Off topic but maybe important

Use another mail service and get away from yahoo. I use Comcast without any problems but there are many others also that are just as good. Yahoo is a PITA.

I don't use yahoo. I get spam from that service. Please re-read my post. Thanks

I don't like Yahoo for mail or anything else.  I am simply going to drop the various Yahoo "Groups" I belong to because I get tired of having to sign in every few days or so and the structure/format of groups is really very bad.

I use yahoo for my junk address.  This is for things that require an email address to sign up but I don't want to get email from them.

 

This is what I use mine for too. Online orders, groupon, etc... go to yahoo. I dont have too much trouble with flat out spam, their filter seems to be pretty good these days.

I have another address for the stuff I really need.

My ISP provides multiple email addresses for each customer.

I don't understand why people would use anything else.

That's actually a very good idea.  I hadn't thought of that before, and definitely will give it a try.

 

Most of the junk mail I receive--and there's a ton of it every day--is directed to my office address(es), but there's not much I can do about that except dump it on a regular basis.

I use Yahoo! as my primary address and while there is junk mail aplenty it's almost always in my spam folder. I have several other addresses, too, but Yahoo! suits me fine.

"My ISP provides multiple email addresses for each customer. I don't understand why people would use anything else."

 

This works great until you change ISPs!  I used to use my TWC address and then I changed to FIOS.  Oh boy did I have a lot of work to do.  I now use gmail and would recommend to anymore to never use their ISP address (unless as a juck email address.)  Always use a generic service.  Gmail is great for filtering spam.  I very rarely get any that doesn't go into the spam folder.

quote:

This works great until you change ISPs!

 

I look at the issue this way: Changing ISPs would give me a chance to refresh my address with folks that I actually want to have it. 

I have been doing that too but have been transitioning to my own domain.  It came with 5 "real" e-mail addresses but I can use one as a "catch all" which means all mail that doesn't go to one of the "real addresses" goes there.  Thus, I can have frends send me stuff at one address but each time I need to provide one to someone as a "throwaway", I can give out a new and unique address.  For example, I just bought a microwave and Sears wanted my e-mail.  Fine I said...  sears@mydomain.com.  The clerk was surprised but she put it in.  The other benefit to doing this is that you can tell if someone sells or gives out your e-mail address if you start getting e-mail from "macy's" to your "sears" address.  If you never want to see the e-mail, it is really easy to filter.

Two biggies for me...

• Using my own domain and address(es) gives me the ability not to change my address unless I want to.  Changing ISPs can give you the chance to purge yourself from people's email lists but it can also make it so you lose touch with people you'd rather not.  It can also be a hassle when it is tied to your online accounts and you can't get in to change it because the password needs to be mailed to an account you can't access anymore.
• Millions of effective addresses to use for all the times I don't want to give out my personal e-mail but I want to give out a unique workable address.

Hi Allan, I hope that the email which I sent you today didn't fall into your junk heap. 

Isn't the Fastrack group on Yahoo? I have wanted to converse there but it is so cumbersome!

Yes.  There is a FasTrack group on Yahoogroups.

Gmail works great for me.

Yep, that's one of about a half dozen or so train-related discussion groups that I am leaving.  TCA also has a Yahoo group, but since you can't really discuss the TCA there, most of the discussions are pretty lame.

I use Yahoo as my prime address and manage 5 other email addresses on two other providers.  I recieve the least junk mail on the 2 Yahoo mailboxes.  I recieve the most on an AOL mailbox and the Optimum comes in second.   It really doesn't matter which service you use   Junk mail is usually data mined by seeing an email address on an entry somewhere else.

another vote for gmail.

The REAL solution? Register your own domain name and set up your email on YOUR OWN DOMAIN.  You don't need Yahoo or anyone else for that matter, just to send and receive email.

Wow.  Rich and I agree!  It is nice to see Rich is right now and then.     

As a former [malevolent] systems administrator having dealt with SPAM issues, part of the problem with Yahoo and Hotmail is their popularity, coupled with their ease of access. G-Mail seems a bit tougher, but I'm sure there will be some hacks there sooner or later. Direct access to the outbound mail server as a client allows you to bounce an E-mail off anything from a PC running Outlook, to an Internet-capable cell phone. Android phones require you to create a G-Mail account tied to the phone, which may be why G-Mail hasn't been hit yet (I'm still trying to get Outlook to connect and it has been fighting me every step of the way.)

 

Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, MSN, and Earthlink have large numbers of E-mail addresses. Spammers are using computer E-mail generators to generate E-mail addresses and send random junk E-mail. Those that don't bounce are stored as valid. Now the fun begins. They run a password generator to try to bounce of the outbound mail server (often SMTP.[ISP Provider]) like you do with your smart phone. If successful, the junk E-mail is transmitted off the hacked E-mail address. I use Earthlink, and my son's account got hit; I immediately changed his password which fell into category 3 below.

 

The key things to do to prevent your address from becoming the next spam source is make your password more complex.

1. Use at least 8 letters. You'd be surprised how many people have very short passwords.
2. Include at least one number and at least one upper case letter. (many systems don't allow special characters, so you can use things like #@$< etc. but adding those makes it even more complex) That drastically increases the complexity of the password, even for a computer. Using just 8 completely random letters creates 208,827,064,576 single-case possibilities (26 to the 8th power.) Throw in mixed case and you go to 53,459,728,531,456 (52 to the 8th.) So, just using mixed case makes your password potentially 256 times more complex.
3. Don't use simple words, pet's names, family members' names or nicknames, even if followed by numbers. These are easy cracks for a computer.
4. Change your password at least every six months.
5. Under no circumstances should you click a link included in an E-mail with some simple sentence/subject like "Hey, I found this great link" or "LOL."

I haven't received any junk mail spoofed against an address of any forum member. So far, they've been from Yahoo, Hotmail, and MSN.

 

By the way, Rule #1 -- The Forum Moderator is ALWAYS right. Even if the facts say otherwise, the Forum Moderator is ALWAYS right.

What I do with the Yahoo groups is to have them e-mail every article and then have Outlook put them in their own folders.  Reading and responding is as simple as looking at the e-mail.  Since it is sorted into folders, it is pretty easy to manage.

I have two email accounts set-up; one at bellsouth.net and the other at gmail.com.

My bellsouth account catches all the spam or junk mail, I don't give out my gmail account that easily.

 

Lee F.

Yahoo is also famous for viruses.

Rob

Yahoo is pretty clean for my needs. My old Net Zero gets a lot of junk mail though.

Well, my point is that it is very cumbersome to access.

I have a couple of privet email addresses on Yahoo that I have very little trouble with. I keep a public address on Gmail that I access occasionally that gets most of the junk mail. As for the Yahoo groups I belong to several but mostly just get a daily email of the post and review them to see if anything interesting is happening. Most of their groups seem to be run by cliques and if you don't belong you just get ignored. Usually about 5 to 8 people at most.

 

Al

How can this be off topic if this is the topic that started the thread?

Because it's not directly train related but does affect many on this forum.

Yes...technically this is not about trains so it is considered "off topic." However as Trainman 9 pointed out, it directly effects many people on this forum and elsewhere.

 

This is a subject that I am interested in because spam and junk email is a huge problem for everyone. The big email providers (Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Earthlink, etc.) would be out of business tomorrow if people only knew how easy it is to get your own domain and your own email.

 

Registering and owning your own domain name costs less than $5 per YEAR. Once you have your own domain, then YOU control your email and you don't have to put up with the other useless crap that comes with an account from one of the biggies.

 

CLICK HERE to see a Google search page for places where you can get your own domain name.

Having your own domain isn't going to stop junk mail.  If you enter your email address no matter what it is and who is hosting it on certain websites that address will be public.  These advertising companies that do data mining will provide thousands of addresses to thousands of companies and POOF  You get advertising emails

I have 5 email accounts including Yahoo. I do not have problems with any of them. I use each for a different kind of mail. Ex. this forum is on one, my personal is on another a 3rd for business etc. I also chose smaller less popular email providers such as Excite, Juno on the Web. etc.

A good spam filter is also helpful.

Yahoo has been my primary account for several years now and while I get spam, almost always it is trapped as such.  I have no problems with the service overall and much better than AOL which I had for many years prior.  Yahoo is no worse than other providers.  You just have to be diligent in your web browsing.

 

Yahoo is my only address and I get only 1 or 2 spam emails per month at most. I used to get a few per DAY with AT&T.

I have Time Warner roadrunner email & McAfee antivirous. I have no problem with junk mail.

I get as much spam on yahoo mail as I do gmail, but both spam filters do a good job.  Since I had yahoo years before gmail was around, a lot of my mail still goes there along with things that are less important.  New and important email is slowing getting transitioned to gmail, but I still check both.  As time goes on, I will use yahoo mail less and it will be completely relegated to things that are not very important.

My experience precisely. Haven't had any problems with Yahoo, and their spam filter seems to work well now.