Software Will Help Net Providers Take A Bite Out Of Spam

Internet service providers have a new means to keep computer users from getting “spammed” with junk e-mail.

Sendmail, the most popular software used to route e-mail through companies and institutions to computer users, announced a new version Tuesday capable of verifying return addresses. Emeryville-based Sendmail Inc. said the new software will be available free over the Internet.

Currently, junk mailers can make up ever-changing, non-existent addresses for themselves, thwarting attempts by recipients and online services to block or return unwanted e-mail.

Spam is mass e-mail promoting everything from pornography to get-rich-quick schemes. Spam - named after a Monty Python skit involving a diner menu of “Spam, Spam, Spam, bacon, eggs and Spam” - accounts for an estimated 10 percent of all e-mail worldwide.

Computer users complain that spam slows them down, but anti-spam tools raise questions about privacy and free speech. Advertisers say recipients, not their Internet service providers, should decide what’s fit for them to see.

“Would you like someone to go into your mailbox at home?” asked Sanford Wallace, the “Spam King” who at one point sent 25 million e-mail advertisements a day through Cyber Promotions Inc.

Randall Winchester, a computer systems administrator at the University of Maryland at College Park who helped Eric Allman test the new tools, praised the software. He said it deflects thousands of messages an hour from the university’s more than 40,000 student e-mail accounts.

“I had my own tools, but I’m tossing them for the new Sendmail since it has all the additional functionality and is much easier to manage,” he said.