Ideate

How to rid your world of spam

by Andrew Smith on 01/11/07 at 3:00 pm
1 comment

I’ve just about forgotten what spam looks like. A couple of years ago we started using Gmail for our mail, and they do a pretty amazing job at catching spam before it reaches us. Have a look at this graph:

I don’t care who your ISP is, they don’t have the brains or the computing power to match Google’s ability to block spam.

Fred wrote a while back about how moving to Gmail will save you money, but I’m writing about this again because I feel so strongly about it.

A few important points:

• Gmail is free.
• You can carry on using Outlook to check your Gmail account through POP or IMAP (ask a techie if you need help).
• While on the road, use the Gmail website to carry on checking your mail. They have arguably the best webmail interface around.
• You can check your mail on your phone by going to m.gmail.com.
• You can still appear like you’re using yourname@yourcompany.com as your address. Ask your domain name people to forward to your Gmail account.
• Use your ISP’s SMTP server so that your mail comes from yourname@yourcompany.com (again, ask someone if you’re confused)
• You never have to worry about backing up your mail because they provide 4 gigs (and counting) of space.
• Did I mention it’s free?

Go there now and get started.

If your current ISP or Web Company is charging you a fortune for your e-mail, or they are telling you not to use Gmail for some obscure reason, have a chat to the guys at World Wide Creative. I don’t get paid to say this, but I’ll sleep better at night knowing that fewer people are paying hundreds of rand a month for spam-ridden e-mail accounts.

Andrew Smith is the pedantic systems guy behind Live Alchemy, a SA e-commerce company. Andrew writes for Ideate in an attempt to make the world a more efficient place. View more articles by Andrew Smith.

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