Does anyone else use Gmail as a spam filter?

I have started to use Gmail as a spam filter and it works very well. They don't get all the spam, but they filter out more than any other spam filter I've tried and with very few false positives.

Here is how I use it.

1. I don't want to change my email address, so I haven't just changed to Gmail.
2. Gmail offer POP server services.
3. Get whoever runs your mail server to forward all your email to your Gmail account.
4. Change the POP server in your desktop email client account to pop.gmail.com. The full instructions for all popular email clients is on the Gmail site. It even includes Netscape email, which I happen to use.

Now what happens is all your email is filtered through Gmail, but it still arrives in your conventional desktop email program and your email address never has to be changed.

I've been doing this for about 10 days now and it has radically reduced the number of spam messages that arrive in my inbox.

 

You can do that with any ISP that includes spam filtering. It's easier to use Norton Amti-Spam, though.

 

That's not a bad idea. I agree, the gmail spam filtering is very accurate and works a lot better than my ISP's spam filtering...

I've never tried Norton anti-spam, is it pretty accurate?

 

Norton Anti-Spam is pretty good and it gets better as you use it (it "learns").

I used to use the spam filter with my ISP but that meant I had to go to "webmail" to find out what was being diverted... with Norton, it creates a new folder, "Norton AntiSpam", in my email client so it's a simple matter to quickly scan what is in there, delete what is actually spam, and instruct Norton that any false positives should henceforth be added to the "whitelist".

 

I use McAfee for my desktop email. But I don't even check it anyway so why does this reply even matter.

kbye

 

We run a commercial mail server and use Spam Assassin to filter all the email that passes through our server. We have Spam Assassin set pretty loosely because we had clients complain when we first invoked it about false positives. Netscape mail also includes a "junk" mail filter that can be trained, but despite these two spam filters I was still getting upwards to 200 spam message a day that made it into my Inbox.

However now that I'm filtering it all through Gmail the number of spam messages that finally make it to my Inbox is radically reduced.

Yes you have to use a web mail interface to review the messages that Gmail filters out, but so what? In fact when you are travelling you can use that web mail interface to get your email. It is one of the best web mail interfaces that I've seen.

Norton may be good, but I have a bit of a prejudice against Norton due to how difficult it sometimes can be to uninstall ealier versions of their Virus Scanning software when you want to install a later version. I just spent approximately five hours this week on that problem for a client, so I stay away from Norton products as much as I can.

 

Matter of preference, I guess. I never use webmail if I can avoid it.

As for Norton, that's probably also partly product experience and the particular combination of hardware/OS/software. I've had a lot of p[roblems with McAfee as well as Zone Alarm. I've never had any problems with Norton products.

 

I use gmail as my primary email source. The spam filtering cannot be beat (never gotten ONE spam message) and the interface is amazing. Not to mention the archiving and amazing storage capacity. Gmail is definately the best email system.

 

yep - i use gmail as my "mail washer", routing my pop3 accounts through my gmail account. It works well and is free, so i can't complain!

 

I use it as my master email spam filter system.

 

Hey all, thanks for the tip. I just set this up yesterday with a gmail account I wasn't really using, this is working great! Cool.

 

sometimes automated letters which i really need
such as registration conformation, site suggestion conformations
get into 'Spam' in my gmail

 

Well I think if you mark them as "not spam" Gmail learns and does mark them as spam in the future. Can anyone else verify this?

 

I've been using gmail in combination with Spam Bully on outlook express for a few months now and have been pretty pleased

 

but in any way i must go through this bulk 'Spam' messagebox
to check valid mesages

 

I've just been using the Barracuda Spam Firewall and get little if any spam EVER...

 

Then don't use it. Nobody is forcing you.

 

Some other gutless wonder, with no comment and no signature, red repped me for this post.

Can anybody tell me what is wrong with telling someone that if they don't like something they don't have to use it?????

 

If spamassassin is allowing 200 msgs in your inbox, your not running it to its full potential. I run SpamAssassin and it tags 100-200 msgs daily to my inbox as spam, only misses a few and tags a few as spam that aren't.

Works wonderfully.