The Hobby Line! Internet

German SPAM

Tue, 17 May 2005 12:51:00 GMT

It's that time again! A time that we all dread. It's virus spreading time and it seems to be hitting with full force. There is a German spam attack going on and it is due in large part to the Sober.q worm virus. If you are getting a lot of German emails, it doesn't mean that your computer is infected necessarily. But it does mean that someone's computer is infected, possibly someone in your address book. We all know the importance of anti-virus software. Please be sure to keep your computer up-to-date and send a message off to everyone you know to advise the same. The first time I received one was 3 days ago. At the end of the day, I had well over 1000 of them. Of course I have about 20 email addresses, but this was very upsetting, to say the least. So I am doing my part now to help save the day. I would suggest highly that everyone go to Microsoft's security website and download the Baseline Security Analyzer located at: <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsahome.mspx">http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsahome.mspx</a> This tool will inform you of any security breaches in your computer system and give you links to the cures for each. I know that my computers are secure. Can you say the same? -- To unsubscribe from: The Hobby Line! Internet, just follow this link: <a href="http://hobbyline.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=hobby&e=example@example.com&p=[pin">http://hobbyline.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=hobby&e=example@example.com&p=[pin</a>] Click this link, or copy and paste the address into your browser.

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The Hobby Line! Latest News

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 00:52:00 GMT

E-Mail continues to be the hot topic among internet users. As an internet service provider, I continue to try and fight unwanted emails. I installed a program for one customer who stated that he wants it stopped completely on any mailings to his domain address. I accomplished this, but it comes with a slight drawback. The 'whitelist' is contained on the server, and must be continually edited with any new addresses that he wishes to allow into his email program. This has virtually stopped his unwanted email and still allows new users to answer a mailserver-generated email to add their names to the whitelist. But any email address that is not monitored by a human (mailing lists and forums for instance) requires me to go into the mailserver and manually add these addresses to allow the mail to get through. I found an inexpensive email addon program that accomplishes this same thing, and can be installed by each individual user. It only allows emails into your inbox if the user is on your personal whitelist. Any other emails get quarantined until you manually add them to your whitelist. It also allows you to have a 'challenge' email sent to the sender to allow that person to reply and add his email address to your whitelist. If you want the name of that program, please reply to this email and I will give it to you. Lastly, the webmail program is fixed again. Anyone with a Hobby Line email account can retrieve and send emails by going to: <a href="http://hobbyline.com/horde2/">http://hobbyline.com/horde2/</a> This program produced errors after a recent upgrade, but works now. If you have any questions about the services available at The Hobby Line! Internet, feel free to contact me. -- To unsubscribe from: The Hobby Line! Internet, just follow this link: <a href="http://hobbyline.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=hobby&e=example@example.com&p=[pin">http://hobbyline.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=hobby&e=example@example.com&p=[pin</a>] Click this link, or copy and paste the address into your browser.

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The Hobby Line! Internet Message

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 14:52:00 GMT

I previously discussed the use of a program called Mailwasher to pre-screen your email headers before actually downloading the email to your computer. The program will delete the emails you don't want before they ever reach your computer. This aids in keeping your computer virus-free and your email program from SPAM. In using Mailwasher, I noticed lately that I am getting messages that appear to be coming from my hobbyline server, but are most likely the latest thing in viruses. The headers contain From: email addresses like <a href="mailto:management@hobbyline.com">management@hobbyline.com</a> and <a href="mailto:support@hobbyline.com">support@hobbyline.com</a>. Even <a href="mailto:management@sunrisefla.com">management@sunrisefla.com</a>. I assure you that these email accounts do not exist, and that opening the attachments associated with them will probably infect your computer. I don't lnow if you have received any emails like these, but please don't open them. They are not from The Hobby Line! Internet Mike Dippel The Hobby Line! Internet (954) 895-4638 -- To unsubscribe from: The Hobby Line! Internet, just follow this link: <a href="http://hobbyline.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=hobby&e=example@example.com&p=[pin">http://hobbyline.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=hobby&e=example@example.com&p=[pin</a>] Click this link, or copy and paste the address into your browser.

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The Hobby Line! Internet Update

Thu, 26 Feb 2004 06:43:00 GMT

As a web host and dialup provider with 80 customers, I get a lot of calls and E-Mails asking if something can be done about the flood of SPAM. The short answer is - the mail server can only identify possible spam and mark it as such. It is really up to the individual to find a way to personally attack the problem for theirselves. I, too, get bombarded with the same types of unwanted messages that you do, but probably to a greater degree. I have 7 E-Mail accounts so you might imagine the problem I encounter on a daily basis. There are two ways to try to combat this problem: purchase an anti-spam program, and setup rules in Outlook or Outlook Express to auto delete known spam. Let's discuss the programs available. A program called SpamNet is available at <a href="http://www.cloudmark.com/">http://www.cloudmark.com/</a>. This program is free and does a great job of learning known spammers and allows you to identify new ones and thus add them to the database. Rather than mention others, let me just say that I would rather stop the spam from ever reaching my Inbox and these programs don't accomplish that. Even using the SpamNet program, I still had some viruses attack my computer (luckily I am up to date with Norton anti-virus and no harm was done). So, what type of program prevents spam from ever reaching your computer? I purchased a program several years ago called MailWasher (available at www.mailwasher.net or www.firetrust.com) I keep coming back to this program to minimize the amount of unwanted E-Mail that invades my computer. The way it works is: when connected to the internet, the program downloads the message headers from the server and attempts to categorize them for you. You can set up a friend's list, a blacklist and rules to automatically identify the messages that you don't want. I have Outlook setup so it doesn't download E-Mails until I manually click the Send and Receive button. I do this because I want to 'wash' the mails before they download to my system. It is rare that any unwanted mail actually gets through, and I haven't had one infected message since I went back to using this program. I highly recommend it! The second way to eliminate spam is to setup Rules in your E-Mail program. This doesn't eliminate spam, but can automatically delete it or move it to the designated folder of your choice. The Rules are mainly for categorizing incoming messages as either 'Work," "Home", or any other category you wish to setup. The Rule can also auto delete a message, but be careful with this one. To summarize, unwanted messages are currently a big pain, but there are things we can do. Purchasing a program like SpamNet can report known spammers to the large and growing database, and possibly someday laws will be in effect to deal with these mental midgets. But after years of watching the problem grow, I recommend a program that only downloads the message headers (but still allows you to see who it is from and a brief look at each message text), and then receive the remaining messages once you are sure it is safe to do so. At The Hobby Line! Internet, I am always looking for the perfect program that will stop spam at it's source - my mail server. Perhaps someday that program will come along. But for now, it's MailWasher and Outlook. Mike Dippel The Hobby Line! Internet <a href="http://hobbyline.com">http://hobbyline.com</a> (954) 895-INET (4638) -- To unsubscribe from: The Hobby Line! Internet, just follow this link: <a href="http://hobbyline.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=hobby&e=example@example.com&p=[pin">http://hobbyline.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=hobby&e=example@example.com&p=[pin</a>] Click this link, or copy and paste the address into your browser.

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POP before SMTP

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 07:58:00 GMT

I have received several complaints that there are occasional problems with the hobbyline mail server. One customer wanted to be able to travel with his laptop, log into the internet and be able to send and receive email without ever having to change his send and receive settings. One customer had a problem connecting to a local connection phone number so he tried one in Palm Beach county. After doing so, he could receive his email but could not send. To solve these problems, I had to implement an add-on module to the mail server called 'Pop before SMTP'. The concept is simple: first you download your email. This notifies my mail server of your current IP address, and allows you to send email anytime within 15 minutes afterwards. The reason for doing this is to only allow registered users to send email via my server and to exclude spammers from doing so. This does not mean that you cannot send email after the 15 minutes has expired. If you find that it does not send your email, simply click the 'Send and Receive All' option from your Tools menu. This re-notifies the mail server of your IP address and opens a new 15 minute window to send. This was a necessary implementation because my dialup users can connect anywhere in the Nation or Canada, but were unable to send email other than via the webmail option which is browser based. There was no way for me to add every single IP address that exists in the entire network to enable the sending of email. Pop before SMTP eliminates the need for this. This was probably a little technical, and I apologize for that. I just wanted everyone to know that I care enough about my customers to offer the best services available. If you care to read up on this subject, go to : <a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=pop+before+smtp">http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=pop+before+smtp</a> for a listing of websites that talk about this concept. Mike Dippel The Hobby Line! Internet (954) 895-4638 -- To unsubscribe from: The Hobby Line! Internet, just follow this link: <a href="http://hobbyline.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=hobby&e=example@example.com&p=[pin">http://hobbyline.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=hobby&e=example@example.com&p=[pin</a>] Click this link, or copy and paste the address into your browser.

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