addresses in the thread they are replying to. If you conduct a Google search on a genealogically oriented word or phrase, you invariably have presented to you many messages gleaned from Rootsweb lists. In many cases such messages contain names, addresses and even telephone numbers, innocently included by well-meaning listers. This makes it a simple task for "harvesters" to glean those email addresses and any other pertinent, interesting personal details. Rootsweb lists are not the only source of addresses for spammers. Spammers use many means to generate lists. One of the easiest ways is for them to use popular ISP addresses and have a "generator" add common first or last names or both to the front of say "@verizon.com" or "@hotmail.com", etc. They get a lot of mis-hits from these extensive, generated lists, but most times there will be someone using an address with the generated name, somewhere in the world. And away goes the spam. You won't stop spam. I can't stop spam, nor even government legislation will stop spam. We just have to be aware that once we expose an address to the Internet world - no matter where - spam will arrive. We can take preventitive measures to make sure spam is filtered out, but it will still keep coming. My "Spam" folder is currently showing four items now. I will clear it when I finish this message, but I know later this evening there will be others to replace them - just a fact of life. > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > Sent: Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:10:29 -0500 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [GEN-COMP-TIPS] Free or inexpensive email filter > > n.east wrote: > > >No matter what service you use, your address will eventually be > subjected to spam, and more especially if you subscribe with that address > to a Rootsweb list. >> > > I can't tell if you are saying that subscribing to rootsweb causes you > to get spam or that you get spam though rootsweb. Either assumption is > incrorrect. > > bob gillis > > -------------------------------------- > Having trouble with your subscription? Contact the List Admin at > [email protected] > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

bob gillis wrote:"Either assumption is incrorrect." Sorry Bob my experience tells me otherwise. With rootsweb archives spammers pick up all our email addresses - as a point of interest I use an alias for rootsweb on all lists and I get much, much more spam on the alias than on either of my other two genuine addresses. Caribou ----- Original Message ----- From: "bob gillis" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 2:10 PM Subject: Re: [GEN-COMP-TIPS] Free or inexpensive email filter > n.east wrote: > > >No matter what service you use, your address will eventually be subjected to spam, and more especially if you subscribe with that address to a Rootsweb list. > > > > I can't tell if you are saying that subscribing to rootsweb causes you > to get spam or that you get spam though rootsweb. Either assumption is > incrorrect. > > bob gillis > > >