Recently, unsolicited email, also known as spam, has become a major concern of many of our members. At CIS Internet™, we are constantly trying to improve our spam filtering, however, there are also several things that you can do yourself to help keep the level of spam that you recieve to a minimum. Here are some tips to help you. As always, if you have any further questions about what you can do to help protect yourself from spam, email us, and we'll be glad to help you.

• Don't pick an email address that's easy to guess
  Spammers use many tools to obtain email adresses, the least sophisticated of which is dictionary spamming, also known as simple word spamming. What this means is that they send to regular names like Joe or Bob. Therefore, an email address like joe@wv-cis.net would obviously be an easier target than joesmail@wv-cis.net or even joe76@wv-cis.net.
• Don't sign up for everything that asks for your email address
  The email newsletter from your local community organization or hobby club is probably pretty safe, but when you need to give an email address in order to get a free software download, it is usually a good idea to have a yahoo or gmail email account. Accounts like this are free, and you can use them to register for downloads or other times you are worried about getting spam. Best of all, these accounts are not resident on your computer.
• Don't reply to spam you have already recieved
  Many people make this mistake, thinking that if they reply to these messages and ask to be taken off the list, that they will be. However, unlike a telemarketer, a spammer is under no obligation to take you off of his list just because you politely ask him to. In fact, this means he now has validated proof that one of the email accounts he is spamming is an active email account with a real user on the other end. Basically, don't reply to an email from a company you've never heard of. Some spam has an area at the bottom of the message that says something to the effect of "click here to be removed from this mailing list." Just consider the source before clicking the link. A reputable company like Best Buy or Wal-Mart will probably remove you from their mailing list if you ask, the people peddling fake Rolexes and discount pills will probably sell your address as a guaranteed active email address.
• Be careful what you install
  Some software, while it seems harmless enough, actually can provide a "backdoor" into your computer. What this means is this: if someone knows how, they are able to gain access to your computer and use your email address as the address that their spam is "coming from." An example of such a program would be Weatherbug. Unfortunately, many computer manufacturers accept payments from Weatherbug and other such software companies in exchange for putting their software on new computers (We must, at this time, point out that this is not the purpose of Weatherbug, or most programs like it. It is also not the intention of computer manufacturers. Neither party is out to intentionally harm you. We merely mean to point out that it is possible to abuse some programs in this way.). If you want to learn more about what not to download, please visit our Internet Safety Page. If you think your computer may have software of this nature on it, goto our Malicious Software Removal Page.
• Keep up to date
  Another good thing to do, especially if you already have spam coming in, is to keep your computer up-to-date. Today more than ever, you can't be too secure on the internet. Be sure to do the following:

1. Keep Windows up to date
   If all of the Windows Updates are done, your computer is less vulnerable to many different kinds of security threats. Visit Windows Update here.
2. Have up-to-date antivirus and anti-spyware protection
   If you need more information on antivirus and anti-spyware software, we have a Software Solutions page to help you in finding a solution that's right for you.