This month guest post is from Richard Fitzgerald of 2Gen IT Manamement. 2Gen is offering NBM clients access to their Managed Internet Special.

The 2Gen Manage Internet Applicance allows you to control exactly what your staff are doing on the internet and Stop SPAM and viruses before they can damage your network. This SPECIAL OFFER includes a free trial and setup valued at $195.00.
Click here for more details.

Everyone hates SPAM, no offence to the canned "psuedo" meat product.  Yet few people know why people spam and what to do about it.  2Gen have a compiled a simple document for you on SPAM and how to prevent it. 

Everyone hates SPAM, no offence to the canned "psuedo" meat product.  Yet few people know why people spam and what to do about it.  2Gen have a compiled a simple document for you on SPAM and how to prevent it. 

What is SPAM ?
Spam is unsolicited commercial email. Spam is profitable as spammers can send millions of emails in a single operation for a negligible cost. If even only one out of ten thousand makes a purchase then the spammer has profited. Common types of spam include:
Qualifications – university degrees or professional titles available for purchase.
Financial services – mortgages, loans or debt reducing schemes.
Share price booster schemes.
On-line gambling.
Cut price or pirate software and other nefarious goods.

Tips on how to prevent Spam
Never make a purchase from an unsolicited email as this funds future spam.
Delete email from unknown senders.
Never respond to spam even to unsubscribe from the mailing lists.
Use the “bcc� field if you email many people at once. The “bcc� or blind copy field allows for the
list of recipients to be hidden from other users.
Never publish email addresses on websites, newsgroups etc. Spammers use programs to surf the Internet and find addresses in such places.
Only provide main email addresses to trusted people and organisations. 
 

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How to stop your email being marked as Spam
Over 95% of all emails received by most servers are spam. Most servers use a combination of
methods:
Initially, email is filtered against published blacklists of spam servers.
Second stage filtering using third party filtering software is based on rules, which look at the
sender's email address, the subject line of the message and words in the body of the message.
To prevent your email being identified as Spam:
Step 1
Configure your email client securely.
Step 2
Conform to good practice in message composition, and don't have blank subject lines.
Step 3
Avoid using all capitalised words in the subject.
Step 4
Where possible avoid using common spammer words like "free, guarantee, great offer and hello".
Step 5
Dont use lots of dollar signs $ in your email as this will increase the chance of your email being
blocked by another network.
Step 6
Spam is often HTML and usually has coloured backgrounds. Your message may also look like spam if you use coloured text.  Use plain text emails as they are less likely to be filtered as spam.

Visit www.2gen.com.au for more info.