Care and Feeding of Your Spam Filter (Train, Train, Train)   - 1,634 Views,

Even the very best spam filters need some training, and even the very best spam filters are only as good as their training. This is true for the spam filtering capabilities built into your email program as well as any add-on spam filters.

Here are some simple tips to help you to keep your spam filter trained and tuned.

Keep Your Address Book Current
Make sure that you don’t miss personal e-mail by keeping your address book up-to-date. You can set your filter to allow all e-mails from addresses listed in your book to get through to your inbox. Place this as the first priority in your list of filter conditions.

Mark Spam As Spam
A spam filter can learn what is spam and what isn’t. To help train it according to your preferences, be sure to mark any unwanted item that arrives in your inbox as spam. Your filter will learn to recognize this type of message as spam the more that you mark it as such.

Check Your Spam Folder Before Deleting Anything
Always scan the information on the spam headers before deleting the e-mail messages in your spam folder. If you neglect this important step, you could allow important, legitimate e-mail to be marked as spam by your filter. Use the same technique here as you do when marking items in your inbox as spam. When scanning your spam folder items, mark any legitimate items as “not spam”. Your filter will become more accurate and you’ll be less likely to lose important personal messages.

This information excerpted from Choosing the Perfect Spam Filter. Shut out the spam and take back your inbox by Choosing the Perfect Spam Filter!