The term "Spam" refers to unsolicited e-mail from the Internet - from the sender's point-of-view, spam is a form of bulk mail, often sent to an obtained list by companies that specialise in creating e-mail distribution lists. To the receiver however, it is almost universally regarded as junk e-mail.

Spam is the approximate equivalent to unsolicited telephone marketing calls, except that the user indirectly pays for part of the message since everyone globally shares the cost of maintaining the Internet. Spammers typically send a piece of e-mail to a distribution list in the hundreds or thousands, expecting that only a tiny percentage of readers will respond to their offer. Spam has become a major problem for all Internet users as it uses up valuable bandwidth, memory and hard drive space and is time consuming for the user who has to differentiate between Spam mail and genuine e-mail.

Hampshire Business Computers offer two specific solutions which prevent Spam from infiltrating the business network and these are as follows :-

McAfee Spam Killer - this software application sits on the user's PC and filters each mail against a set of pre-determined rules and criteria to determine if the mail is genuine or not. This product integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express so that the Spam is managed by these applications, regular updates ensure that the application is kept up to date.

Black Spider Mail Control - this is an external filtering service where mail is sent from the originating mail server and is then intercepted by a third party. The mail is then checked, cleaned and verified and all viruses and spam removed before being sent onwards to the recipient's mail server having effectively been "washed and cleansed". This process is commonly called "Mail Washing" within the industry and the process takes no more than a fraction of a second to complete. Any contentious mail that is blocked or held in quarantine by the mail washing service can be examined by the recipient via a web browser and management console, and if required the mail can then be released.

 For further details relating to HBC Anti-Spam solutions please click here