ISP mail filtering

50Twuncle

My ISP (TalkTalkBusiness) provides mail filtering - but this only works for web mail - ie) Not for Emails received through Outlook/Thunderbird etc
I am assuming, also that any, so called free, Antivirus, similarly only works for Web mail and so offers me zero protection from unwanted additions ?
How many ISP's use this useless method of protection ?

RumRat

Avast free protects your mail with mail shield. The filtering of your email would be done before it's downloaded to your email client as far as spam etc is concerned. Plus you could add your own filters in the rules etc.
Maybe I'm not understanding your problem correctly..

50Twuncle

RumRat wrote: »

Avast free protects your mail with mail shield. The filtering of your email would be done before it's downloaded to your email client as far as spam etc is concerned. Plus you could add your own filters in the rules etc.
Maybe I'm not understanding your problem correctly..

The problem is that - recently, I have been receiving spam with additional attachments (ie emails purporting to be simple "emails returned / undelivered" which I didn't send in the first place) - some of these had infected attachments - which were filtered out by my ISP (ie didn't appear in webmail - but, obviously, got through to my email clients !!)
I was able to delete them without opening them - but am obviously concerned !!

RumRat

Strange, Thunderbird only downloads what is in the Web-mail folders in my case. So if it's not there on the web TB can't download it.
Unless it's downloading so fast that it gets it before the filters have taken effect on the web??
I have no immediate answer for the problem but will ponder it....I guess asking TT if they know why might give some answers..

50Twuncle

RumRat wrote: »

Strange, Thunderbird only downloads what is in the Web-mail folders in my case. So if it's not there on the web TB can't download it.
Unless it's downloading so fast that it gets it before the filters have taken effect on the web??
I have no immediate answer for the problem but will ponder it....I guess asking TT if they know why might give some answers..

TTB are useless - it is beyond their comprehension
They claim to have stopped the "spam" by altering the level of protection by increasing the level a notch - funny thing is I had it set on max as it was !!
I received 4 more spam messages this morning - all got through TT's filter - none appeared on webmail though !!

macman

The reason is surely that using webmail gives you instant access to your spam filter. If ISP's filtered your desktop email, then you'd have to log into the webmail side to check your spam filter.
ISP's can't win: if they underfilter, then some numpty will click on an executable attachment and get ransomware, and if they overfilter, a crucial email will go into the spam folder and not be spotted for months. They can't be expected to gauge the intelligence of their customers.
I've found Gmail filtering so reliable that I hardly ever bother checking my spam now.

almillar

50Twunkle - just get off ISP emails. GMail, Outlook (Hotmail), Yahoo won't cause hassle if you move ISP. They have plenty of filtering (they have much more spam to deal with than TT!).

50Twuncle

almillar wrote: »

50Twunkle - just get off ISP emails. GMail, Outlook (Hotmail), Yahoo won't cause hassle if you move ISP. They have plenty of filtering (they have much more spam to deal with than TT!).

I have hundreds of contacts - who all use my TT address !!

rmg1

The easy way around that is to send them all a BCC email with your new address on it (either from the new address or as a link). If you use BCC, no-one gets anyone else's email address so relatively secure.

You can set up gmail to retrieve emails form your TT address automatically for a while.

I did the same thing a few years ago and the hardest part of it was moving all the emails from the TT server to the Gmail ones. Although, using TB, I set up identical folders in the gmail address as my TT address and just did a drag/drop excercise on each folder (took me about an hour all told).

RumRat

I'd second the move to gmail or gmx or similar.....The move is pretty painless. Check this out for a guide.....Transfer EMail from ISP to Gmail

almillar

As above 50Twuncle it'll take a while for them all to get the message, but they'll move. AND your new email address won't receive any spam (for a while).
If you've got a contact list IN Talktalk email, there'll be options to export them.
Save a draft email somewhere to paste into a reply to each email you get to TT advising of your new address. It really shouldn't be too time consuming.
And anticipating your next question, I would choose GMail, especially if you have Android devices.