The most common use that this filter is put to is to remove both computer viruses and Spam. It is also used to check the outgoing mails. This policy is followed by some companies to make sure that the employees are complying with the company rules and regulations. A filter might also be used to rate messages according to their importance, sort them and put them into separate folders according to the subject matter or any other criteria.

Configurability is varied in the mail filters. It is done on the basis of matching a particular regular expression. Often the key words in the message are the criteria or the sender’s email address is also taken into consideration. There are some other types of the more advanced filters that are available and they use the statistical document classification methods for example the Bayes classifier.

Procmail is an agent that delivers mail or it is a mail filter. It is a program devised to process the incoming mails in the computer. It is usually used in the UNIX systems. It has been invoked from Sendmail. Thus the mail processing becomes event driven. Procmail has a companion tool that is known as the formail. Formail allows procmail to batch process the mail that is already there in your mail inbox. Procmail carries out the common operations like sorting and filtering of emails. It puts the different mails into the different folders made according to the keywords in the from or to title bars, text or the subject of the mail or even the sending of the auto replies. There are also other more sophisticated operations that are possible. A very common practice is letting the procmail to call an externalized Spam filter program known as the Spam Assassin. It is also known because of its source code that can hardly be read.

Sieve is another mail filtering language and it is used to create filters for all emails. This language does not need any mail architecture or operating system in particular. The messages need to be RFC 822 compliant. Sieve is in many ways different from the highly limited traditional programming languages. It has no loops, no variables in the base standard, prevents the runaway programs and also limits the language to the simple filtering operations.

Some other types of Spam filters are Netintelligence, Markovian discrimination and Bayesian Spam filtering. Each of these have their own special features and different companies use them to control the menace called Spam.

What one needs to do in order to report spam is to find out the wrongdoer and complain against him. You can also write out your complaint. To write such a complaint is unfortunately not an easy matter as it takes up a lot of time. While reporting you have to provide the email header of the spam mail that you have received. The header of the email has the routing information. It contains the history of the particular email, from where the email has been sent from, to the person whom it is addressed to and the process by which it got to the destination.

You can also report spam by yourself. You need to report the spam exactly from the place where it has originated. This is quite a difficult proposition. You need to find out the exact server from where the mail had come from. These are the following steps involved to send an effective yet polite complaint email.

* You have to find out the email header of the spam mail that you have received.
* You need o find out the origin of the IP or even the DNS Name will do. This is quite a complicated task but it is possible for you to find details of this task.
* Also search for the email address of the IP or DNS that is underlying.

You also need to know which is and which is not to be reported as spam. All the bulk mails that you receive is not spam. They might be commercial mails also. Emails that are unsolicited and comes in bulk are considered to be spam. It is also not the type of mail that you have readily agreed to receive. If the recipient agrees to receive mails such as these then it is not considered to be spam.

All bulk emails are spam. If there is some correspondence, inquiry about the posts that have been made to a website or a newsgroup is not considered to be spam even if the content is commercial. You will often find mails with the wrong name. If a mail does not subscribe to any subject known or understood by the recipient it can be safely assumed that the mail is spam.

One should report mail that is spam and not report unnecessarily. Misreporting spam is harmful. These result in the reports of spam controlling organizations not being taken seriously. Moreover this is unfair and unjust for the account that has been reported against. This would cause it undue termination or suspension.

Spam eats up the bandwidth that too with the money that you are paying. Users should report spam as and when necessary but also have to keep the criteria in mind before reporting against the account that is sending you the bulk mails.

* Death 2 Spam – this is very accurate, easy and very safe to use software this quietly and seamlessly eliminates the unnecessary mail even before it gets the chance to reach your email program. The only disadvantage is that it supports the POP accounts only.
* POPFile – it is a very flexible and powerful mail classification NNTP and POP proxy. It is extremely efficient and it can recognize and also categorize the good mail automatically. This anti Spam software has only one disadvantage. It can be cumbersome on both the central processing unit and the memory if you have loads of mail.
* SpamPal – this makes using Spam backlists with your email account easy. There are also the Bayesian and scoring filters that add to the Spam protection.
* eXpurgate – is a highly effective but effortless anti spam software. It relies on the mails being forwarded and it also requires two separate email accounts.
* K9 – it is easy to use and a wonderfully precise anti spam software. It also has a Bayesian spam-filtering tool. It works only with the POP accounts and it is incapable of remote administration.
* Spamihilator can work with any email user and because of the Bayesian filters the rate of detection is also good.
* Spam Bully – with a little training can remove unwanted mails from the Inbox almost entirely. This is also a very effective anti spam software.
* Spam Interceptor – is a flexible, effective and user-friendly filtering solution. It works by combining a number of strategies and this is the cause for it to be so very helpful. The only problem is that it works for the POP accounts only.
* MailWasher Pro – this is a very competent, secure, usable filtering tool and it also helps to save a lot of time. It has got a good combination of multiple approaches and Mailwasher Pro has achieved a good spam detection rate. It protects your computer from the attack of viruses though it could have been more effective had it been able to integrate the email programs.
* Zaep – this has the capacity to keep both your home and the organization free of spam and this is done by allowing only those mails, which come from the whitelisted senders only. Zaep is available round the clock and this is the only aspect that makes it somewhat unsuitable for use in the homes. It supports only the POP accounts and this remains its only disadvantage.

These are the common anti spam software that are available and these are chosen according to the requirements of the individual or an organization to control unnecessary mails from littering the inbox.

Different search engines also resort to spamming to gain higher listings of the web sites. This is done by submitting the same pages or key words over and over again in one web document.

The origin of this term is a much-debated fact. It is said to be a part of a very famous song. But the University of South California is said to have given the name as it has the same qualities of the lunchmeat that is known as Spam. Both bear the same characteristics as nobody wants it and it is removed when anyone receives it.

There are two types of Spam and these have different effects on the users. One type is known, as the Cancellable Usenet Spam is one message that is being sent to many Usenet newsgroups. There might be even more than 20 Newsgroups. These users have realized with experience that these messages are not of any use at all. This variety of Spam is usually aimed at people who are known as “lurkers”. They read the newsgroups but never post any messages that would give away their email addresses. This type of Spam takes away the utility of the newsgroups as most of the time they are being bombarded by unrequired, irrelevant posts and advertisements. Moreover this type of Spam undermines the capability of the system administrators to manage and choose the topics that would like to have on their systems.

Email Spam is another type and individual mail users who receive their mail directly are the targets of this type of Spam. This Spam is created by scanning the postings done on the Usenet. The Internet mailing lists are stolen and the Web is searched for more addresses. This Spam requires the money of the users to be read or received. Moreover this Spam requires additional costs that are to be borne by the user. The ISPs and the online service providers charge the subscriber to transmit this type of Spam. Email Spam has another very nasty variant. Spam is sent to the various mailing lists, which might be the private or public discussion forums. Mailing lists limits the activity of the subscribers and the spammers will use certain tools that are automated to subscribe to the innumerable mailing lists. These lists will provide them with the names and addresses, as they would be made subject to the attacks of the Spam mails.

Spam or junk mails is a nuisance because it devours a lot of network bandwidth. Nothing of significant value can be done to prevent Spam in the same way as it impossible to stop the junk mails from littering your inbox. Though we can use the Spam filter software to remove the Spam that comes via e-mail.