Hello all,

I've been pondering about the following issues lately...it seems that home Internet computer users are becoming more savvy or at least using tools, like Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, Personal Firewalls, etc. due to the major problems that viruses and worms have caused in the last several months.

Anyway, with regards to Anti-Spam tools, I've observed a higher frequency of my website end-users having problems doing things like:

a) validating their accounts (clicking on links sent to them via email)

b) receiving auto-responders (from contact forms and email links)

c) communicating with other members via email

All due to using filters in their email Anti-Spam programs or having to confirm emails sent to them (like through validation and auto-responder) to request that your email be added to their friend's list.

I've also observed a growing number of websites including warnings and messages asking people to add the website domain into their email white or friend lists.

Anyway, as "regular" joe and jane smo Internet computer users continue to become more aware about computer viruses and worms, and acting on it, I see this problem propegating quickly for us, webmasters and web developers....

I guess I am looking to see what you think about these issues and how you are dealing with them.

BTW: I am supportive of Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus programs both on email server and client systems, but it makes our job tougher as web developers and webmasters.

Thanks in advance.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me

Here's two issues we ran into in the past few days:

1. A user is saying a link doesn't exist on a page, and they can't click on it. We can not replicate this. Turns out some ad filter was removing the link (just stripping it out of the HTML IE sees) to gossamer-threads.com because it matched ads.com. Sigh.

2. A user was complaining that Links SQL was messing up their pages. Turns out an ad filter was removing opening <script> tags from all HTML they ftp'd up to the templates directory.

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.

Thanks for the reply, Alex.

I didn't even think about adware filters and programs, but I can see how that would pose a problem....I, myself, (even though a "power user") have installed quite a few spyware and adware blocking applications, which can also cause problems as well....while, yes, setting your own security settings in your web browser is probably the most easiest thing to do in terms of keeping your web browsing safe, it's nice to have some programs/applications to back up your security settings.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me

One other feature that I've observed end-users having problems with using Anti-Spam filters is:

* Looking up their password or reseting their password, since they have to retrieve it or instructions via email.

Ugh...I feel that this is going to be an increasingly major pain in the butt with developing web to email applications.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me