Top 10 Most Popular Anti-Spam Tips, Tricks and Secrets

Spam, spam and spam. How to avoid spam, how to filter spam, and how to complain about spam are the items on this menu of junk mail fighting tips.
Only the tips most popular with other email users make it to this page, but other can be just as useful:

All Spam Fighting Tips
Spam Filtering Software and Services

1) Don't Use Your Primary Email Address to Sign Up for Anything
You never know what might happen to an email address you use to sign up for Web sites or newsletters. It might be passed on to spammers.

2) Stop Spam with Disposable Email Addresses
Once your email address gets in the hands of spammers, you will get spam. Lots of it. Find out how to use disposable email addresses to dispose of spam (and spammers) effectively.


3) Disguise Your Email Address in Newsgroups, Forums, Blog Comments, Chat
Make it more difficult for spammers to get your address by obfuscating it when you use it in newsgroups, forums and the like.

4) Use Disposable Email Addresses at Your Web Site
Disposable email addresses can put an end to the spam you get from mentioning your email address on your home page.

5) Ignore Delivery Failures of Messages You Did Not Send
If you wonder why you are getting delivery failures for messages you know you did not send, the cause may be a worm or a spammer, and it's probably not on your computer.

6) How to Report Spam with SpamCop
Complain about spam the right way easily with SpamCop, which does all the analyzing for you and generates a perfect complaint email, too.

7) Use a Good Anti-Spam Program
Achieve a near spam-free email account by employing one of the great anti-spam tools that filter junk mail using all kinds of clever strategies.

8) How Long, Complicated Email Addresses Beat Spammers
Spam will, eventually, make it to any mailbox. Any? Here's how to make it hard for spammers to guess your address.

9) Domain Owners: Set up Throwaway Addresses to Fight Spam
Create email addresses for use in sign-up forms on the fly to identify — and radically ban — sources of spam.

10) Assume Mail from Unknown Senders is Spam
I don't know you... you must be a spammer! Here's how to use your email address book to identify and filter spam.

Top 3 Internet Speed Test Sites

If your Internet connection seems slow, the first step is to actually benchmark it at an Internet speed test site. An Internet speed test can give you a fairly accurate indication of how much bandwidth is available to you at the current time.
Whether you have high speed broadband or a dial-up Internet connection, an Internet speed test can help determine if you're speeding along the Information Superhighway as fast as you should be.
There are literally hundreds of Internet speed test sites out there. Skip the not-so-great ones and check out the Top 3 Internet Speed Test Sites listed below:

1) Speedtest.net Internet Speed Test
Of all the Internet speed test sites out there, this one is the winner by a landslide! It's fast, free and graphically appealing with a speedometer-like display. A huge list of worldwide test locations are available making for very accurate results. The nearest one is automatically calculated based on your IP address which is very handy.
Speedtest.net also keeps a log of all the Internet speed tests that you perform and creates an attractive results graphic you can send to your friends or post online.
Speedtest.net is operated by Ookla, a major provider of speed test technology to many sites, like Speakeasy.

2) AuditMyPC.com Internet Speed Test
Another great Internet speed test site is this one hosted at AuditMyPC.com. While there are no multiple server locations to choose from, the results are very easy to read and have been fairly accurate based in my tests.
Like most other bandwidth speed test sites available, this site tests both download bandwidth and upload bandwidth.


3) CNET Bandwidth Meter Speed Test
The CNET Bandwidth Meter Speed Test is an Internet speed test like most others and I've found it to be fairly accurate. This site differs in its ability to rank your connection next to others from the same ISP. I highly recommend this Internet speed test in addition to the others on this page based on this feature.
One important thing to note about this Internet speed test is that it only tests the download bandwidth for your connection. Most internet speed test sites test both the download and upload bandwidth for your Internet connection. Still, this is a great tool considering the comparison features.

Top 7 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer

Everyone knows that Windows computers can sometimes slow down over time. While not an exhaustive list of solutions to problems, this collection presents six ways to speed up a computer. Complete with step-by-step instructions and numerous screen shots, even novice computer users can follow these steps. The steps and screen shots are intended for Windows XP users, but users of other Windows versions can follow a similar process.

1) Defragment Your Hard Drive
Over time, the data on your hard drive gets scattered. Defragmenting your hard drive puts your data back into sequential order, making it easier for Windows to access it. As a result, the performance of your computer will improve.

2) Scan Your Hard Disk
Has your computer ever crashed, making it impossible to shut it down properly? Have you ever experienecd a power outage? These problems and others can cause damage to your system files. Windows provides a utility called scandisk that will automatically detect and fix much of the damage, improving your system's performance in the process.

3) Scan for Viruses
Viruses can wreak havoc on your computer. Detecting and cleaning viruses is an excellent way to improve your system's performance. There are many antivirus programs to choose from, but the About Guide to Antivirus Software provides a list of the Top 7 Antivirus Programs for Windows.


4) Check for Spyware and Adware
Spyware is software that allows companies to monitor what websites you visit or even access your computer. Adware is software that displays advertisements. Both use system resources and slow your computer down. Detecting and removing the programs will improve system performance.

5) Uninstall Unneeded Programs
Removing programs that you no longer use can free up space on your computer and speed up your system's performance. However, you need to uninstall the programs properly to see much improvement; deleting them is not enough.

6) Adjust Visual Effects for Better Performance
Windows XP provides a number of interesting visual effects like animated windows and fading menus. These effects, however, can slow down your computer. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to customize the visual effects to match your preferences and performance needs.

7) Stop Programs from starting on Windows boot
One way you can speed up your computer is to prevent programs from launching themselves at start-up. Not only do the unwanted programs delay the start of Windows, they also continue to slow down your computer since they use system resources.