Internet Security Suite Step 4: Mozilla Thunderbird (anti-spam)

The final component in our free Internet Security Suite is anti-spam protection. I think the value of all anti-spam solutions out there is debatable, since the spammers are constantly evolving their craft, making it difficult for any program to identify spam from legitimate e-mail. Instead of paying for software that still won't eliminate 100% if all spam, I have a better idea: let's use some free software to at least reduce the volume of spam we have to sift through on a daily basis. This is a two-step process:

1. Get a Gmail account. Along with a lot of other nice features, Google's free e-mail solution has a pretty good spam filter built right in. This will reduce a lot of spam right away.
2. Install Mozilla Thunderbird. Thunderbird is the Mozilla Foundation's answer to Outlook Express, and it is a snap to set it up to check your Gmail account. It also includes an easy-to-use anti-spam feature that can be configured to automatically remove a lot of the junk out of your inbox. Thunderbird also identifies e-mail messages that appear to be phishing scams, helping prevent you from falling for any of those fake PayPal alerts.

Once you have set up Thunderbird to check your Gmail account, just identify the junk messages by clicking on the big flaming "junk" button to move that message to the Junk folder. From that point on, messages from that sender will automatically divert to that folder. Don't forget to check your Junk folder from time to time, since it's likely that a legit message could wind up in there by mistake. If a real e-mail does find its way to your junk folder, you can always mark it as not junk to prevent messages from that sender from getting incorrectly filed.