Spam got you down? Gmail may be the answer!

Posted by Paul Mayson on June 21, 2008

Being in the tech business, a top five question is always, “what do I do about all this spam?  I get [insert variable ranging from 15 to 700 here] junk messages a day.”  Usually the person that gets 15 pieces of spam is the most dramatic, but, junk mail is a problem.  I personally get about 500 pieces of spam a day.  Or, I should say, USED TO GET.  Now, about 10 make it through to my inbox.  

What’s my secret?  Did I install super filters?  Am I running some proprietary application?  Unusually high fiber intake?  Well, no, no, and yes… but the fiber has nothing to do with it.  My trick is Gmail.  They have a remarkable filtering ability that I have found to make email useful again.  Here’s how I set it up as an individual…

One: Set up a Gmail Account

Go to http://gmail.com and click the link to Set up a New Account.  You’ll be asked to fill out a little form.  You’re on your way…

Two: Configure your new account

First you’ll want to add the account(s) that you want to be able to “send as”.  So, through Gmail, you’ll be able to send mail as “you@yourdomain.com” if you’d want to.  To do this, click Settings, then the Accounts tab.  Click Add New Account and go through the steps. You can see I have multiple accounts set up.  

Next you’ll want to enable POP and IMAP for your account.  I use IMAP.  The big difference is if you use IMAP, a message will appear in Gmail and it will also appear on all of the devices you have that check this account (cell phone, Outlook, Mail.app, Entourage, Home computer, work computer, whatev’).  Then, when you delete a message on your phone, it gets deleted at all locations.  I like to work that way - saves time.  If there’s an important message I need to file, I just leave it on my phone or remote device, then when I’m back at the office, I file it on that machine.

Three: Get your emails to funnel into that new Gmail account.

You have a number of options here.  The one I like best is to just set up a forwarder on my webhost’s server.  That way, as soon as a message comes in, it’s dished to Gmail, but a copy remains back on the server.  Then I clean that up once a month or whenever I remember.  Check with your host, but with our control panel (DirectAdmin), it’s quite easy:

So, here’s what’s happening.  All of your mail is being collected by that single Gmail account.  Now, you have to tell all of your devices and applications to check that account.  Google has great instructions for both POP and IMAP, and I’d be wasting my fingers re-typing.  Once you set up your clients, you’ll be getting all the advantages of your favorite mail application that you know and love, only with a healthy dose of Google’s filtering power.

This does take a little time to set up, but with the amount of junk mail it protects me from, it was completely worth it.  Hope you find it useful…

 

Filed Under Applications, Email, Features, Productivity, Sites 

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