These days spam has become the most annoying word in our day to day lives; however this article will provide you an insight about the types of the spam blockers which are available and their features. Basically the spam blockers are of three different types:

1.    Integrated: This is one of the most popular spams filtering software. As this software is installed it will have a close watch on your email and you would have some additional buttons in the software of your email. After the installation of this you will have an option whether to mark your mail as spam or not a spam, or even bounce the mail back to the sender. However there are wide range of options available in this software with different buttons in different positions but the functions remain the same. Another benefit of this blocker is that these blockers suspectively will place the email into a separate folder so that you can review them at a later stage at your discretion. The new versions are so effective these days that they just track down the difference between the spam mails and put them in the junk mails. Some of the popular spam blocker software’s are Qurb eTrust Anti Spam, iHate Spam and Spam Bully. This is the most apt choice for the users who just want a one click solution to segregate the email and the junk mail. This software is one of the best and the simplest solution to the routine spam mails. The only disadvantage with this software is that they are mail specific like some work only with outlook express. So before purchasing ensure that this feature is not present.

2.    Standalone: A standalone spam blocker is a separate piece of software that is been installed in your system for checking the email spam.  The first thing which you will have to ensure is the launch of the spam blocker software first and then process your emails on your server after this launch the regular email software so that you can download them. The biggest benefit which is facilitated by this software is that you can view the mail on your mail server first before it comes on to your PC. This feature helps you in downloading the mails which you need and deleting the ones which you are not intending to read. The stand alone spam blocker requires some extra effort as you need to configure the spam blocker every time before you open your mail. This spam caters to the need of some specific class of people. Further this spam blocker is not software specific. The most popular stand alone spam blocker is Mail washer Pro.

3.    Online Spam blocker: The online spam blocker has been developed for two purposes i.e.; for the business and personal use. The typical example of the business mail is the iHate wherein the software automatically deletes the junk mails even without the review of the person. This is particularly used in the large scale companies.  An example of the online software is Spam arrest.

Over the past several weeks, my mail server ended up in the CBL/XBL block lists, with some domains refusing to accept my email. I don’t have an open relay or an open proxy, and my anti-virus and patches are up-to-date. I wonder if this would be caused by my autoresponders to the postmaster@domain.com address, which, when replying to spam emails with false addresses, might be causing the server receiving my reply to think that my auto-response is spam.