Recently I uninstalled my Norton Internet Security. Everything is fine, except for all the email spam I am getting. Can anyone suggest a program for this problem that is compatible with Windows XP Home version 2002 Service Pack 2, Intel Pentium 4, 1.7 with 1gb of ram? Thanks for any suggestions.
www.spamihilator.com is a freeware, very configurable, fine 
How do I stop e-mail spam?
- Enable your ISP’s junk mail filter. I can see from their web page that goNDTC provides this service, although it will cost you an extra dollar a month. (Other ISP’s provide this service for free.)
http://www.gondtc.com/internet/postini/postini.htm
- Don’t leave your email address exposed on public forums. Go to your profile and hide your e-mail address. (This is how I know your email address is with goNDTC.)
I have been using Mailwasher from Firetrust for years, and nothing has ever got past me. You can read your mail and delete it before it goes to your Outlook Express/Outlook. 
Using mailwasher pro, first the free version (only monitors one email account now), then I bought version 3.0 and have had free updates through to the latest version 6.3 and I wouldn’t be without it.
You have not told us whether you use an email client (like Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird etc) or you get you mail only via the Web interface of your browser.
If you use the browser to view your mail you are pretty much subject to the advice from FreewheelinFrank that you must rely on the spam filtering of your mail service provider. Spam filtering by service providers is (I find) quite variable. For example, I get very little spam on Hotmail but I get a lot getting past the spam filters of Yahoo.
If you use a mail client then other options reported here are available to you.
Like Tech I use spamihilator (in my case along with Thunderbird as my mail client) - I would not say it is the best software I have ever used - but once you get used to its ways then it works very well indeed. It is totally free and you can use if for as many accounts as you like.
I’m using Gmail so I don’t need to worry about spams. You most likely can redirect ISP mail to gmail and take it there. I first used Gmail as a spam filter but ended up with using various services by Google. However, if you have doubt on how Google treat your privacy, then, I don’t recommend using Gmail at all.
GMail comes between Hotmail and Yahoo in my spam delivery so, at least for me, it is not the best and when you add in the privacy concerns with GMail … they are certainly not my first choice of provider.
So, which one is better according to your experience? What makes you think so? At the moment, I’m only using gmail and has no other services to be compared with it. I use some of free spam filter services, though.
Just for reference, and as a reply to the original poster, [b][u][color=blue]about.com has [b][u][color=blue]a list of free email services as well as [b][u][color=blue]that of free spam filter services.
GMail comes between Hotmail and Yahoo in my spam delivery
That means in the delivery of spam Gmail delivers to me more spam messages than Hotmail and less than Yahoo.
If you are using GMail with an email client and another filtering service then, forgive me and with respect, how can you be assessing the filtering services of Gmail? What you are telling us is, at best, the composite of Gmail filtering plus the other filtering service(s) you use.
This doesn’t add information but it’s logical. I use Gmail services mostly but, something such as email notification or forum registration, I use spamgourmet, which you can see in the list of spam filtering services in my previous post. However, to human or non-automated email senders, I simply tell them my Gmail address. I think spamgrourmet is O.K. for automated email messages although they are often delayed.
I am sorry that I was not more helpful (honestly) - though, forgive me again, I do try to be logical. I have been clear that I use an email client (Thunderbird). The experience of others may differ and I am reporting the mail delivered in Thunderbird but I have no spam delivered in Hotmail, some delivered in GMail and quite a lot delivered in Yahoo. Therefore I use a spam filter (as reported above - spamihilator) on my Yahoo account that does a great job of intercepting the spam on that account.
I apologize again for any previous lack of clarity - I hope this goes some way to explain my experience.
I have dropped to use it since GMail has a very good filtering capability and MS Outlook has one (not that good) too. So, I’ve changed for no spam tool. Also, Firefox addons can check email and warn me
I use spamavert Firefox extension (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4533).
[Off Topic]
You don’t need to apologize. I see you visit much more often than I do and that you have been being helpful to the others. Also, I totally agree with you at the point that these boards are for exchanging information through our humble experiences.
Back on topic Spamihilator seems to be quite popular here. DavidR seems to be very happy with his MailWasher. Speaking of local spam filter, I used to use PoPFile but, after I began to use Gmail, which has its own labeling function, and spamgourmet, I stopped using it.
I thought Tech was still using Spamihilator, too… A similar experience with Gmail while the ditched local mail filters are different (In my case, it was POPFile). ;D Thanks, Tech, I’ll check out Spamavert addon.
Tech’s recommendation (may work admirably) is, I believe, a spam avoidance option rather than a spam solution.
Please understand I am not trying to put it down but such solutions (I get referrals to similar regularly from the folks I support) usually require more effort by the user (needing to go get a temporary and redirected email address) than accepting the (less than total) solutions of the email providers or the, in addition. less active on my part assistance provided by spamihilator.
Yes. It does not solve anything, just avoid. Make easier some sign in operations (forums, websites).
I couldn’t get Spami plugins order working well… I had very few spam, but, after all, it passed to Spami also… so, why use it?
Spam avoidance is practice just like other security practices such as avoiding crack/warez/porn sites. For all round mail related issues, [b][color=blue][u]About.com is, IMO, a good resource and I recommend visiting there first if you need some pieces of advice.
One of my family members used to have good amount of spam but almost all of them have gone after I let all his ISP mail forwarded to Gmail. I set [b][color=blue][u]expurgate account for the address as well but it’s Gmail that does all the job of cleaning up. Of course, I haven’t changed the SMTP configuration at all and that person enjoys spam-free life without knowing what’s going on behind. On the same PC, Avast! is working in silent mode. ;D
As for spam avoidance, I forgot to mention that I use [b][color=blue][u]trahmail. It has been bit stripped down but still works fine as temporary email addresses. For most suspicious senders, I use trashmail>spamgourmet>Gmail route.
I use MailWasher Pro for my POP3 accounts and the built in filters used by the
online email services.
In Gmail, I’ve only experienced an occasional spam email that slipped by their system.
In Hotmail, there are more slips and Yahoo occasionally gets one right… 
usually spam is missed by their filtering system.
: Bob’s experience seems to be different from Alan’s… I lurk here enough to know Bob is a heavy user of various Web mail services and that Alan is very knowledgeable about how e-mail works. I don’t intend to make you fight each other ;D but…hmmm. ???
…O.K. I’d stick to Gmail for now since it is working in my case somehow. "If it is not broken…