Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 21:54:48 -0500 (EST) From: BCPL.NET SysAdmin To: BCPL.NET News Subject: BCPL.NET NEWS: One Sure Way To Stop Spam ------------------------- ONE SURE WAY TO STOP SPAM ------------------------- Spam, or "UCE" (unsolicited commercial e-mail), is a rapidly growing problem all over the Internet. The people who keep track of such things say that two years ago spam accounted for about 10% of all e-mail on the Internet. One year ago it was about 35%. Currently it is about 75%, and getting worse every day. Questions about spam now dominate the e-mail and phone calls received by the Help Desk and other BCPL.NET staff. The question most often asked is "How can I make it stop?". There is only one sure way to stop spam from reaching your mailbox: Change your e-mail address, then be very careful how you spread the new address around. If the spammers don't know your address, they can't send spam to you. Changing your BCPL.NET e-mail address means changing your username. Your username, or login name, is the part of your address in front of the "@" sign. You can't change the part after the "@" sign (bcpl.net) as long as you are a BCPL.NET customer. If you would like to change your BCPL.NET username, here's how: First, decide what you would like your new username to be. Pick a second choice as well, in case your first choice is already taken. A username must conform to the following rules: o It must be at least three characters long. o It may not be more than eight characters long. o The first character must be a lower case letter. o The remaining characters may be all lower case letters, all numbers, or any combination of letters and numbers. o Punctuation marks and other special characters may not be used. Spammers sometimes use pure guesswork to "harvest" addresses, so keep the following in mind as you decide on a new username: o A long username (the full eight characters) is less likely to be guessed by spammers than a short one. o A username that is not a common word is less likely to be guessed than one that is a common word. o A username that isn't a real word at all is less likely to be guessed than one that is a real word. o A username that is a combination of letters and numbers is harder to guess than a username containing only letters. o The absolute worst choice is a username that is a common first name, last name, or nickname. Also decide whether you want our mail server to forward mail received for the old address to the new address for some period of time. On the positive side, this ensures that your correspondents will still be able to reach you until you have time to notify them of your new address. On the negative side, everything will be forwarded, including spam, as long as the forwarding is in effect. Once you have decided, call the BCPL.NET Accounts Desk at 410-887-4172. The Accounts Desk is open from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday. Normally the Accounts Desk can make the necessary changes at our end within ten minutes of your phone call, but this will vary depending on how busy things are at the time. You will need to make a few minor changes on your own computer before you can log in with the new username or send and receive e-mail using the new address. You will need to change the username in your login window, and you will need to change to the new username and e-mail address every place in your mail program where the old ones appear. The changes aren't difficult, but don't hesitate to call the Help Desk at 410-887-3297 if you run into trouble. After your address is changed, you'll need to be very careful about how you spread the new address around. Spammers use a wide variety of methods to "harvest" addresses, so you'll need to be aware of them and guard against them. Otherwise the spammers will get hold of your new address and you'll start receiving spam again. You'll find tips on protecting your address against harvesting plus lots of other information about spam in the BCPL.NET Spam FAQ on our Web site at http://www.bcpl.net/help/spam.html . Here are answers to some frequently-asked questons about username changes: o Changing your username and e-mail address does not affect your password. It remains the same. o Changing your username does not wipe out any mail in your old mailbox. For example, if John Doe changes from "jdoe" to "johnd", the old "jdoe" mailbox is renamed "johnd". The contents of the mailbox remain intact. If you want your old mailbox to be completely wiped out, let the Accounts Desk know when you call to change your username. o If you are on any Internet mailing lists (ones you intentionally subscribed to, not spammer lists), you will need to unsubscribe your old address and resubscribe using your new address. How you do that varies from list to list. If you need help, either refer to the instructions you probably received when your originally subscribed, or contact the list owner for instructions. You can usually e-mail the list owner by putting "owner-" in front of the list address. For example, if the list address is "beatlemania@applerecords.com", then the list owner's address is probably "owner-beatlemania@applerecords.com". o If you use your UNIX shell account on mail.bcpl.net, the contents of your UNIX home directory are not affected. Only the name of your home directory changes. For example, if John Doe changes his username from "jdoe" to "johnd", his UNIX home directory changes from /u2/jdoe to /u2/johnd but all his files remain intact. o If you have Web pages at BCPL.NET, the URL used to reach them changes when you change your username. For example, if John Doe changes from "jdoe" to "johnd", his Web URL changes from "www.bcpl.net/~jdoe" to "www.bcpl.net/~johnd". -- BCPL.NET INTERNET SERVICES 320 York Road Towson, MD 21204-5179 U.S.A. Web Site: http://www.bcpl.net Who To Contact For What: http://www.bcpl.net/contacts/