"What's wrong with junk mail? I just delete it."

Internet junk mail is everyone's problem. Do you ever get frustrated when the website you're trying to reach takes a long time to appear? Chances are that's happening because the Internet is being congested with huge junk mail transfers. The problem is called Spam. It's called spam because it's fat, tasteless, no good for you, and it's everywhere.

Not only do billions of unsolicited e-mail messages congest the Internet at large, it congests your own Internet connection as well. Picture this: bandwidth is consumed when your first receive the message. Then more bandwidth is consumed when the message contains HTML code that requires your application to download graphics and other content. Downloading the content of the message establishes a connection between you and the sender, which in effect rewards them for harassing you.

The federal government has special laws to stop spammers. However, to date these laws have been ineffective because spammers have essentially claimed infringement on their First Amendment rights. While spammers may have the right to send their messages, they have no right to force you to read it. So, since the government can't help control spam yet, you need to do it yourself.

How do spammers get your address anyway? Well, did you read the privacy statement on the last website you shopped at? Most e-commerce sites subsidize their operation by selling their client list to other Internet marketers. Look for the line, "we reserve the right to share your account information with other merchants and/or affiliates." That part comes after the part where they claim your personal information is secure. Your personal information is secure - with them - but who knows what happens after they sell your information. A big money maker for the get rich quick types is to buy e-mail lists and then sell them to more get quick rich types. It's a vicious cycle that ruins the public space we call the Internet.

Spam is much more than the Internet community's problem. It's a personal and business problem. How would you feel if your boss looked over your shoulder and saw a message from an adult site? You know you didn't visit any adult sites, but your boss doesn't know that. People have been fired for that kind of thing. OK, so you're boss is cool and doesn't mind all the personal crud that pours into your mailbox. Now, all you have to worry about is your hard drive filling up, viruses that might get through to your system, and the 10 minutes you spend each day pressing the delete key. Then, there are the times you actually read the rubbish and get tempted by something you wouldn't have otherwise cared about two minutes ago.

You then try to solve the problem by clicking on the so called "remove me from the list" link. By law, e-mail marketers must remove you from their list if you (properly) tell them to do so. And they will, but not before they add you to another list of confirmed e-mail addresses (because you replied and proved that they reached you) and sell that list to a hundred other spammers.

Yahoo.com has more to say about this...

Never respond to unsolicited email/spam. To the individuals who send spam, one "hit" among thousands of mailings is enough to justify the practice. Never respond to the spam email's instructions to reply with the word "remove." This is a ploy to get you to react to the email and alerts the sender that your email address is open and available to receive mail, which greatly increases its value. If you reply, your address may be placed on more lists, resulting in more spam. Never click on a URL or web site address listed within a spam. This could alert the site to the validity of your email address, potentially resulting in more spam. Never sign up with sites that promise to remove your name from spam lists. Although some of these sites may be legitimate, more often than not, they are address collectors . The legitimate sites are ignored (or exploited) by the spammers; the address collection sites are owned by them. In both cases, your address is recorded and valued more highly because you have just identified that your address is active.

Read more at Yahoos spam page.

Unless you have your own e-mail server that controls the mail for the domain you are using, there's no way to truly control spam . Here's why: One man's spam is another man's filet mignon. Your ISP can't block the spam you don't want because that would block it for someone who may want it. Sure, you could set up "Rules" in your e-mail application to move mail from a certain sender to the trash (harder than programming a VCR), but if you're going to go to the trouble, why not blacklist the abusers at the source and save everyone else in your home or office the trouble?

If every business had their own e-mail server and used it to blacklist spammers, the Internet would be a safer and more productive medium. We don't propose putting marketers out of business, we only propose placing protective borders around your domain. Your ISP will appreciate you for it, because over time the spammers will stop sending you junk, thus reducing the traffic consuming your ISPs bandwidth.

That protection starts by procuring administrative authority over your domain. (See Who Owns Your Domain) The next step is to invest in a low cost computer and install one of the many free E-mail server applications. Setting it up is not rocket science, but (here's the pitch) hiring us is the most efficient and effective approach.

The benefits of running your own e-mail server go far beyond the ability to block spam. You can set up as many e-mail address as you like, and route mail any way you choose. As a security tool, it's extremely powerful to be able to look into the e-mail logs and see exactly who is sending and receiving what. Logs are an invaluable tool to diagnose problems and insure the children and/or staff are corresponding appropriately.

There are other benefits as well. How do you like the fact that your email address has nothing to do with who you are or what your business is called? Are you really a part of msn.com, aol.com, yahoo.com, or hotmail.com? Certainly not. Without your own e-mail server, you're sharing a domain with millions of other users or everyone else that subscribes to your ISP.

What if you already have your own domain name? Fine, but who is hosting it? Once you have established your domain on your own e-mail server, your consistent presence on the Internet is insured no matter if you change domain hosts or your ISP goes out of business. You don't think about that until it happens. And it will happen. How many times have you changed your e-mail address in the last couple of years? It's not only a pain to notify everyone in your address book, especially when they rarely take the time to update their own address books, but it's bad for business to have your e-mail out of commission while you scramble for a new provider.

In 2001, 80,000 Excite.com subscribers lost their e-mail address when that company went out of business. Talk about a hassle. How many of them would have wished they had their own e-mail server then?

Some may say that it's too difficult and unsecure to run your own e-mail server. Ask yourself what's worse: Making sure your e-mail sever stays turned on, or having your mail controlled by strangers halfway around the world?

So whether you want to control spam or to keep your domain up and running forever, running your own email server is the only to do it.

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