Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses [Paperback]

Jeff Duntemann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2004

The Internet and email has become a communications bonanza, allowing people to socialize, do business, shop, and enhance their education just about anywhere there is a computer. As convenient as all this communication is, it also creates piles of electronic clutter that accumulate on your computer, creating a blizzard of overstuffed files, annoying spam, and pop-ups, and making you vulnerable to dangerous hackers and viruses. Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses is organized according to a special cleaning process and written in everyday language that is designed for all computer users. With our unique 12-step Degunking program, you'll learn all the tried-and-true techniques to keep your computer clutter-free of spam and viruses and running well. The unique Degunking with Time Limitations chart shows how you can improve your computer's performance and keep your email better organized, regardless of whether you have ten minutes or a few hours. This book also provides information and links to free utilities and programs that will help you get rid of viruses, manage your email better, and protect your computer.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

E-mail has become a communications bonanza, allowing people to socialize, do business, shop, and enhance their education just about anywhere there is a computer. As convenient as all this communication is, it also creates piles of electronic clutter that accumulate on your computer, creating a blizzard of overstuffed files, annoying spam, and pop-ups, and making you vulnerable to dangerous hackers and viruses. Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses is organized according to our special cleaning process and written in everyday language that is designed for all computer users. With our unique 12-step Degunking program, you’ll learn all the tried-and-true techniques to keep your computer clutter-free of spam and viruses and running well. The unique Degunking with Time Limitations chart shows how you can improve your computer’s performance and keep your e-mail better organized, regardless of whether you have ten minutes or a few hours. This book also provides information and links to free utilities and programs that will help you get rid of viruses, manage your e-mail better, and protect your computer.

From the Inside Flap

• Organize your e-mail files, eliminate accumulation of unnecessary files and attachments, set up autosorting of incoming mail, fully degunk your mailbase, and decide what to keep and what to trash.
• Learn how spammers work to get your e-mail address, and employ simple techniques to outwit them.
• Shows you how not to become a spam target! Learn how to optimize spam filters and use them to their best advantage, how to avoid spammer "dictionary attacks" and "spam beacons," and where to find free spam filtering utilities.
• Find out how to completely degunk your e-mail and deal with hidden viruses. Learn how to avoid nasty Trojan Horses and worms.
• Use the book’s unique, practical, step-by-step approach to avoid getting infected with viruses and infecting others.
• Discover if your computer has undetected Adware and Spyware, and learn how to prevent and remove these programs.
• One of the best investments a computer user can make to save time, avoid e-mail aggravation, manage your e-mail more effectively, and keep from driving your friends and coworkers crazy because you are circulating viruses.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Paraglyph Press; 1 edition (October 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193211193X
• ISBN-13: 978-1932111934
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,276,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a writer, editor, technologist and contrarian living in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Although I have worked as a programmer, I've been in the publishing industry (both technical magazines and books) since 1985. I co-founded Coriolis Group Books in 1989, and since 2002 have been a partner in technology publisher Paraglyph Press. Most of my book-length work has been on computer technology. (See JEFF DUNTEMANN'S WI-FI GUIDE, ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE STEP BY STEP, and DEGUNKING EMAIL, SPAM, AND VIRUSES, as well as many more titles now out of print.)

In my loose moments I'm an amateur radio operator (now K7JPD), amateur astronomer, and SF writer. My first SF novel (THE CUNNING BLOOD) was published in November 2005, but I have been selling SF stories to magazines and anthologies for 30 years, and was on the final Hugo Awards ballot in 1981. As time allows I build and fly kites and gadget-hack with Meccano/Erector parts and radio tubes. I loathe sports, politics, and cruciferous vegetables, separately and in combination.

I am a relatively liberal Old Catholic (which means I belong to a non-Papal independent Catholic jurisdiction) and read a great deal on religion and spirituality. There's more to Catholicism than Rome, though we hide well. My wife Carol and I met in high school and have been married for 35 years. We live on the side of Cheyenne Mountain with four bichon frise dogs.

There's more about me on my Web sites: contrapositivediary.com (my blog) junkbox.com (tech projects) and duntemann.com, which is a quick index to all that I've published online.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great resource focuses the most on email, January 1, 2005

By 

Meryl K. Evans "Content Maven behind meryl.net" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses (Paperback)

Before reaching the title page inside the book, the first few pages quickly cover the 12-step degunking program with a list followed by 15-minute, 30-minute, one-hour, and three-hour to half-day steps for degunking email and viruses with time limitations. This section finishes off with top 20 tasks for clearing the email cobwebs. Excellent start.

If you're overwhelmed at the thought of following a 12-step program and spending more than a day going through each step, the time limitations section should ease your mind. It's a good way to begin, baby steps. Don't stop there, however. Make it part of a long-term program and pick up some of the habits it covers.

I already use many of the tips, but that's no surprise as obsessed with organization as I am. Though I have implemented many of the suggestions, the book provides value because it offers a process for cleaning up as well as tips I hadn't considered. It took me years to come up with many of the tips covered. So don't wait years to figure it out yourself when you can get it right now with one resource, this book.

Sure, it covers the usual, "have a firewall running" and "ensure your anti-virus program is running and up to date." However, you'd be surprised how many people don't have either in place. This book would be incomplete without these recommendations.

Though a majority use Outlook or Outlook Express for managing email, Duntemann discusses other clients including The Bat!, Thunderbird, Pegasus, and Eudora. Like many things in life, everyone has different needs when it comes to email. The author discusses four email profiles and mentions them throughout the book so whichever you are, follow the advice for that profile.

Like the other books in Paraglyph's Degunking series, this one is easy to read and addresses the advantages and disadvantages of various tools. Anyone who gets the book and follows its steps will experience a leaner, cleaner email box and possibly a faster-running computer. Most users of all levels should benefit from this book. The only group that might not invest in it are those who know everything inside out about spam, viruses, malware, and adware and how to deal with them.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent coverage of a timely topic, January 19, 2005

By 

Steven B. (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses (Paperback)

Spam and computer viruses are taking some of the pleasure and productivity out of using computers. Not many people have e-mail accounts that are free of spam. Every moment you are connected to the Internet, you run the risk of being infected with spyware or adware. Everyone who is sent files by e-mail is at risk for getting a computer virus.

"Debunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses" is a very friendly book with all kinds of strategies for keeping your computer from getting infected. I bought this book chiefly because I was curious how I could keep spam from flooding my e-mail account, but only half of this book's 16 chapters are devoted to spam. You will also get information about viruses, adware and spyware, and firewalls. There is also an amusing chapter about Internet scams -- "phishing" is the term -- and how to avoid them.

This is not your run-of-the-mill computer book. It is extremely well written and well organized. The writing is clear, friendly, and humorous at times. I wish more computer book publishers would take a cue from the Paraglyph Press, publishers of the book. The design is professional and a far cry from the slammed-together books you usually get in the computer field.

My only quarrel with this book is the author's enthusiasm for Bayesian spam filtering. The author devotes a chapter to Bayesian filtering, which I think is not near as effective has he thinks it is. Other than that, "Debunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses" sets a standard for computer books that I hope more computer books meet in the future.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, the topic is gunk., December 5, 2004

By 

Arctic Reporter (Nome, AK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses (Paperback)

Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses, by Jeff Duntemann, is a manual for people who need to spend time with their computer degunking it or want to take time to block gunk. Yes, the topic is gunk! "In the context of this book," Duntemann explains, "'gunk' means any and all unwanted items that come in to your PC by way of the Internet." The main focus is on managing email to delete and avoid gunk that arrives via email. Apple users please note: Duntemann addresses the PC world. This is not an Apple specific book; in fact, MAC in this book refers to Media Access Control.

Duntemann's Degunking is an instructional text for computer novices and experienced computer users, but not for computer experts. Chapter 1 answers the question "Why is your computer suffering from email and virus gunk?" Duntemann discusses in the next five chapters the creation of an email degunking strategy, using the right email client (he recommends using a Web mail service rather than email software), developing good email habits, reading and degunking your email from anywhere, cleaning and organizing your mailbase (your correspondence). Four chapters cover spam - how to avoid it, how to filter it, and how to deep clean spam. Another four chapters cover viruses, trojans, worms, adware, and spyware, all of which he lumps together under the label "malware." One chapter discusses "Nigerian rhapsodies, hoaxes, and other smelly phish." The final chapter outlines step by step what to do if your computer has been attacked by any malware.

Since Duntemann's book addresses PC users rather than Apple users, I recommend skipping this one if you have an Apple computer. It is not a bad book, just not appropriate for Apple users. Paraglyph Press also published Degunking Your Mac, by Joli Ballew (2004). Jane Thomas reviewed that book for the Alaskan Apple Users Group in July 2004, and the review remains available online at http://www.akappleug.org/rev/316.html/. Like Duntemann's book, Ballew's provides a 12-Step Degunking Program, though one specific for Apple computers. Thomas concludes in her review:

"Some Mac users might already do such a good job of keeping the clutter on their Mac under control that they don't need this book. But many of us, including me, sure can benefit from the easy-to-read, step-by-step degunking program described in Degunking your Mac. For most of us, this useful book is well worth $24.99. As mentioned in the Introduction, I think this book will stay close to my Mac and will be referred to frequently. I give Degunking Your Mac a rating of 5 mooses. It's terrific!"