At 12:17 PM 4/5/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>i also received the junk mail about the hearings at john hopkins. on top of
>that one, i have just gotten 2 from shopmattel.com! i have never ordered
>from them, and i am wondering how they get into the listserve. someone
>mentioned a filter- are they in all computers or do i have to have it
>installed? junk mail is a pain regardless of whether it comes in the mailbox
>on the driveway, or the one in the computer!! happy spring to everyone who
>is living it - flurries next few days in town. thanks for letting me vent.
>joanne
>

Joanne:  Some e-mail readers have spam filters built in.
I use Eudora lite and it doesn't have one included.
If you go to the web site www.jumbo.com ( by the way,
this is a GREAT site for free and shareware programs of all
types) and enter the word "spam" in the search box it will
take you to about 20 different filter programs to download.
Some are free, some are shareware, and some work only
with certain mail programs like Outlook.  They all
work basically the same in that a known data base of
spammers is automatically filtered out and you can add
to that database easily to get rid of e-mail you dont
want. For example, you can filter out those with the words
"sex", "money" or "free" in the subject heading.
You could also set the filter to only get messages from
certain people. ( I think AOL has filters built in you
can use.)  One program is called SpamBuster.

I have been on-line since 1992 (before the worldwide web
using a unix system)
and my name is on so many lists I couldn't exist without
a filter.  As it is, I still get 20 or so spams each day.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need advise on how
to download and install a program.

Chuck Hafter
City Manager
South Burlington