How To Keep Your E-mail Off The “Naughty” List

Someone’s making a list and checking it twice; but it isn’t Santa. Due to rising e-mail abuse and spam, hundreds of servers at various companies now monitor e-mail accounts to make sure those accounts are not sending out mass e-mails. If that e-mail account is assumed to be sending spam it is put on the “blacklist”. Once on the blacklist, your e-mail account is virtually SHUT DOWN because your e-mail is blocked by hundreds or thousands of servers and your message can’t be delivered. Big companies who give out e-mail addresses like AOL, Google, and Comcast, for example, will cut off e-mail service to anyone who sends an e-mail to a large number of people at once. Because of this, even if you or your employees innocently send a message to 100 of your clients, you could be without e-mail for days or weeks. So, how do you avoid this costly & frustrating downtime to happen to you? Read these tips to find out:

Protect Your Server. Spammers LOVE to find e-mail servers that don’t have a proper firewall , anti-virus, and intrusion protection. They get a high from hacking in to these servers and then using them to send out thousands of e-mails. Plus, with no protection in place, tracking and catching these spammers is nearly impossible. The right protection will also prevent malware from being installed on your server, which can automatically send spam without human interaction.

Don’t Allow Employees To Forward Messages. Unless it is for work-only related purposes, make a policy that no one is to forward messages like jokes, photos or videos outside the company. If just 4 of your employees send out this kind of an e-mail to 30 of their contacts, that’s well over 100 people receiving junk mail on the same day from the same e-mail server. This puts you at high risk of being blacklisted.

Have Your Clients and Prospects “Opt-In”. Sometimes companies end up on the blacklist because someone on your list complained and reported your message as spam. If you have your clients and prospects agree via an opt-in form that they want to receive communication from you and confirm their permission, then you’ll have better protection against that. Also make sure you keep good records of these opt-ins. That way, even if you do get blacklisted, you should be back up and running fairly quickly.

Make Sure Your E-mail Is Set-Up Properly. In addition to protecting yourself from hackers and invasions with software and firewalls, you also need to be sure that your e-mail is configured correctly and is set-up to block outside relays. If you’ve got the wrong settings in your e-mail account, you could wind up blacklisted, without any e-mail for days or weeks,

Keep Your E-mail List Up-To-Date. If someone asks to be removed from your list and you continue to send messages to him, the changes of him reporting your company as a spammer is pretty high. Avoid this by using in-house lists (instead of purchasing one) and contacting your list to verify the information.

For Help With Keeping Your E-mail Up & Running And Off The Blacklist, Contact Us By December 31st For A FREE Blacklist Avoidance Assessment (A $295 Value!)

(508) 992-2541

Stop Malware Before It Destroys Your Data: 5 Simple Ways To Prevent Damage From Viruses & Spyware

#1. Install Business Grade Anti-Virus Software

The proliferation of free anti-virus applications has enticed many business owners to be penny wise and pound foolish. These programs are lacking several areas of protection vital to keeping a business network secure, and licensing is usually restricted to non-commercial use. We deploy only industrial strength protection products for our Network Headache Eliminator clients. They keep you safe without slowing you down.

#2. Install Real Time Anti-Spyware Protection

Over the last 12 months, spyware has grown from an annoyance to the #1 threat to your data. It is critical that business computers have real time protection (sometimes referred to as active protection) against spyware in addition to virus protection. Unfortunately most real time anti-spyware products conflict with anti-virus software. Our Network Headache Eliminator clients receive the benefit of our extensive testing ensuring they receive maximum protection and compatibility.

#3. Keep Anti-malware Software Updated & Running

Anti-virus and anti-spyware software must be updated every few hours. We monitor each system on our Network Headache Eliminator and push updates as soon as they are available from the software vendor. We also monitor and immediately restart your protection should it be turned off by the user, system error or previously unknown threat.

#4. Don’t Click On Email Links Or Attachments

We cannot say this often enough and this is the #1 reason given when we receive a call complaining about a possible infection. Links in a malicious email don’t send you to the location promised. Instead they redirect you to a malicious website. If you aren’t expecting an email with an attachment, it is likely malicious even if sent from friend.

#5. Use A Hardware Based Firewall Or UTM

Firewalls and Unified Threat Management (UTM) devices are a must for every business network. They are the first line of defense against viruses, spyware, spam and hackers. UTMs can block access to known bad websites and more.

For more ideas on protecting your network call us at

508-992-2541 or send an email to support@thinktechonline.com