Comments on: How to Eliminate Junk Mail and E-mail in 30 Minutes… and Red Bull Book Party! http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/ Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Workweek and Lifestyle Design Blog Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:16:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kamin http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/comment-page-1/#comment-59340 Kamin Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:07:54 +0000 http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/#comment-59340 I spent the past week trying to work with SpamArrest to get their service to work properly. I have a heavy IT background and still had difficulty with it. I found that their service doesn't start right when you have a ton of e-mail to still clean up in your inbox. Easy - I just move it all out at once anyway as I get ready to be more efficient with my e-mail. The search feature will work fine in Outlook should I really need it. Second, their support is only by e-mail and takes over a day to respond. They give you all sorts of BS as to why you cannot call for support nor expect a decent response time even if things stop working. Third, I have achieved close enough results for free by simply taking advantage of my online Exchange e-mail account (only $6 per month for the Exchange features which are much better than any imap or pop service). I setup two rules with my Exchange service for e-mail flow to forward all e-mail to a gmail account where the spam protection is excellent. Then, I have my gmail account forward the filtered e-mail right back to the inbox on my service. Whether I use web access, my iPhone, or my Outlook software, I get filtered e-mail. I receive about 200 spam messages a day, but I now only have to delete one or two out of my inbox and don't have good e-mail getting snagged by the gmail filter. If I want to (I don't need to), I can always check the deleted folder in gmail with automatically clears out in 30 days. I also use the 80/20 concept of the most important e-mail addresses and domains which were imported in my contact lists for both the Exchange and gmail accounts - they both treat them as whitelists. As a side note, I do have a rule that uses a short blacklist which immediately deletes a message and auto-replies to the sender that their e-mail will be immediately deleted and rejected. I only use this blacklist for special annoying persistent salespeople, etc. that may keep getting through the filter (I only have a few addresses so far on this list). I spent the past week trying to work with SpamArrest to get their service to work properly. I have a heavy IT background and still had difficulty with it. I found that their service doesn’t start right when you have a ton of e-mail to still clean up in your inbox. Easy – I just move it all out at once anyway as I get ready to be more efficient with my e-mail. The search feature will work fine in Outlook should I really need it. Second, their support is only by e-mail and takes over a day to respond. They give you all sorts of BS as to why you cannot call for support nor expect a decent response time even if things stop working.

Third, I have achieved close enough results for free by simply taking advantage of my online Exchange e-mail account (only $6 per month for the Exchange features which are much better than any imap or pop service). I setup two rules with my Exchange service for e-mail flow to forward all e-mail to a gmail account where the spam protection is excellent. Then, I have my gmail account forward the filtered e-mail right back to the inbox on my service. Whether I use web access, my iPhone, or my Outlook software, I get filtered e-mail. I receive about 200 spam messages a day, but I now only have to delete one or two out of my inbox and don’t have good e-mail getting snagged by the gmail filter. If I want to (I don’t need to), I can always check the deleted folder in gmail with automatically clears out in 30 days. I also use the 80/20 concept of the most important e-mail addresses and domains which were imported in my contact lists for both the Exchange and gmail accounts – they both treat them as whitelists.

As a side note, I do have a rule that uses a short blacklist which immediately deletes a message and auto-replies to the sender that their e-mail will be immediately deleted and rejected. I only use this blacklist for special annoying persistent salespeople, etc. that may keep getting through the filter (I only have a few addresses so far on this list).

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By: bobun http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/comment-page-1/#comment-44425 bobun Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:36:20 +0000 http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/#comment-44425 Great post and after writing a post on this very topic – stopping junk mail – I was glad to have found some new tips here. Still, the advertisers always figure away to get to you eventually! Great post and after writing a post on this very topic – stopping junk mail – I was glad to have found some new tips here. Still, the advertisers always figure away to get to you eventually!

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By: Eric http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/comment-page-1/#comment-29621 Eric Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:27:52 +0000 http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/#comment-29621 I've searched around the web and found a lot of information similar to what you've covered here, i.e. stopping junk mail. However, half of the unwanted things that the post office puts in my box are not "mail" per se; they are ads for local businesses, department stores, etc. How can I get this stopped? I don't know a search term for this; do you know what they are called? I’ve searched around the web and found a lot of information similar to what you’ve covered here, i.e. stopping junk mail. However, half of the unwanted things that the post office puts in my box are not “mail” per se; they are ads for local businesses, department stores, etc. How can I get this stopped? I don’t know a search term for this; do you know what they are called?

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By: Steve http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/comment-page-1/#comment-27651 Steve Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:11:37 +0000 http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/#comment-27651 To get rid of your junk mail, credit card offers, un-wanted catalogs, and request for money from charities try logging onto www.myjunktree.com. Its a great site and they can stop up to 90% of your junk mail. To get rid of your junk mail, credit card offers, un-wanted catalogs, and request for money from charities try logging onto http://www.myjunktree.com. Its a great site and they can stop up to 90% of your junk mail.

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By: Gary Lapointe http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/comment-page-1/#comment-16133 Gary Lapointe Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:41:41 +0000 http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/05/04/how-to-eliminate-junk-mail-and-e-mail-in-30-minutes-and-red-bull-book-party/#comment-16133 The more I think about it since I wrote it, I'm sure I spent more than $4 of time writing it and thinking about it. And now I'm back writing more. So unless gMail turns out to be just as good, I'll go back to spamarrest.com That and my playing with it, and my other blog post on it http://garysaid.com/chapters/002992.php I've probably spent $90 on thinking about it now... But I'm still wondering about other challenge/response server hosted solutions. (I really miss MailBlocks, they would let me look at my unverified mail via IMAP and if I dragged an item to the inbox it would auto-add to the approved list for me). The more I think about it since I wrote it, I’m sure I spent more than $4 of time writing it and thinking about it. And now I’m back writing more. So unless gMail turns out to be just as good, I’ll go back to spamarrest.com

That and my playing with it, and my other blog post on it http://garysaid.com/chapters/002992.php
I’ve probably spent $90 on thinking about it now…

But I’m still wondering about other challenge/response server hosted solutions. (I really miss MailBlocks, they would let me look at my unverified mail via IMAP and if I dragged an item to the inbox it would auto-add to the approved list for me).

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