Cyprus-Forum.com

[Paphitis]

My biggest problem are the spam emails I get. I get about 150 per day, I placed hundreds of filters about 100 emails per day go straight to the junk folder and another about 50 in the inbox. From all those only 2-3 are normal correspondence. I got tired of adding and adding filters...
They generally work OK but sometimes good emails get filtered too, so I have to visually checked all of those.

I think the problem started when I installed Thunderbird (a by product of Firefox). I uninstalled it and returned to an old version of Outlook which supports html however the problem still persists.
I often receive Undelivered mail notifications, and when I checked the content it looks like someone else uses my email and sends junk to people that are rejected by the receiving servers as spam and returned to me

Installed Kasperky didn't find any virus or spyware. Looks to me the only solution is to change my email but I don't want to do that as it is fast and reliable given to me by my internet provider.(cablenet).
I have some more email accounts on Gmail, none of those receives any spam though!

Anyway I guess the above is irrelevant to the discussion, but if you think there's anything I can do let me know.

What is relevant though is this:
Every time I do a google search for something, let's say for cats, I will be receiving a couple of email advertisement for cat related things, medicine, cat food etc. These adds don't persists though, they last for only a few days.
It's obvious that Google gets my email from those searches, and then releases it to advertisers.

I am not aware of google doing that, but to be on the safe side, you can always try Duck Duck Go as your search engine:

https://duckduckgo.com/

It's a better way to go than switching off the net as Get Real is basically doing.

I still use Google though when looking for business addresses, or wanting to buy something online. You will need Google's geolocation for this, otherwise the search results are useless.

Get Real's answer - turn Geolocation OFF and ban all Google servers!

[Get Real!]

I’m now working on a new super-safe version that snips your phone line with a pair of pliers!

Better safe than sorry boys...

[Pyrpolizer]

Every time I do a google search for something, let's say for cats, I will be receiving a couple of email advertisement for cat related things, medicine, cat food etc. These adds don't persists though, they last for only a few days.
It's obvious that Google gets my email from those searches, and then releases it to advertisers.

Are you seriously asking for technical support from Paphitis?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pyro, are you using a custom HOSTS file or the Windows default?

If you need to lookup “HOSTS file” to answer my question then forget it… simply click on this download:

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip

Uncompress the archive and run the batch file it contains.

It will replace your Windows HOSTS file with a decent one that blocks countless advertising servers.

That’s your first step to protecting yourself.

NB: If you’ve got “anti-virus” programs running disable them temporarily before doing this.

Tip: If you are successful then when you come back to the Cyprus Forum it should no longer contain ads.

Yes I am using a custom HOSTS file, as I use internet Banking a lot and my browsers wouldn't log in.
A smart lady from the Bank's support told me how to modify the existing HOSTS file, I basically added a few IP addresses and URLs concerning the Bank. (I think about 5).
However that's for internet browsing how about my problem with Emails? Is the HOSTS file related to emails as well??

As for Kasperky no I don't use it anymore, I know quite well which emails contain viruses (usually in *.jar attachments) so I delete those manually. After Kasperky found nothing wrong with my computer I removed it, as it made it run very slow.

[Get Real!]

Yes I am using a custom HOSTS file, as I use internet Banking a lot and my browsers wouldn't log in.
A smart lady from the Bank's support told me how to modify the existing HOSTS file, I basically added a few IP addresses and URLs concerning the Bank. (I think about 5)

What you’re saying here doesn’t make any sense unless you’re talking about the Windows firewall. That’s what the bank lady must’ve guided you with.

We’re talking about two different things.

[Pyrpolizer]

Yes I am using a custom HOSTS file, as I use internet Banking a lot and my browsers wouldn't log in.
A smart lady from the Bank's support told me how to modify the existing HOSTS file, I basically added a few IP addresses and URLs concerning the Bank. (I think about 5)

What you’re saying here doesn’t make any sense unless you’re talking about the Windows firewall. That’s what the bank lady must’ve guided you with.

We’re talking about two different things.

No I am not talking about the Windows Firewall, I am talking about the HOSTS file.
I called her smart because I had countless suggestions from other people from the Bank support all telling me to add exceptions to the firewall. Nothing worked.
This lady was the only only who found the problem, instructed me to modify the HOSTS file and problem got solved immediately..

[Paphitis]

Get Real use to update the HOSTS file in previous versions to block adds.

Trouble was, you had to keep doing it after each manual update.

[Get Real!]

Yes I am using a custom HOSTS file, as I use internet Banking a lot and my browsers wouldn't log in.
A smart lady from the Bank's support told me how to modify the existing HOSTS file, I basically added a few IP addresses and URLs concerning the Bank. (I think about 5)

What you’re saying here doesn’t make any sense unless you’re talking about the Windows firewall. That’s what the bank lady must’ve guided you with.

We’re talking about two different things.

No I am not talking about the Windows Firewall, I am talking about the HOSTS file.
I called her smart because I had countless suggestions from other people from the Bank support all telling me to add exceptions to the firewall. Nothing worked.
This lady was the only only who found the problem, instructed me to modify the HOSTS file and problem got solved immediately..

Still doesn’t make sense because the Windows HOSTS file is only used to BLOCK Internet addresses, which makes it great for blocking well known advertising servers.

You probably didn’t really understand or can’t remember what she guided you with.

[Pyrpolizer]

Yes I am using a custom HOSTS file, as I use internet Banking a lot and my browsers wouldn't log in.
A smart lady from the Bank's support told me how to modify the existing HOSTS file, I basically added a few IP addresses and URLs concerning the Bank. (I think about 5)

What you’re saying here doesn’t make any sense unless you’re talking about the Windows firewall. That’s what the bank lady must’ve guided you with.

We’re talking about two different things.

No I am not talking about the Windows Firewall, I am talking about the HOSTS file.
I called her smart because I had countless suggestions from other people from the Bank support all telling me to add exceptions to the firewall. Nothing worked.
This lady was the only only who found the problem, instructed me to modify the HOSTS file and problem got solved immediately..

Still doesn’t make sense because the Windows HOSTS file is only used to BLOCK Internet addresses, which makes it great for blocking well known advertising servers.

You probably didn’t really understand or can’t remember what she guided you with.

Erm... sorry I think you got it wrong. If for any reason the particular Web site won't load, IT WILL if you include it in the hosts file.
The article below explains that in order to block a site you actually do a trick by giving it your own IP address so it gets confused.
So basically the HOSTS file actually allows sites if you enter the real IP address.

http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html

The short answer is that the Hosts file is like an address book. When you type an address like http://www.yahoo.com into your browser, the Hosts file is consulted to see if you have the IP address, or "telephone number," for that site. If you do, then your computer will "call it"

[Get Real!]

Sounds like you’re an expert Pyro… good luck with everything.

[Pyrpolizer]

Sounds like you’re an expert Pyro… good luck with everything.

Not sure if you are sarcastic on this, but I am not an amateur. However I am not an expert, just telling you how exactly I got help from an expert lady in solving the problem. 99% of the people wouldn't even know how to open the hosts file as it has no extension. It is a simple text file though with no extension, so that amateurs won't be able to mess with it. So maybe I am among the 1% of non total amateurs.