by Early to Rise
Unsolicited, unwanted advertising e-mail, commonly known as “spam”, has become a big problem. It’s reached such proportions that most e-mail services and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have put blocking and filtering systems to keep these messages out.
The systems work… but sometimes they work too well, blocking messages that you have elected to receive from reputable senders.
In most cases the intended recipient of the email is not notified (and neither are we) that the message did not get through.
But there is something you can do to [prevent] the false positive trap. The solution is to “white-list” the vendors that you like before your delivery is interrupted.
Of course, every e-mail system is different. Below are instructions for some of the more popular ones. If yours isn’t here, please contact your ISP’s customer service department for their instructions.

YAHOO Mail

• Open your Yahoo mailbox.
• Click Mail Options.
• Click Filters.
• Next, click Add Filter.
• In the top row, labeled From header:, make sure contains is selected in the pull-down menu.
• Click in the text box next to that pull-down menu, then enter the address [of your vendor] in the “From” line.
• At the bottom, where it says Move the message to:, select Inbox from the pull-down menu.
• Click the Add Filter button again.

MSN Hotmail

• Click the Options tab.
• Select Safe List. (It’s under the heading Mail Handling.)
• In the space provided, enter the address in the “From” line of your vendor.
• Click Add.
• When you see the address you entered in the Safe List box, click OK.

AOL Mail

• Go to Keyword Mail Controls.
• Select your screen name.
• Click Customize Mail Controls For This Screen Name.

For AOL version 9.0: You need to add the sending address of your vendor to your “People I Know” list.
Open your latest ETR e-mail.
Click the Add Address button (over on the right) to add ETR to your “People I Know” list.
Alternatively, you can just send an e-mail to ETR”From” address, and that will add us to your “People I Know” list automatically.

• Open your latest ETR e-mail.
• Copy the address in the “From” line.
• Click the Reply button (it’s in the top right corner). A new email window opens with the wrong address in the “Send To” box.
• Replace the address in the Send To box with the one you copied out of the From line.
• Click Send Now (it’s in the top right corner).

For AOL version 7.0: In the section for “exclusion and inclusion parameters”, include the domain of your vendor.
For AOL version 8.0: Select Allow email from all AOL members, email addresses and domains.

• Click Next until the Save button shows up at the bottom.
• Click Save.

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Microsoft Outlook 2003

Add a name to your Safe Senders or Safe Recipients List
You can add either the sender’s e-mail address or their domain name to the Safe Senders List.

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, under E-mail, click Junk E-mail.
3. Click the Safe Senders or Safe Recipients tab.
4. Click Add.
5. In the Enter an e-mail address or Internet domain name to be added to the list box, enter the name or address you want added, and then click OK.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each name or address that you want to add.

Notes

If you want your Contacts to be considered safe senders, select the Also trust e-mail from my Contacts check box on the Safe Senders tab. All e-mail addresses in your Contacts folder will then be used by the Junk E-mail Filter to evaluate messages.
If you want people who are not necessarily in your Contacts but are people you correspond with regularly to be considered safe senders, select the Automatically add people I e-mail to the Safe Senders List check box on the Safe Senders tab. By default, the check box is selected. This check box is introduced with Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 1. To get Service Pack 1, go to Downloads on Office Online. Under Office Update, click Check for Updates.
If Automatic Picture Download is turned off, messages from or to e-mail addresses or domain names on the Safe Senders and Safe Recipients Lists will be treated as exceptions and the blocked content will be downloaded.
If you have existing lists of safe names and addresses, you can import the information into Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 by saving the list into a text (.txt) file with one entry per line, and then importing the list.
To quickly add a sender, domain name, or mailing list name to the Safe Senders or Safe Recipients Lists, right-click the message you consider safe, and then on the shortcut menu, point to Junk E-mail, and then click Add Sender to Safe Senders List, Add Sender’s Domain (@example.com) to Safe Senders List, or Add Recipient to Safe Recipients List.
If you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account, names and e-mail addresses in the Global Address List (Global Address List: The address book that contains all user, group, and distribution list e-mail addresses in your organization. The administrator creates and maintains this address book. It may also contain public folder e-mail addresses.) are automatically considered safe.
If you are using an Exchange Server e-mail account and working online, you must be using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or later. If you do not know what version of Exchange server your e-mail account is using, contact your Exchange administrator.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.