Spring Break
Spam blockers not often efficient
E-mails can be stranded in cyberspace
MELISSA WEINMAN For The Red & Black
Issue date: 2/21/07 Section: News
"The pros of the MailHurdle greylisting tool are that it eliminates about one million spam messages that would be received by UGA each day," DeSimone said.
While he said that legitimate messages that do not get to UGAmail are a rare occurrence, some UGAmail users still are frustrated with e-mails not showing up in their UGAmail inboxes.
Janet Frick, an associate professor of psychology, said she has experienced inconveniences due to not receiving e-mails and knows that her colleagues and students have, as well.
"A journal editor asked me to review a manuscript that was attached to an e-mail that I never received," Frick said. "It could have been a big professional embarrassment had I not called."
Frick said she feels very strongly about informing UGAmail users to possible problems like her own and made some recommendations to lower the risk of losing messages.
The first and easiest way for UGAmail users to catch lost messages is to check their junkmail. E-mails from URLs such as America Online and Hotmail are often mistaken for junkmail, Frick said.
People also should be aware that many problems arise from people forwarding their UGAmail to a different address. UGAmail will not forward anything that is suspected of being spam, Frick said.
People who forward their UGAmail to a Gmail account, such as Frick and Wartner, seem to be especially prone to this problem.
Frick said it is also important to look out for attachments and international e-mails, which some UGAmail users have lost when forwarding their mail to different addresses.
DeSimone also stressed that these difficulties are not unique to UGAmail. There is no e-mail program that does not experience problems with false positives, he said. However, if any UGAmail user would like to stop all spam filtration to avoid a possible lost e-mail, this will be an option when the next version of UGAmail is released this spring.
If you think that a message has not been delivered to your UGAmail account, you can call the EITS desk at (706)542-3106.
While he said that legitimate messages that do not get to UGAmail are a rare occurrence, some UGAmail users still are frustrated with e-mails not showing up in their UGAmail inboxes.
Janet Frick, an associate professor of psychology, said she has experienced inconveniences due to not receiving e-mails and knows that her colleagues and students have, as well.
"A journal editor asked me to review a manuscript that was attached to an e-mail that I never received," Frick said. "It could have been a big professional embarrassment had I not called."
Frick said she feels very strongly about informing UGAmail users to possible problems like her own and made some recommendations to lower the risk of losing messages.
The first and easiest way for UGAmail users to catch lost messages is to check their junkmail. E-mails from URLs such as America Online and Hotmail are often mistaken for junkmail, Frick said.
People also should be aware that many problems arise from people forwarding their UGAmail to a different address. UGAmail will not forward anything that is suspected of being spam, Frick said.
People who forward their UGAmail to a Gmail account, such as Frick and Wartner, seem to be especially prone to this problem.
Frick said it is also important to look out for attachments and international e-mails, which some UGAmail users have lost when forwarding their mail to different addresses.
DeSimone also stressed that these difficulties are not unique to UGAmail. There is no e-mail program that does not experience problems with false positives, he said. However, if any UGAmail user would like to stop all spam filtration to avoid a possible lost e-mail, this will be an option when the next version of UGAmail is released this spring.
If you think that a message has not been delivered to your UGAmail account, you can call the EITS desk at (706)542-3106.
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MC
posted 2/21/07 @ 10:52 AM EST
This is a worldwide problem, not just at UGa. Everybody has to run a spam blocker to survive, and everybody is losing some legitimate e-mail because of it. (Continued…)
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