also with regards to email spam, you could also set your email server (if you have your own) to reject emails that do not have a valid SPF record (sender Policy Framework).

but this could block legit users, but either way you can certainly filter out emails with invalid SPF or no SPF records.

If you have a website & it sends emails out, it would be a very good idea to start and use an SPF record for your domain, as it is certainly becoming more widely used.

you can find out about SPF here.

Hi Vaughan,

Quote:

My reply was intentional, but it was how to combat spam before it hits your email accounts/boxes.

From what little I know (and it is only a little), ASSP can actually "bounce" any spam emails by returning either a "550" or one of the other "5nn series" messages from the smtp server.

I only did a little bit of research, but this is my understanding of what ASSP can do.

1. Normal scenario - invalid address

If a spammer tries to email using an invalid email address, it will bounce back it won't get past the email server, and definitely never into your inbox.

2. With ASSP - Valid address

You can setup a "whitelist", BUT the whitelist doesn't apply at your email account (inbox) level, because it is too late then, as the email server has already accepted the email (valid address).

The whitelist is applied at the email server level, and even if a spammer uses a "valid" email address, the email server can effectively "bounce" the email, it won't get past the server, and of course if it doesn get past the email server, then it can't get into your inbox.

Nice eh.