What is spam?

The formal definition of spam is unsolicited bulk email. That is, email that is was not requested by the recipient and sent to multiple addresses at one time.

We all can tell if an email is spam by just looking at it. Unfortunately, computer programs cannot tell what is spam and what is not quite so easily.

Lake Tahoe On Line has been fighting spam for years. We work hard to block unwanted emails sent to our customers and our new mail server will be even more effective in this battle.

The first line of defense is SMTP data checks. Mail is checked before it is accepted and if it is not addressed to a valid email address it is rejected before processing. "Malformed" email is also blocked at this level. Malformed email does not conform to industry standards, may not have correct headers or protocol, or has some other flaw in the technical structure of the email.

We also use RBL (remote blocking lists) or blacklists. These services compile lists of known and suspected spammers and mail from those sources is blocked by our mail server. Rarely, a legitimate mail servers are listed on RBL but they are usually dropped from the list within one day.

The new mail server also protects our customers with rate limiting. This works in two ways. It blocks any mail servers that send more than 125 pieces of email in a five minute period. This protects against bulk emails and also against computers that have been turned into a spam bot (spam robot) by a virus. Additionally, it blocks email from any of our customers that may be infected by a virus.

Our previous limit for our customers sending email was 29 emails at one time. We have this limit in place to prevent our mail server from being blocked by other mail servers. In other words, if one of our customers sends out too many emails at one time we could be considered a spammer. Give us a call if you have a need to send more than 125 emails at one time and we'll offer some solutions.

Once an email is confirmed to be correctly formatted, not from a known spam source and is not bulk mail, it arrives in your mailbox. Additional spam checks are applied here and if an email looks like spam, it is delivered to the quarantine folder. You can review this folder and retrieve any email that you do not consider spam.

User whitelists allow you to indicate that a particular sender's email should always be delivered to your inbox -- even if the mail server checks indicate that the email is spam. This feature allows our customer to receive automated messages and other emails that look like spam while other customers can block similar emails.

Not all unwanted email is spam. In some cases, you may have signed up for a newsletter or a commercial advertisements. The best plan is to return to that vendor's website and remove yourself from their mailing list. Do not click the "unsubscribe" link on the email as it may not remove you from illegitimate lists.

Your quarantine folder is cleared after 30 days so you'll want to check this folder frequently. Go to our web page, click on webmail and login using your email address and password. If you have received email that was tagged as spam, you'll find it in the quarantine folder on the top left hand side.

LTOL finds spam as frustrating as you do. If you'd like to learn more about who profits from spam, we recommend the following article:

Who Profits from Spam?

We're very excited about the protection provided by our new mail server and hope you'll enjoy the powerful spam blocking. Please call us if you have any questions.