This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

Scrim

Scrim wrote:
This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

You need to install filters in your usenet program to drop threads
featuring subjects and senders including words such as shoes, nike,
wholesale ...

--
Adrian C

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:28:02 -0000, "Scrim"
wrote:

This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

The only sure fix is to take control of your own news feed and filter it
aggressively before the feed gets to your client.

One approach is to install a local server on the same PC as your usenet
client. The server connects upstream, filters the traffic, and then
supplies your client application, typically through the loopback IP.

As a server it has access to the complete contents of every posting: all
header lines and the body text. That presents opportunities for
filtering that just are not possible when only a limited set of headers
are used.

See http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/index.html for some
examples.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

Scrim wrote:
This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

Scrim

I've just been through this experience myself and am still wondering why it is
only this group for me.
Anyway, I have a message filter now that looks for "cheap, wholesale, shoes,
handbags, retail, quality", you get the drift :-)
Works so far. (in Thunderbird)
Still, it's a mystery. Some say google is the culprit, probably true.
They bought dejanews and the rest is history.

Tony

On 10/28/2009 6:06 AM TonyS spake thus:

Scrim wrote:

This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

I've just been through this experience myself and am still wondering why it is
only this group for me.

It's definitely not just this newsgroup; lots of others with similar
high levels of spam.

Still, it's a mystery. Some say google is the culprit, probably true.
They bought dejanews and the rest is history.

You've got that right. Google is the main culprit.


--
Who needs a junta or a dictatorship when you have a Congress
blowing Wall Street, using the media as a condom?

- harvested from Usenet

On Oct 28, 6:28*am, "Scrim" wrote:
This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

Scrim

How do you gain access?

How do you read it?

I use google for access and read using Opera 9.64 on Win98

As a result, 70-80% of the postings show up.

I've been told to PAY for better access. Yeah, that makes sense. I
should pay for something when the ones gaining, the spammers, should
pay.

So, what to do?

There is another thread here that shows a java script to highlight the
spam so it's very easy to ignore

I use Google to access, but I also use the free "Trollkiller" program
to filter out the spam and religious wackos.

http://www.source9.com/trollkiller.html

There's also a free filter from holysmoke:

http://www.holysmoke.org/ggf/index.htm

Robert Macy wrote:
On Oct 28, 6:28*am, "Scrim" wrote:
This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

Scrim

How do you gain access?

How do you read it?

I use google for access and read using Opera 9.64 on Win98

As a result, 70-80% of the postings show up.

I've been told to PAY for better access. Yeah, that makes sense. I
should pay for something when the ones gaining, the spammers, should
pay.

So, what to do?

There is another thread here that shows a java script to highlight the
spam so it's very easy to ignore

Eternal-september is free but it does require registration. They seem
to do a pretty good job of eliminating spam.

Jerry

Wow! That's the longest thread I've ever started! Cheers!

I'm using Windows Mail to read Newsgroups. I think if I use its filter it
will filter my mail as well as newsgroups and I don't want to risk missing
any mail (I get so little spam mail I don't need it there).

So I'm guessing what I really need to do is use a dedicated newsreader
(terminology?) like that one from Mozilla. Then I can set up filtering just
in there and presumably it'll be a better newsgroup experience all round
compared to Windows Mail?

Scrim

In article , "Scrim" wrote:
Wow! That's the longest thread I've ever started! Cheers!

I'm using Windows Mail to read Newsgroups. I think if I use its filter it
will filter my mail as well as newsgroups and I don't want to risk missing
any mail (I get so little spam mail I don't need it there).

So I'm guessing what I really need to do is use a dedicated newsreader
(terminology?) like that one from Mozilla. Then I can set up filtering just
in there and presumably it'll be a better newsgroup experience all round
compared to Windows Mail?

Scrim



I started to use Thunderbird, and is a very good newsreader, until
I managed to delete my mail. I went back to NX for usenet.

Having separate things for each is a good thing.

greg

On 10/30/2009 9:38 AM Scrim spake thus:

So I'm guessing what I really need to do is use a dedicated newsreader
(terminology?) like that one from Mozilla. Then I can set up filtering just
in there and presumably it'll be a better newsgroup experience all round
compared to Windows Mail?

To answer your question, newsreader = news client = program to read
Usenet news = (usually) email program. All the same thing, comes in many
flavors. Mozilla Thunderbird is what I use and I like it, generally
(though it does suffer from some maladies which are due to "open source"
construction). It's free; why not just try it?


--
Who needs a junta or a dictatorship when you have a Congress
blowing Wall Street, using the media as a condom?

- harvested from Usenet

Scrim wrote:
Wow! That's the longest thread I've ever started! Cheers!

I'm using Windows Mail to read Newsgroups. I think if I use its filter
it will filter my mail as well as newsgroups and I don't want to risk
missing any mail (I get so little spam mail I don't need it there).

So I'm guessing what I really need to do is use a dedicated newsreader
(terminology?) like that one from Mozilla. Then I can set up filtering
just in there and presumably it'll be a better newsgroup experience all
round compared to Windows Mail?

If by "like that one from Mozilla" you are refering to Thunderbird, it
is not a dedicated newsreader. Thunderbird also has provisions for
email, RSS and newsgroups accounts. See the following for further details:

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

FWIW, there is also a new release coming out shortly; you can grab the
beta version of it (3.04b) from the following location:

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-U...ses/downloads/

Again, FWIW, I've been using in on my linux system since it was released
and am quite please with it. One of the upgrades for this version is
improved filtering capabilities.

One other thing I might suggest is to switch your newsgroup account to
the following free access newsgroup server:

http://www.eternal-september.org/

I've been using them for a couple of years no and have no complaint with
their service. Their spam filtering works as I hardly see any spam and
the ones that do slip through is certainly not in magnitude that others
here have remarked they are seeing in this newsgroup.

You might also be interested in the following site for general
information on newsreaders, selecting news servers etc:

http://slyck.com/

On Oct 30, 12:23*pm, propman wrote:
...snip...

One other thing I might suggest is to switch your newsgroup account to
the following free access newsgroup server:

http://www.eternal-september.org/

I've been using them for a couple of years no and have no complaint with
their service. *Their spam filtering works as I hardly see any spam and
the ones that do slip through is certainly not in magnitude that others
here have remarked they are seeing in this newsgroup.


I signed up. But, where do you find the newsgroups?

In article , propman wrote:
Scrim wrote:
Wow! That's the longest thread I've ever started! Cheers!

I'm using Windows Mail to read Newsgroups. I think if I use its filter
it will filter my mail as well as newsgroups and I don't want to risk
missing any mail (I get so little spam mail I don't need it there).

So I'm guessing what I really need to do is use a dedicated newsreader
(terminology?) like that one from Mozilla. Then I can set up filtering
just in there and presumably it'll be a better newsgroup experience all
round compared to Windows Mail?

If by "like that one from Mozilla" you are refering to Thunderbird, it
is not a dedicated newsreader. Thunderbird also has provisions for
email, RSS and newsgroups accounts. See the following for further details:

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

FWIW, there is also a new release coming out shortly; you can grab the
beta version of it (3.04b) from the following location:

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-U...ses/downloads/

Again, FWIW, I've been using in on my linux system since it was released
and am quite please with it. One of the upgrades for this version is
improved filtering capabilities.

One other thing I might suggest is to switch your newsgroup account to
the following free access newsgroup server:

http://www.eternal-september.org/

I've been using them for a couple of years no and have no complaint with
their service. Their spam filtering works as I hardly see any spam and
the ones that do slip through is certainly not in magnitude that others
here have remarked they are seeing in this newsgroup.

You might also be interested in the following site for general
information on newsreaders, selecting news servers etc:

http://slyck.com/





Funny it does not expplain Usenet at all and I don't use usenet to get
news.

Also funny, many of the newsreaders have turned me off, and I
continue to use an outdated News Express, even though it has
bugs with current opperating systems. It also does not archieve
past read posts, nor have spell checking, or index all the groups corectly,
but I love it.

Greg

Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:28:02 -0000, "Scrim"
wrote:

This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

Scrim

I guess Virgin doesn't filter it out for you so you'll have to do it
yourself.

Just get a decent newsreader, I use Thunderbird. Set filters to junk all
messages from the following

@yeah.net
@live.cn - in fact any .cn
@126.com
@163.com
and all @.gmail
(You might miss a few genuine posts by blocking gmail, but it`a small
price to pay. Anyone serious tends to not use gmail/hotmail/yahoo etc.)
You can check the filter logs from time to time and any posters you
inadvertently filtered out, you can add back in individually.

When ever you get spam, add the address to the list.

Ron

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:45:00 +0000, Ron
wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:28:02 -0000, "Scrim"
wrote:

This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

Scrim

I guess Virgin doesn't filter it out for you so you'll have to do it
yourself.

Just get a decent newsreader, I use Thunderbird. Set filters to junk all
messages from the following


- in fact any .cn


and all @.gmail
(You might miss a few genuine posts by blocking gmail, but it`a small
price to pay. Anyone serious tends to not use gmail/hotmail/yahoo etc.)
You can check the filter logs from time to time and any posters you
inadvertently filtered out, you can add back in individually.

When ever you get spam, add the address to the list.

Ron

I use Agent, but I don't filter anything. All the groups I subscribe
to get occassional spam, but this group gets 10 times more. Why would
it be different than the rest?

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:04:01 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:45:00 +0000, Ron
wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:28:02 -0000, "Scrim"
wrote:

This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

Scrim

I guess Virgin doesn't filter it out for you so you'll have to do it
yourself.

Just get a decent newsreader, I use Thunderbird. Set filters to junk all
messages from the following


- in fact any .cn


and all @.gmail
(You might miss a few genuine posts by blocking gmail, but it`a small
price to pay. Anyone serious tends to not use gmail/hotmail/yahoo etc.)
You can check the filter logs from time to time and any posters you
inadvertently filtered out, you can add back in individually.

When ever you get spam, add the address to the list.

Ron

I use Agent, but I don't filter anything. All the groups I subscribe
to get occassional spam, but this group gets 10 times more. Why would
it be different than the rest?

Spammers can check GoogleGroups for groups with high activity in
particular areas. Go to groups.google.com and start with "explore
groups." Google does a nice job of sorting groups by activity (days
since last post), messages per month, and number of users as well as
sorting by topic, language, etc. So, I'd guess that there may be some
set of characteristics of s.e.r that attract them.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:48:30 -0400, Rich Webb
wrote:

Spammers can check GoogleGroups for groups with high activity in
particular areas. Go to groups.google.com and start with "explore
groups." Google does a nice job of sorting groups by activity (days
since last post), messages per month, and number of users as well as
sorting by topic, language, etc. So, I'd guess that there may be some
set of characteristics of s.e.r that attract them.

Yep. They also check to see how many people actually click on the
inevitable URL included in the spam message. It's a tiny percentage
of the users, but that's where they allegedly make their money. The
more clicks, the more spam. (Feed the pigeons and what do you get?
More pigeons).

Looks like VirginMedia outsources their usenet news to Giganews. I'm
also using Giganews. After some minor keyword filtering, I get about
10 spam messages in this newsgroup per day. No big deal. In Agent, I
just hit the del key and they're gone. If they're repetitive, I
just add it to the built in spam filter.

However, if you REALLY want to get rid of the spam, just hire a hitman
and make a few spammers really disappear. If they're that bad a
problem, it should be worth the money. Take up a collection. Then
start at the top of this list:
http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/index.lasso
Note that the majority are in the USA. Start at the top and work your
way down. Eliminate a few of the top spammers and I'm sure the others
will get the clue.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:48:30 -0400, Rich Webb
wrote:

Spammers can check GoogleGroups for groups with high activity in
particular areas. Go to groups.google.com and start with "explore
groups." Google does a nice job of sorting groups by activity (days
since last post), messages per month, and number of users as well as
sorting by topic, language, etc. So, I'd guess that there may be some
set of characteristics of s.e.r that attract them.

Yep. They also check to see how many people actually click on the
inevitable URL included in the spam message. It's a tiny percentage
of the users, but that's where they allegedly make their money. The
more clicks, the more spam. (Feed the pigeons and what do you get?
More pigeons).

Looks like VirginMedia outsources their usenet news to Giganews. I'm
also using Giganews. After some minor keyword filtering, I get about
10 spam messages in this newsgroup per day. No big deal. In Agent, I
just hit the del key and they're gone. If they're repetitive, I
just add it to the built in spam filter.

However, if you REALLY want to get rid of the spam, just hire a hitman
and make a few spammers really disappear. If they're that bad a
problem, it should be worth the money. Take up a collection. Then
start at the top of this list:
http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/index.lasso
Note that the majority are in the USA. Start at the top and work your
way down. Eliminate a few of the top spammers and I'm sure the others
will get the clue.


I'm not sure, but I don't think we are allowed to do that sort of thing
over here.

Ron
I watched The Sopranos once, I was very disappointed, hardly any singing
at all!

In article , Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:48:30 -0400, Rich Webb
wrote:

Spammers can check GoogleGroups for groups with high activity in
particular areas. Go to groups.google.com and start with "explore
groups." Google does a nice job of sorting groups by activity (days
since last post), messages per month, and number of users as well as
sorting by topic, language, etc. So, I'd guess that there may be some
set of characteristics of s.e.r that attract them.

Yep. They also check to see how many people actually click on the
inevitable URL included in the spam message. It's a tiny percentage
of the users, but that's where they allegedly make their money. The
more clicks, the more spam. (Feed the pigeons and what do you get?
More pigeons).


I have clicked on it many times, and I go directly
to the CONTACT point and send my regards.
If everybody who complains did this, there would be no spam from those
guys. Its mostly one company in China.

greg

Looks like VirginMedia outsources their usenet news to Giganews. I'm
also using Giganews. After some minor keyword filtering, I get about
10 spam messages in this newsgroup per day. No big deal. In Agent, I
just hit the del key and they're gone. If they're repetitive, I
just add it to the built in spam filter.

However, if you REALLY want to get rid of the spam, just hire a hitman
and make a few spammers really disappear. If they're that bad a
problem, it should be worth the money. Take up a collection. Then
start at the top of this list:
http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/index.lasso
Note that the majority are in the USA. Start at the top and work your
way down. Eliminate a few of the top spammers and I'm sure the others
will get the clue.

In article , Rich Webb wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:04:01 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:45:00 +0000, Ron
wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:28:02 -0000, "Scrim"
wrote:

This groups is so badly spammed I'm starting to give up on it. Why does
sci.electronics repair get so much and can this be fixed?

Scrim

I guess Virgin doesn't filter it out for you so you'll have to do it
yourself.

Just get a decent newsreader, I use Thunderbird. Set filters to junk all
messages from the following


- in fact any .cn


and all @.gmail
(You might miss a few genuine posts by blocking gmail, but it`a small
price to pay. Anyone serious tends to not use gmail/hotmail/yahoo etc.)
You can check the filter logs from time to time and any posters you
inadvertently filtered out, you can add back in individually.

When ever you get spam, add the address to the list.

Ron

I use Agent, but I don't filter anything. All the groups I subscribe
to get occassional spam, but this group gets 10 times more. Why would
it be different than the rest?

Spammers can check GoogleGroups for groups with high activity in
particular areas. Go to groups.google.com and start with "explore
groups." Google does a nice job of sorting groups by activity (days
since last post), messages per month, and number of users as well as
sorting by topic, language, etc. So, I'd guess that there may be some
set of characteristics of s.e.r that attract them.


I highly disagree
I have found high spam in little used groups.
Spammers also try to stay away from groups whose users give out
a lot of trash and spam back to the originators. They don't like
spam either.

I'm not talking about Google.

To tell the truth, I think 4th parties do the spamming and the company,
usually ONE company, the one in China, has little knowledge of anything.

greg