Anti-Spam Software: The Internet Fights Back

With the abundance of spam online, it’s not surprising that businesses and organizations have developed ways to combat it. Since spam can be delivered in a variety of ways, there are numerous software products useful in fighting it. We will take a look at three options available.

1. CAPTCHA – Blog comments are often the target of spammers, since a popular blog can provide hundreds or thousands of views to their website, and that can lead to sales. A CAPTCHA form provides a simple test to make sure that a human is leaving a comment and not a computer or “bot.” This test is simple enough for anyone to solve (such as a simple addition problem or reading a series of letters and/or numbers that are distorted), but cannot be done by a computer.

2. Askimet – This software combats blog comment spam in a different way. It checks comments for links. Those links are compared to a database of known spam links and the comment can be blocked if the link included is deemed to be spam or possible spam. It can also be set to block all comments with a certain number of links (which can be determined by the blogger).

3. Email spam filters – Many email services (such as Gmail, for example) provide a level of anti-spam filter. Incoming emails are scanned and those that contain links or terms that are questionable are sent to a “Junk” folder. The recipient can check those emails and determine if they want to have them delivered to their inbox in the future or continue having them marked as “Junk.”

In addition to the services provided by the email service, you can also purchase anti-spam software, such as McAfee Anti-Spam.

Having anti-spam software will help reduce the amount of spam in your inbox and also on your blog, making it safer for you and for your readers.

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Computer and Internet Safety Amongst Children


 The biggest concern of parents today when it comes to children and computers is internet safety. Parents want to protect their children against online predators. Luckily, there is more parents can do then monitor their children’s computer activity. Hey can get special software that helps to protect them. Such software programs allow the parents to be notified when specific, unsafe activity is taking place so that they can take immediate action.

Web Filtering Software should be one of the primary programs a parent uses to defend against sites that are not acceptable to young viewers. With these filters, such websites and content are blocked so that children can not see them or access them. It will block advertising, chat rooms, IMs, blog postings, emails and anything that deems inappropriate for them to see. These programs are so good, in fact, that some call them over protective.

Monitoring software is the next step a parent should take. This type of software runs in a mode that is undetectable. The children do not know that their activity is being monitored. What it does is keep track of the history of activty your child is performing on the computer, like websites visited. It will keep track of who they are talking to and what sites they are trying to access. Older children are known to become very advanced when using the internet and sometimes try to outsmart the filtering systems. This is when the monitoring comes in handy.

There are some programs that offer both of the above in one software program. Some parents only want one or the other, depending on the age of their children or what their personal needs are. The programs can offer other functions that add to the monitoring, like a timer on when the child can and cannot use the computer.

With the above safety measures taken, parents can rest a little more easy, knowing that their children are more protected when using the internet.

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Improving Your Manufacturing Business With Manufacturing Software

For companies that manufacture products and or are related to engineering, manufacturing software contains the applications that they need. It is software that organizes and keeps track of inventory and management.

It comes with many capabilities. It is usually needed to obtain control over the entire operations of the company. These operations are related to employees, jobs, and production. These performances need to be tracked and with manufacturing software it can be done in a very easy format. The design is set up so that even a person who is not very computer literate can use the system with little difficulty.

When it comes to billing, accounting, payroll, financial reports, inventory reports, sales, revenue, costs, invoices etc., manufacturing software puts paper filing and hand written accounting to rest. Everything is so organized with this software and it ends up saving the company in extra costs because of the time it saves.

In order to run an efficient manufacturing and engineering company, you must have the appropriate software. It is, undoubtedly the right place to invest in when it comes to peak performance.

Once the users become familiar with its functions they will take advantage of all of the other capabilities it has, like making plans for future operations.

Most manufacturing business know that you need to estimate what your productivity and demand will be, you then need to account for the production and what the needs will be, then comes the cost to run the production and manufacturing and finally once all is done, you need to review the work that has been done and what it generated. A good manufacturing software program will allow you to quickly view reports on all of these aspects and make better decisions on the next go around of production.
As you can see, there are many beneficial aspects to having a good manufacturing software program. If you’ve never used one before, you will quickly wonder why once you get your company gets its hands on a good one.

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The Real Way to Protect Yourself from Spam

It’ at an all time high. Spam. People are deleting as much as 50 emails a day from their spam and junk folders. The topics are laughable and some of them totally unheard of. In any case, they are spam and they take up a lot of your mailbox space as well as your time.

Here are some ways to prevent spam:

Have two email addresses. With two email accounts you can separate the important emails from the non-important emails. One email account should be for business, people that you want to hear from and it should reflect your name. The second account should be the email address that you use for the sites that you visit, which require you to put in an email address. This is the email to use for subscriptions etc. This is where the spam comes from. Without realizing it, you are agreeing your email to be shared with all of their affiliates and therefore, the 20 plus emails a day come rolling in.

When you do receive emails on your main account, do not open them or click on the links provided inside them. This is what leads to more spam and possibly viruses. The only thing you can do is to scroll to the bottom of the email and click on the opt-out link that they provide, which will allow you to take your name off of their list. Otherwise, just delete it and move on. Do NOT reply to them.

Only respond to people that you know. Spammers have very clever ways of getting information from you. They know how to make themselves appear professional and they have ways of sparking your interest base on your history of purchases, subscriptions and sites that you have visited. There are even spammers that get your information and everyone in your address book and send emails as if they are coming from your address! This might happen to you. This is why, if anything looks suspicious and unfamiliar, you should delete it.

Follow the above advice and protect yourself against the spam!

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Keeping Your Computer Safe When Using Free Wi-Fi

The notebook is connected to the wireless acce...
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Most coffee shops, book stores, libraries and food establishments are offering free Wi-Fi to all of their customers. But, you want to keep your computer safe when you are in these public arenas.

Most wireless modems and routers will have firewalls to guard you from things that are not safe on the internet, but it doesn’t always mean that you are safe from the other people that are using that same network. These Wi-Fi areas are unencrypted so that anyone who walks in can sit down and get on the network without a password. But, unfortunately, this can leave you vulnerable to others at the same place you are surfing the web. There are other users they may have evil intent against the other users of the network.

Here are a few things you can do to protect yourself. Whenever you connect to a public network that is free and not protected by a password, you should have your computer on certain settings for a stronger level of security.

When you are on your own network, you probably have your computer set to share your files or ink printers or even remote access to your computer. This is something you should definitely turn off when sharing a public, password-free network.

There is also something called “network discovery” on your computer that should be turned off. This is really important because this is something that allows access for others to view your computer on the network. If you are not showing up on the network then you are less likely to be hit by someone with bad intentions. Just turn your visibility off in the network discovery whenever you are in a public area. It might be called “stealth” mode on your computer. Sort of like an IM cat room, where you make yourself invisible so that no one knows that you are online.

Following these simple tips can mean the difference of getting hacked or not. Be safe!

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Protecting Your Computer Network Against All Attacks!

Kaspersky Anti-Virus
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Most people have heard of network computer security. It sounds very intense, like there is a force of men standing outside your computer keeping it guarded and safe. In truth, your network computer security is designed to defend against potential threats and prowlers that can attack your computer. Most of our personal networks as well as our business networks hold valuable information that should only be shared amongst privileged users. It is essential that this information be protected.

There are many ways that computer burglars will access your network and gain all of your information. One of the biggest hazards in computers right now is malware. Malware is software that is malicious in its attempts to destroy a computer’s operating system. Hence, the “mal” in malware. It is usually intended to enter a specific type of computer security system. They search for systems that do not require passwords or special access codes to get in to the network. It also searches for those with certain types of anti-virus ware that it knows it can bypass without getting caught. It’s created so that it won’t be detectable to many anti-virus software programs. It does this by constantly generating new codes that allow it to stay hidden within the system. Frightening, isn’t it? It seems the better we are at creating anti-spam, and anti-virus programs, the smarter these viruses get. It’s like an antibiotic.

Your computer network security is being checked every day for access. Hackers and intruders are out on the prowl everyday for pertinent information. It’s unfortunate, but the detection of the methods they use, is becoming more and more difficult. If you can be more aware of your business and personal computer networks as best you can, then you can at least have the upper hand and make changes that will help to deter them.

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Backing Up your Computer ‘ It’s Essential!

Today’s world is based highly on technology. Everything that we do involves computers of some sort, whether it’s cell phones, desktops, laptops, televisions and more. We have a lot of information that we store on these computers. So much that most people have rid themselves of paper files and rely solely on their computers storing all of their data. So imagine, if something happened and years of data was erased. This is why doing regular backups of your information is so essential. It’s a simple thing to do and yet, interestingly enough, people don’t really back their computers up regularly.

Why is this? For most people the common excuse is that they don’t make it a priority. Other things take over their time and they simply put it on the backburner. Some people just don’t know how to do it and think it will take too much effort.

This simple task of backing up your valuable information is so critical for personal reasons as well as business reasons. You may have years of bank statements or documents. You may also have financial information for your home or business. Some people even store all of their photos on their computers and never get them printed. These are all reasons why you want to keep everything backed up so that if anything happens to your computer, nothing is lost.

Check into the best backup programs for your particular computer. Many computers offer a discount on their compatible backup program. You can also backup all of your information online. This has become really popular with people because it is so easy and very convenient. Of course, you always want to do your research before choosing an online backup to be sure that it is secure.

There are external, offsite backup options as well, however those are items that can be lost. Look over your options and choose the best backup plan for you and once you have your program, stick to a backup routine that will ensure you never lose your important data.

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Security for Your Wireless Internet

One of the most important things to consider when accessing the internet wirelessly is security. Wireless connectivity is convenient, but your wireless access point, by nature, is sending out a broadcast of your information, so security risks are involved. Encryption is the best security tool available for this.

People try a lot of things to make their networks less easily available to freeloaders. Some will do their ip addressing manually, so unwanted guest machines won’t automatically be assigned an ip address, and then change the default networking settings, so that it’s more difficult to manually assign an ip address that will be recognized by the network. Every piece of network-able hardware has something called a MAC address, and some people set their router to only allow certain MAC addresses onto the network. Others set their router not to broadcast the SSID, which is the “ervice Set Identifier, the name of the network. The problem with all these strategies is the same; if someone knows what they’re doing, once your encryption is broken they are very easy to get around. If you need to make your network less of a target for casual hackers who don’t really know what they are doing, these are good options to look in to.

When configuring your device, don’t use the default network names, user names, and passwords. You’ll be asked which encryption standard you prefer to use. The possibilities are WEP, WPA, and WPA 2. WPA 2 is the most secure; avoid WEP encryption if you need your network to be secure. It can easily be broken by anyone with a little bit of know-how. WPA is still a viable encryption standard, but it is not as up to date as WPA 2. Once you have selected your encryption standard, you choose an encryption key. An encryption key is a lot like a password. The rules for choosing a good encryption key are basically the same as for choosing a good password; make it the most random thing you can remember, and use as many different types of characters as you can.

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How To Prevent Spam

How to Prevent Spam

Learning how to prevent spam will allow you to see a less full email box with fewer possibilities of identity theft.

Where Spam Comes From

For many, the spam in their email boxes seems to come from nowhere. These pieces of spam seem to be simply annoyances from out of nowhere, but this isn’t quite the case. Spam is created by a computer program, using various algorithms to come up with a long list of email addresses. Then, the actual spam messages is created and sent to the various email addresses. Though this seems like indiscriminate emailing, and it is, this email sending process allows the message to be sent to as many people as possible.

If millions of people are sent the same message and only 10% respond, that’s still 100,000 people who might be giving up financial information, buying a bogus product, etc. The numbers are still in the favor of the spammers.

Preventing Spam from Coming to You

While many email services now offer a wide variety of spam filtering tools, this still does not stop the flow of spam in your life. Though you might not open up the spam in your email box, it is still finding its way to you, which is not what you want to happen. Instead, you need to take a different approach:

  • Continue to use spam filters.
  • Don’t post your email address anywhere online.
  • Don’t respond to spam.
  • Use a spam killer program.
  • Don’t sign up for mailing lists without privacy rules.

Spam bots can grab email addresses from anywhere on the Web, so if you have your email address posted somewhere, you will find that you are getting more spam than you did beforehand.

The less access anyone has to your email address, the more likely you are to avoid spam. If you have to give out your email address, have a junk email address which you use for only financial transactions, mailing lists, etc. Keep your personal email addresses separate to keep spam out.

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How Spam Works

How Spam Works

When you learn how spam works, you can begin to see all of the ways you can prevent this nuisance in your life.

The Intention of Spam

What you might not know is that spam is not always as malicious as it’s intended to be. Some mailings that you get truly are meant to inform you of new information or a new product to buy. But if you haven’t signed up for that list or you don’t necessarily want that information delivered to your email, then it’s technically spam. What spam wants to do is:

  • Sell you something.
  • Inform you.
  • Steal financial information.
  • Install a virus into your computer.
  • Steal your money.

Spam works by sending out as many emails as possible to as many people as possible. In doing so, just having a small percentage of positive or profitable responses makes the spam campaign a success.

The Law and Spam

Technically speaking, however, it is illegal to send someone spam if they have not signed up for the mailing or requested information. But since computer programs can steal email addresses easily from online sources, stopping and preventing spam is harder than ever. Notorious spammers are also hard to trace as they tend to use other people’s computers to do the work, leaving them as anonymous as possible. But when caught, there are serious fines and even jail time for those who do large campaigns of spam.

Anti spam programs can work in many cases, but choosing the right one will help to ensure you’re getting the benefits you expect from these programs.

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