"Our Goal is the Dispersal of Accurate
and Useful Information."

The special project underway at this time is a comparison of spam filters, the page is a work in progress. If you have info that may help us, please see the contact page.

New, Aug. 29th, 2004 - For those of you asking about specific things you can do personlly, we are testing out the new version of Spam Bully, which now has versions that work with either Outlook or Outlook Express. Spam Bully uses a sophisticated Bayesian spam filter based on over 20,000 spam messages. It then uses a self learning filter which learns from every new message received and sent enabling it to conform to your email habits. The more email you send and receive the more accurate Spam Bully becomes. This all happens naturally in the background with no interaction on your part. Stay tuned for a report on how it is working for us. From the makers of Spam Bully, "We hear Spam Sieve is a decent spam filter for the Mac".

New, Mar. 29th, 2004 - Interview with Dada Mail (Justin Simoni) about mailing list software.

New, Mar. 8, 2004 - New document with info on complying with federal CANSPAM Legislation.

New, Feb. 12, 2004 - New page with some info on open relays, still a huge problem world-wide. In the very early days of the Internet, many mail servers were kept open to allow email to travel among different networks. This was because one of the earliest uses of the Internet was by the military. One of it's main functions was for communication during emergancies and wars. The theory was that if a message was undeliverable via one path, it would try to re-route via a different path through open relays.

But today, an open relay is most likely to be used by a spammer. Using automated software, spammers scan the Internet for an open relay. If they find out that your server is open, they route their bulk email through it, spamming in greater volume and less time than they could using their own individual computers. Using an open relay lets spammers conceal their identities because it appears that the spam actually comes from you. Recipients of the spam could then flood your server with complaints. The spam and resulting email traffic could overwhelm your system. If your server crashes from this overload, repairing it could be costly and time-consuming. Even more costly is the potential loss of goodwill from those who think you've sent the spam. If you're maintaining an open relay, you're leaving your door open to the theft of your computer services and creating the impression that you're sending unwanted junk mail.

Go to the Open Relays page for more info on testing for, and closing, open relays on your server.