Junk Email, a Modern Curse!

Since getting my iPhone recently I’ve become more conscious of the deluge of junk email I get to my various accounts.

To manage my email better, and inspired by the iPhone 2.0 software’s compatibility with Microsoft Exchange, I set up an Exchange account via my provider 1&1.   This involves forwarding email from my other accounts - work, Yahoo Mail and Gmail.  Now, the Yahoo and Google email filters work fairly well but I’m finding that since forwarding I get around 100 spam emails overnight and the same or more during the day.  I’m guessing the forwarding option misses these filters.

The iPhone does not have any filtering/rule options so I end up dealing with all these mails in my inbox.  Another shortcoming is the inability to select multiple emails to delete (in this respect I prefer Pocket Outlook).  You have to do the whole swipe finger and press delete for every mail.

So, what I’ve done is take an old low power laptop, put it in my office, and leave it running Outlook connected to my exchange account. Outlook 2007 has an excellent, regularly updated spam filter, and combined with a few email rules I’ve killed 99% of the spam, so very happy.  Because of the way Exchange works, as soon as the mail is pushed to the laptop it runs the rules and diverts any spam so when I go to check my email on my iPhone, Windows mobile device or tablet PC the mail is already deleted or in the spam folder.

Now, this isn’t a solution for everyone.  You need to go to the expense of an Exchange account (I pay £30 per quarter), another copy of Outlook (luckily I had a spare licence from my M700), and also have a spare PC.  I’m also aware of the environmental impact of leaving a PC running which is why I chose an old Centrino laptop.  I’m also thinking of using the laptop for a security system to help justify leaving it running!

I’m pleased with the Exchange account overall, especially having changes to Calendar or Contacts immediately updated on all connected devices.

This entry was posted on 04/08/2008 at 12:57 pm and is filed under email, MS Exchange. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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