Many companies have tried to offer Spam solutions that are based primarily on filtering technology. But, most of these products and services have not worked well in practice – ingenious spammers have learned work arounds by constantly changing their fake e-mail addresses and text to avoid blocking filters. It’s been a war of attrition to date and spammers have been wining so far!

I am pleased to report that one company has developed an elegant but simple solution that has blocked 100% of Spam that was sent to me during a test period of five days. The company is DigiPortal Software, Inc. www.digiportal.com and their Spam killer application is called ChoiceMail. It works extremely well, is easy to setup and only costs $29.95 (introductory price) and they even offer a fourteen-day trial period for no charge to test drive product. And, solution runs on your desktop and does not necessitate your working with a third party server and doesn’t require any service charges. Most importantly, it puts burden of proof on Spammers, forcing them to have your permission to contact you.

Here is how DigiPortal’s clever solution and software work: You download or purchase software and install it on your PC (sorry PC version only right now) and setup your approval list by exporting your address book. From that point forward ChoiceMail automatically assumes all inbound e-mail is Spam and it blocks any e-mail that is not on an approved list that you have created.

First, you need to realize that Spam is part of doing business online and there's really no escaping it. But that doesn't mean you can't rid yourself of it by using right tools and arming yourself for daily battle.

There are many excellent tools, some even free that will help you fight war on Spam and Win! Let's review some of my personal favorites:

1) SpamNet: http://www.CloudMark.com

This excellent piece of software is a relative newcomer and free to download. It only works with Outlook and runs invisibly in background of your mail program. The software adds 2 new buttons at top of Outlook's interface named "block" and "unblock" and adds a "Spam folder" where it puts all of Spam it finds so you can review it if you want before deletion.

If you get a piece of junk when you download your mail, just hit block button. This sends it and whatever sender tries to mail you in future straight to Spam folder. It also casts your vote to CloudMark and when they receive enough complaints on a sender that mail is automatically labeled as Spam.

If, after reviewing Spam folder, you find something that doesn't belong there, just highlight it and click "unblock" button to bring sender back in to your inbox forever more. Right now this software only works with Outlook, but there is talk about a version for Outlook Express coming soon.I've been using this software for a few months and am very pleased with results. Runs on Win 98/NT/2000/XP.

2) MailWasher: http://www.MailWasher.net

Another ad-supported free piece of software that works beautifully. I've been using this with my Outlook Express accounts and couldn't be happier. You run Mailwasher before downloading your mail from your server. It automatically marks mail it suspects as Spam - then you can designate sender as a "friend" or blacklist him with just a click. You then click "process mail" and any "bad" email is bounced back to sender and good stuff is sent to your inbox.

You can upgrade Mailwasher to an ad-free version by sending a donation to its creators. Believe me, you'll love it so much you'll want to send them money for all headaches this software will save you. It can be configured to check multiple accounts so it's great if you're managing multiple identities and boxes.It does not support web based accounts like Hotmail or Yahoo, but a version is supposedly underway for them. Runs on Win 95/98/ME/NT4/ 2000/XP

3) SpamBuster: http://www.Contactplus.com/products/spam/spam.htm

The free version of this software is ad-supported, which means it displays banners at top. If you spend 19.95 and register it, ads are removed. Before using your POP mail account you run SpamBuster, which looks for junk and comes complete with a list of over 17,000 known spammers. It checks your email periodically for new messages and provides stats and charts of how much Spam you're actually receiving. Also Works with AOL, Hotmail, or Yahoo! accounts. Works on Win 95/98/2000/ME/NT/XP

4) MailShell: http://www.MailShell.com