One such service, SpamArrest.com, forces email senders to go to a website and type in a random word before their email gets delivered. This service has gained a lot of popularity lately and seems reasonably effective.

** Use a Temporary Email

Maintain a public and private email address and never give your private email to anyone other than family and friends.

Go sign up for a free email account with Hotmail.com or mail.yahoo.com to use whenever you subscribe to a newsletter or request a free report. That way, if spam ever gets too bad, you can simply abandon free account and open another.

Your private email address should remain safe because nobody will know it except people you trust.

** Never Post Your Email

Never post your private email address in forums, guest books, news groups or on a website. Spammers use little robots that comb Internet looking for email addresses they can collect and sell to others.

Always use a free account or set it up so you can shut off exposed email address once spam gets too bad.

** Abandon Ship

Shut down your current account and just start over! This may seem a drastic move, but it may represent best course of action if your sanity or your email box can't handle another offer for sexual enhancements, a great business opportunity, or a free cruise.

Notify everyone you want to know your new email address and get on with life.

One man in another country tracked down my father hundreds of miles out to sea on a ship simply by knowing how to use Internet. ** Upon arriving at Mr. Price's office we met not only with Mr. Price, but also with editor and senior reporter of one of nation's two major newspapers, The Belize Times http://www.belizetimes.bz

Apparently my parent's return after 40 years rated quite a news story since Peace Corps and similar organizations played a vital role in helping fledgling nation take hold.

When I asked if we could get a copy of article, reporter told me it would appear on Internet next week!

It turns out they not only publish their newspaper in print, but also publish most of each edition online so friends of Belize all over world can keep up with current events.

These dedicated newspaper people manage to publish an entire weekly newspaper and distribute content not only nationally, but internationally via Internet.

They literally use power of Internet to influence course of an entire nation.

Even more amazing, information technology allows them to do it all without a huge staff or massive budget.

But to bring it back to a more personal level, upon arriving back at port to catch our ship, our tour guide handed me her card and said, "Here's my card. When you or your friends come back to Belize, email me and we'll make all arrangements for you."

Wow!

Now that's power and reach of Internet to impact people's lives on so many levels and draw us all closer together as one global community - one person at a time.