At first glance using an ISP (Internet
Service Provider) which filters out all spam looks like the obvious
solution to the spam problem, but think carefully. Would you really be
happy giving your postman/woman a few instructions and leaving them
to decide which of your letters should be delivered? In effect, that's
what leaving it all to your ISP entails.
No ISP filtering system can ever be 100% efficient. Due to the ingenuity
of the spammers, some spam will inevitably still creep through. More
seriously, you risk having some mail you actually want to receive blocked
by the ISP filter. When the British parliament recently introduced a
filtering system for its own e-mail, over 800 messages to MPs were blocked in the
first week, including many legitimate ones concerning the
forthcoming Sexual Offences Bill.
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In 2006, the UK ISP NTL caused outrage
among its users when it unilaterally imposed spam filtering on all
accounts, based on commercial "blacklists". Holders of NTL
e-mail accounts suddenly found themselves unable to receive e-mail from
anyone with a Hotmail account or some other Web-based email providers.
After a few weeks the problem was apparently solved, but NTL still
imposes spam filtering on all its users, unless you specifically opt out
of it.
If you want to block most spam with the
minimum of hassle and don't mind risking the loss of a few genuine
e-mails, using an ISP which offers spam filtering could be the solution
for you. However, because most ISPs adopt an across-the-board policy with
their filters, you will generally have to go along with their definition of
what does and doesn't constitute spam. Below I have listed a few of the
leading ISPs which offer spam filtering as part of their service. Any
other suggestions would be welcome - please use the e-mail address on the Contact Me
page.
USA
UK
Postscript: Click
Here to read an article on the problems caused for AT&T's
customers by the introduction of a new spam filtering service.
