How do I stop E-mail spam? and a Firewall question.

[milk]

I was just wondering if I had to get a program to stop email spam, or if I just erase cookies, will that do it for me?

I was also wondering if there are any free firewalls out there that do not need my constant supevision. I tried a firewall a while ago, and every few minutes I would get a little message and had to click it (message was about someone trying to access computer or something). Anyway, the message was just as annoying as anything else, so I got rid of the firewall. Are there any firewalls that wil just do the job and leave me out of it? Thanks.

[mjc]

I don't know of any programs that reside on your computer to get rid of spam, but there are several filtering services available...try a search on Google (http://www.google.com) with spam filtering as a keyword.

If the fire wall happened to Zone Alarm there is an option to turn off the alert notice, but most software firewalls have some kind of notification feature. If you want an almost truly transparent (on your end) firewall, you'll probably need to go the hardware route...

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[defender]

Try Norton Firewall. It has a feature that will automatically create rules from programs it knows. Symantec keeps this list up to date with LiveUpdate. It also allows you to block or allow all activity it doesn't recognize, the messages are gone!

[theriversong]

The first thing I tell people who like to do a lot of down loading or just surfing on the web is to ALWAYS look for the checked boxes in the agreement and through out the entire process. Most places will add a little area that says that you want this or that sent to your e mail box and if you don't uncheck them, here comes spam...The firewall problem, usually you have an option to tell it not to ask you about the same thing twice..that is if you want the access to a certain place. Firewalls are pretty active when you first put them on your machine...but should slow down after you get the settings in there. How could a firewall possibly know who you want in your computer? You have to tell it. Asking you the million questions, which no doubt gets tiresome, is just the firewall doing its job, if you say yes and always allow...they shouldn't ask you again. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[bassman]

And if you're like me and want to know whats going on but not have that box flash in your face every few minutes, just don't turn it off. It will keep track of any new hits and show you a total number when you are done.
You can also drag it to the edge of the screen so all you can see is just the edge of the thing instead of the whole box.


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Please let us know if what we suggest helps. This helps us help you better.

[Vic 970]

I use zonealarm & have turned off the error messages, so that it just works in the background. it only shows up when I use a prog to access the internet (which is how I want it) apart from which it doesn't bother me.
I can see the activity on the toolbar icon to see that its working ok.

regarding the scam, a little trick is to open an e-mail account with an online server (I use hotmail) then whenever I need to give my e-mail address I use that one. This way all the spam goes into my hotmail account & leaves my PC spam free, (only recieving mail from who I want) all I do is go into my hotmail account once a month to keep it current & whilst there I delete everything in my inbox.

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for every question there's an answer. Then a load more questions.

Regards..,
Vic.