NFR Controlling Spam

[Evan B]

Reading the info on Brave's website it appears to have many great features. It states Invasive ads blocked but you mentioned they operate with built-in ads (not invasive..?) that become irritating. Brave mentions there is no tracking but would they use tracking with their built-in ads..? I don't mind a few ads so long as they don't become over powering and irritating..

I looked at Vivaldi's website but it appears to be similar to Brave's. Vivaldi mentions providing a increase in speed but I didn't see mention of that on Brave's website. What are the major differences between the two or which would be the preferred browser..?

I just find Vivaldi to have more/better features, and doesn't serve up annoying ads. Brave has ad popups in the corner of the screen. I've heard mixed things on whether or not they're recording browsing data to serve them up.

But I like Firefox better than either.

 

[cdnred]

I just find Vivaldi to have more/better features, and doesn't serve up annoying ads. Brave has ad popups in the corner of the screen. I've heard mixed things on whether or not they're recording browsing data to serve them up.

But I like Firefox better than either.

I think I'll stay with browser for a bit longer and see how things go before changing over. Should I decide to change, I think I'll give Vivaldi a go to see how it goes for performance..

Thanks for your input, much appreciated..

 

[Evan B]

I think I'll stay with browser for a bit longer and see how things go before changing over. Should I decide to change, I think I'll give Vivaldi a go to see how it goes for performance..

Thanks for your input, much appreciated..

There's no harm in downloading one to try out. It's not a big commitment to just mess around in it for a bit. You can always remove it or not use it.

 

[cdnred]

On another topic on website security. I've been using Norton 360 for about 20 years but now I'm finding that their tech support is not very knowledgeable, inefficient and not much help which I'm paying about $60 per year which will expire in about 60 days. I'm rather disappointed with Norton and thinking of switching over to another security provider..

I've heard many bad reviews on McAfee so that's off the list. Any recommendations for what programs to use for secure internet security..?

 

[Evan B]

On another topic on website security. I've been using Norton 360 for about 20 years but now I'm finding that their tech support is not very knowledgeable, inefficient and not much help which I'm paying about $60 per year which will expire in about 60 days. I'm rather disappointed with Norton and thinking of switching over to another security provider..

I've heard many bad reviews on McAfee so that's off the list. Any recommendations for what programs to use for secure internet security..?

Only the things I've listed. You don't need a "security suite." it's snake oil. Use a good browser, a good ad blocker, and be careful what you download. If you're on windows, make sure your defender us on. You don't need anything else.

 

[Capt Insano Emeritis]

I find myself going all over the internet for either shopping, articles or humor. I'm running Firefox for my browser, Yahoo for my email and Norton for security. For awhile now I've noticed that more and more websites are now requiring or forcing you to accept their cookies to continue to use their site. Some websites allow you to manage the cookie settings while other make you accept all cookies. Prior to this my Yahoo did a good job of directing Spam to the Spam folder. The last couple of months it seems I'm getting inundated with Spam going directly to my Inbox and sometimes I get 3 or 4 emails that are identical. It appears now that we have to accept receiving this Spam as time goes on. I don't mind cookies that help with the performance of the site but I feel that on some sites my info is being sold to advertisers and spammers which I'm against..

Have others noticed this pattern and any ideas to help reduce this unwanted Spam..? Maybe this is something I need to discuss with Norton to see if they have some suggestions..

Yes in the last week. I had a dozen a day the last few mornings . Marked as Spam with yahoo-but of course they keep coming. Any situation where i have “won” something gets marked as spam and back it comes . The sophistication of these spam emails has become more convincing yet nothing is free. So i delete or mark. Lately a lot of Fedex posts real ones and faux that have a “package they have been trying to deliver. Part of the issue is I refuse to have to provide my email address to unsubscribe from receiving this crap . Then there are companies and software fixes for spam prevention. Those in essence are scams as well. Living with this morning ritual. I should not have to pay for additionally endless arrays of various wallet drainers. On a fixed income and this should not be happening

 

[Evan B]

Yes in the last week. I had a dozen a day the last few mornings . Marked as Spam with yahoo-but of course they keep coming. Any situation where i have “won” something gets marked as spam and back it comes . The sophistication of these spam emails has become more convincing yet nothing is free. So i delete or mark. Lately a lot of Fedex posts real ones and faux that have a “package they have been trying to deliver. Part of the issue is I refuse to have to provide my email address to unsubscribe from receiving this crap . Then there are companies and software fixes for spam prevention. Those in essence are scams as well. Living with this morning ritual. I should not have to pay for additionally endless arrays of various wallet drainers. On a fixed income and this should not be happening

Like said previously, the best thing you can do is to stop using Yahoo mail.

 

[SteelHeadDave]

Also, a few more thoughts I forgot to add above:

Yahoo! is pretty behind the times on just about anything other than their Sports and news products. That's where their money is at these days. You will see few if any "computer" people ever using Yahoo! for their email or search these days. It's just an inferior service, simply put.

Private Browsing/Incognito Mode seem to be pretty misunderstood. Those modes aren't really protecting you from much that regular browsing isn't. Their primary purpose is to not save your browsing history.... These modes are often jokingly (but only partially) referred to as "porn mode." They're so the next person who uses your machine can't see where you've been surfing.

Thanks for the tip man. I’m gonna start using Private Browsing/Incognito Mode from now on

 

[Capt Insano Emeritis]

Like said previously, the best thing you can do is to stop using Yahoo mail.

Its responses like this that tick me off. Had the email address for over 20 years … connected to clients past clients etc etc etc. retired for years now. Not as adept as i used to be at trouble shooting and complications…Thanks for your apparently oft repeated advice.

 

[Evan B]

Its responses like this that tick me off. Had the email address for over 20 years … connected to clients past clients etc etc etc. retired for years now. Not as adept as i used to be at trouble shooting and complications…Thanks for your apparently oft repeated advice.

Sorry to upset you, but it's the solution to the problem you've stated. There's not much you can do to fix the issues you're having with the Yahoo mail.

 

[Capt Insano Emeritis]

Sorry to upset you, but it's the solution to the problem you've stated. There's not much you can do to fix the issues you're having with the Yahoo mail.

Yeah well anonymity is my next right of passage i suppose. Thanks.

 

[Evan B]

Yeah well anonymity is my next right of passage i suppose. Thanks.

Just manage two emails - create a new one, and slowly move your friends/contacts over to that one as correspondence happens. Then keep using your Yahoo one to sign up for whatever sites might spam you. I have like 6 emails not including work to keep things separated.

 

[cdnred]

Yes in the last week. I had a dozen a day the last few mornings . Marked as Spam with yahoo-but of course they keep coming. Any situation where i have “won” something gets marked as spam and back it comes . The sophistication of these spam emails has become more convincing yet nothing is free. So i delete or mark. Lately a lot of Fedex posts real ones and faux that have a “package they have been trying to deliver. Part of the issue is I refuse to have to provide my email address to unsubscribe from receiving this crap . Then there are companies and software fixes for spam prevention. Those in essence are scams as well. Living with this morning ritual. I should not have to pay for additionally endless arrays of various wallet drainers. On a fixed income and this should not be happening

Not sure how your Yahoo inbox is laid out but I took a snap of my menu bar below. Where you see the 3 dots beside the spam tab, open that up and you'll find a "block senders" tab. Check off the spam emails that you want to get rid of, then click on the "block senders" tab and they should (?) be gone. I've tried this a few days ago and time will tell if that works..



I'm on a fixed income myself and I hate getting spam but it's become a part of life today. I understand that it's become part of doing business and nothing in life is free but spam is spam that needs to get filtered out. Spam is different then ads. We just need to be more vigilant so that it doesn't rule our life. Like I had said earlier, I don't mind seeing a few ads on websites but at times it becomes very over bearing and irritating. At that point I have to find a better way of controlling the amount that I get..

I've been with Yahoo for about the last 40 years and hate to have to change but that's part of life. I'm looking into "ProtonMail" and what's involved for changing over. The biggest issue that I see is that everyone that I know has my Yahoo email and switching over to another email account can create bigger issues but as @Evan B said, just do it slowly a few at a time and have several email accounts..

Hope that helps otherwise consider switching over to Vivaldi.

 

[Evan B]

Not sure how your Yahoo inbox is laid out but I took a snap of my menu bar below. Where you see the 3 dots beside the spam tab, open that up and you'll find a "block senders" tab. Check off the spam emails that you want to get rid of, then click on the "block senders" tab and they should (?) be gone. I've tried this a few days ago and time will tell if that works..

View attachment 53613

I'm on a fixed income myself and I hate getting spam but it's become a part of life today. I understand that it's become part of doing business and nothing in life is free but spam is spam that needs to get filtered out. Spam is different then ads. We just need to be more vigilant so that it doesn't rule our life. Like I had said earlier, I don't mind seeing a few ads on websites but at times it becomes very over bearing and irritating. At that point I have to find a better way of controlling the amount that I get..

I've been with Yahoo for about the last 40 years and hate to have to change but that's part of life. I'm looking into "ProtonMail" and what's involved for changing over. The biggest issue that I see is that everyone that I know has my Yahoo email and switching over to another email account can create bigger issues but as @Evan B said, just do it slowly a few at a time and have several email accounts..

Hope that helps otherwise consider switching over to Vivaldi.

The block sender feature is effective, but only for legit marketing emails from legit businesses. The spam emails from everywhere else are often spoofing emails or using burner email addresses, so will use a different one every time.

 

[Evan B]

@cdnred I really think that if spam is your main concern, Gmail is the best solution for you. It has no equal for spam control.

And if you're on a fixed income, ditch the paid "security" stuff. Save that money.

 

[Evan B]

As for the Antivirus thing, I'm assuming most here are using Windows. If you're on Mac OS (like @Josh ), or on Linux (like me and @Billy), you are pretty much set by default and don't need to worry about any of this.

This here is plenty enough security for just about anyone, and it comes with your computer. Paying for an antivirus service is not really necessary these days (I've never used one on any operating system on any computer I've ever used, and never once had a virus issue).

Windows Security: Defender Antivirus, SmartScreen, and More | Microsoft Windows

Protect your privacy, identity, and devices with Windows Security. Explore Windows 11 security features like Microsoft Defender Antivirus that help keep you and your PC safe.

www.microsoft.com

 

[cdnred]

As for the Antivirus thing, I'm assuming most here are using Windows. If you're on Mac OS (like @Josh ), or on Linux (like me and @Billy), you are pretty much set by default and don't need to worry about any of this.

This here is plenty enough security for just about anyone, and it comes with your computer. Paying for an antivirus service is not really necessary these days (I've never used one on any operating system on any computer I've ever used, and never once had a virus issue).

Windows Security: Defender Antivirus, SmartScreen, and More | Microsoft Windows

Protect your privacy, identity, and devices with Windows Security. Explore Windows 11 security features like Microsoft Defender Antivirus that help keep you and your PC safe.

www.microsoft.com

Currently I've been running Norton for quite a number of years which is set to expire on Apr 15, 2023. What I liked about Norton was their tech support but that has since fallen to the way side in providing much support. When my subscription expires, I'll be dropping it and switching over to using Windows Defender for my security. I saw that it's compatible for using with Firefox. I've already got a Google account setup but will start looking at transitioning some of my Yahoo email over to Google a bit at a time. Yahoo has also been a kind of thorn in my side lately with all their promoting..

Thanks for everyone's help and support in this matter, was greatly appreciated..

edit: And a very special thanks to @Evan B for all his input..

 

[wanderingrichard]

You guys got me thinking, so I checked.
I've got Hotmail, gmail , comcast mail and used to have 2 yahoo accounts ,which got hijacked/ deleted by yahoo over a decade ago, as well as two defunct accounts on the old subspacerelay site.

Fighting with yahoo to get back my two vanished accounts got so damn expensive I had to drop the suit against them. (yes, you can sue despite the eula and other claptrap they put I'm front of you. again, very expensive and there are few lawyers with the experience and wherewithall to do it)

My Hotmail account I've had since 97-98 timeframe. Maybe a bit before that. In its current iteration as an Outlook client, i receive very very few spam emails. Like, 2 per month at most. Ads are a different story, but not many.

I havent opened the comcast mail account in over 5 years. Just let it die since it wasn't helping.
Gmail is the most active for me. I get about 10 spam/phishing emails a month, most are non repeats, but I get a crap load of ads in my email and browsing.

I would love to shut off google lead service from the entire internet permanently, its that invasive and so heavily used that we'd shut down the internet in the US at least for 3-5 years if we did so.

My oldest and closest friend is an old school net security guy. Like, class of 73 University of Sarajevo or some such. Has made a very healthy living from it. He highly recommended i drop all of the US accounts and go to proton mail due to its security and encryption.

I think im goimg to hold off a bit longer until i get all my machines switched over to linux before i make the jump. it doesn't seem right to do it any other way.

 

[Evan B]

You guys got me thinking, so I checked.
I've got Hotmail, gmail , comcast mail and used to have 2 yahoo accounts ,which got hijacked/ deleted by yahoo over a decade ago, as well as two defunct accounts on the old subspacerelay site.

Fighting with yahoo to get back my two vanished accounts got so damn expensive I had to drop the suit against them. (yes, you can sue despite the eula and other claptrap they put I'm front of you. again, very expensive and there are few lawyers with the experience and wherewithall to do it)

My Hotmail account I've had since 97-98 timeframe. Maybe a bit before that. In its current iteration as an Outlook client, i receive very very few spam emails. Like, 2 per month at most. Ads are a different story, but not many.

I havent opened the comcast mail account in over 5 years. Just let it die since it wasn't helping.
Gmail is the most active for me. I get about 10 spam/phishing emails a month, most are non repeats, but I get a crap load of ads in my email and browsing.

I would love to shut off google lead service from the entire internet permanently, its that invasive and so heavily used that we'd shut down the internet in the US at least for 3-5 years if we did so.

My oldest and closest friend is an old school net security guy. Like, class of 73 University of Sarajevo or some such. Has made a very healthy living from it. He highly recommended i drop all of the US accounts and go to proton mail due to its security and encryption.

I think im goimg to hold off a bit longer until i get all my machines switched over to linux before i make the jump. it doesn't seem right to do it any other way.

Woohoo! Anther Linux convert,

 

[Capt Insano Emeritis]

Just manage two emails - create a new one, and slowly move your friends/contacts over to that one as correspondence happens. Then keep using your Yahoo one to sign up for whatever sites might spam you. I have like 6 emails not including work to keep things separated.

I really abhor that kind of sheet. Endless logins to keep track of …already have that. You revel in that kind of stuff. I begrudgingly have an Iphone. For 3 years now its all i use. But do I get this phone jive? Not particularly.

As for the Antivirus thing, I'm assuming most here are using Windows. If you're on Mac OS (like @Josh ), or on Linux (like me and @Billy), you are pretty much set by default and don't need to worry about any of this.

This here is plenty enough security for just about anyone, and it comes with your computer. Paying for an antivirus service is not really necessary these days (I've never used one on any operating system on any computer I've ever used, and never once had a virus issue).

Windows Security: Defender Antivirus, SmartScreen, and More | Microsoft Windows

Protect your privacy, identity, and devices with Windows Security. Explore Windows 11 security features like Microsoft Defender Antivirus that help keep you and your PC safe.

www.microsoft.com

Mac OS here. Macs since 88- quadra was my first. I reflect on all I knew, beta testing and hacking my Macs for upgrades and tweeks. Now I’ll ask a 7 year old. Cell phones- are putting me in a curfuddle often.