You probably know the routine - tons of unwanted messages swamping your email inbox with offers and promises of everything from miracle drugs to low mortgage rates. If this sounds familiar, you have probably wondered what is being done to stop this flood of spam.

For those unfamiliar with the term, spam is considered to be bulk, unsolicited e-mail usually of a commercial nature. In other words, spam messages are trying to sell you something.

PenTeleData has a vast amount of resources devoted to helping you fight the spam in your inbox. With a combination of the following methods in place, PenTeleData makes every effort to reduce the volume of spam traversing our network.

• Blacklists
• Spam Tagging
• Education
• Promail

Blacklists are the first line of defense against incoming spam. Blacklists are lists of

known spammers used by e-mail servers to refuse incoming e-mail from senders on the blacklist. PenTeleData subscribes to three wellknown blacklists and also maintains its own.

The second line of defense against incoming spam is PenTeleData’s spam tagging system. The spam tagging system works by scanning incoming e-mail messages for certain characteristics and assigns points for each spam-like characteristic. When the message scan is completed, the points are totaled - anything above a certain number of points is tagged as possible spam. The "tag" is placed in the subject line of the message so that it can be easily identified and sorted out once it reaches the recipient’s inbox. So, the next time you see a message in your inbox with "***SPAMTAGPTD:" in the subject - you’ll know that our spam tagging system is working.

PenTeleData also attempts to educate you with information via e-mail, newsletters, and website postings. Our quarterly newsletters are emailed

emailed to you and often contain tips on how to protect your computer. Email alerts are sent to you during major virus outbreaks as well. All newsletters are published on the PenTeleData website along with other useful information.

The newest addition to PenTeleData’s arsenal against spam is an e-mail server called Promail. This server aims to prevent outgoing spam from leaving the PenTeleData network via our mail server. The Promail server requires a valid username and password to send e-mail, and it also verifies that the e-mail address appearing in the "From" line of every outgoing e-mail message is a valid PenTeleData e-mail address with a mailbox on the server. If a message fails this verification, it will not be sent.

Some industry experts believe that the only way to rid the Internet of spam is to completely re-design the entire e-mail system. Some other options that have been proposed include charging postage to send an e-mail, much like the postal service, and "challenge-response" methods.

Congratulations to James Crowley of Saylorsburg, Pa. James was the winner of a Family 4-Pack of tickets to see the Red Barons.

Below are the questions, answers and the theme to July's Customer Contest.

1. What was the name of the 1981 martial arts film, also known as Naked Fist, directed by Cirio H. Santiago? - (Firecracker)
2. What was the title of the recording artist/rocker Joan Jett's album released in 1995? - (Cherry Bomb)
3. What is the name of the band that originated out of Anchorage, Alaska in 1998 and can be considered the best rock and roll band in the state of Alaska? - (The Roman Candles)

Theme: Types of Fireworks

- Give the correct answer to all three questions listed below.
- Then figure out the theme (what they all have in common).

To enter you must answer all three questions to the right and what the theme is between them. Send an e-mail to chat@corp.ptd.net with the following information:

your name, address, daytime phone, number (where we can contact you), three answers to the questions and the theme.

All entries must be received by 10/31/04.

Good Luck! PenTeleData

1. Christopher Columbus was Italian, but what country actually funded his voyage?
2. What society was the first to celebrate Columbus Day, in New York on October 12, 1792, marking the 300th anniversary of Columbus’s landing?
3. What president set aside Columbus Day as a United States holiday?

You’ve already heard and perhaps used the new PenTeleData mail server, Promail. What you may still be wondering is why do we have a new mail server, and what is so different about it?

First, let’s look at the current e-mail system. Since e-mail’s inception, mail servers were configured to relay mail for anyone who was ‘local.’ The term ‘local’ meant that your computer was connected to the same network as the mail server. Our existing mail server, mail.ptd.net, is configured in this manner. The two biggest problems with this method are: a) spam is very easily relayed from a local virus-infected computer through the mail server and out onto the Internet, and b) customers can not send e-mail when they are not connected to the PenTeleData network (e.g. when they are traveling). The current solution for the traveler is to use PenTeleData’s web-based e-mail system, T.W.I.G., to send and receive mail, or they must configure their computer to send mail through the local mail server depending on their location. For the average traveling user, this can be a complex process and a headache to constantly change settings.

Enter Promail. The new Promail server uses several methods to combat spam and simultaneously solve the problem of the traveling customer trying to send e-mail. First, rather than simply relaying e-mail for those who are ‘local’, Promail requests a username and password for anyone attempting to establish a connection. Without a valid username and password, a connection cannot be established and mail cannot be sent. This process is called SMTP Authentication. SMTP Authentication assists with both of the main issues - it will help prevent virus-infected computers from easily relaying spam messages through the mail server, and it will allow a traveling customer to provide a username and password to send e-mail from anywhere.

The second method Promail uses to combat the spam problem is called Sender Verification. Every time a piece of mail is sent, Promail will check to ensure that the e-mail address listed

on the "From" line of the message is a valid PenTeleData email address with a mailbox on the server. If this is not the case, the message will not be sent. Promail will also make it easier to determine which user sent a particular e-mail message - the username provided to send the e-mail will be found in the header of the message.

Finally, the Promail server also supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a protocol used to establish secure connections between computers. This means that those who are concerned about others intercepting their e-mail messages can establish secure, encrypted connections to the Promail server for both sending and receiving e-mail.

Promail went online for use by our own employees on July 1, 2004 and all customers were informed of the new server in mid-August. The existing server, mail.ptd.net, will be permanently shut down on July 11, 2006, and customers will be sent reminders periodically to switch over to the Promail server prior to that date.