In alt.home.repair on Mon, 28 Feb 2005 20:08:45 GMT "Doug Kanter"
posted:


"Ed" wrote in message
...

"Warren Weber" wrote

For those who don't know how (like me) how about some details please. W W

If you use Outlook Express.
While you are in news, click "tools", then "ac****s", then "news", click
on your account and the click on "properties".
Fill in the e-mail box with anythink that you like.


Just one warning about doing this: Some moderated newsgroups are set up so
they check for a valid email address. Otherwise, they won't post your
message. Rec.guns & rec.hunting are just two examples. This is why is pays
to get a real address from yahoo or hotmail, even if you never check it.

And some ISPs won't allow one to send email without a valid or
semi-valid from-address. Since my version of Agent only has one from-
address, for both posting to news and sending email, I have to follow
the rules for both when I do either one, post or email.

So, in *my* case, if I use my own domain, or one of the others that
Erols owns, I have to use a valid local part. Which means I have to
use my own full address, which I don't want to do.

If I use some other domain, my isp isn't able to easily check if there
is a valid local part. So that leaves the question, what domain
should I use? This particular from- address was chosen almost
accidentally. I tested and noticed that I didn't even get a bounce
message or anything, and when I went to www.invalid.com, it seemed
that it was set up for testing by some group of people. Go to
www.invalid.com and you'll see that they don't seem to mind. In fact,
they are clearer about that than they used to be, than they were the
last time I looked. In fact, now they seem to be sort of proud of it!
Go see. Clicking on "here" took me to some Swedish google page, with
the various references to invalid.com that they seem to be proud of.

In the early days, email addresses could be maid invalid by changing
..com to .com.invalid . Whether Erols would allow me to use one of
those, without a valid domain embedded in it, I think not but I
haven't tried it. Whether the address harvester programs would
remove the .invalid part and start sending email to what was left, I
don't know.

I was told years ago by tech support at my isp that address
harversters did not normally look inside an email to find the reply-to
address, and considering how often I've used my valid email address
there, and how little spam I get, that seems to still be true. OTOH,
I've noticed one or two spams that had both my from- and my reply-to-
addresses listed**, so they must occasionally find reply-to address. I
mean to put in a munged address there, but haven't done so yet.


**A lot of other spam might be coming to me via my reply-to address,
but since the to- address is often nothing to do with me and my
address would have to be in the bcc- addresses, I can't tell in those
cases.


Meirman
--
If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.
Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.