The anti-spam service introduced over the summer by OU Information Technology is a success so far, said Michelle Wiginton, IT communications liaison.

The new service was implemented June 19 for OUMail (Pop) customers, according to http://it.ou.edu.

"OUMail users have expressed appreciation for the enhanced service, which has allowed them to manage their university e-mail accounts more efficiently and effectively than ever before," said Wiginton in an e-mail response.

Wiginton said the service was an addition to the Symantec AntiVirus implementation, which officially replaced McAfee on July 8.

Hunter Huffman, history junior, said he noticed a significant decrease in the amount of spam he received since the service was implemented.

"It was bad. Every five minutes you could go to your inbox and you'd have eight new messages, all of them saying the same thing," Huffman said, referring to the spam in his inbox over the summer. "I put them in the 'spam' folder, hoping that's how it works."

Spam e-mails advertising Adobe Photoshop were widespread, Huffman said.

The service does not require any installation by the user. Once a particular e-mail has been identified as potential spam, all future e-mails tagged as spam are automatically sent to a "spam" folder, where they are automatically deleted after 28 days, according to http://it.ou.edu.

Sam Camp, mechanical engineering senior, said he does not use the service often. He gets his e-mails forwarded to another address, leaving his messages unaffected by the new service.

Brian Morris, arts and sciences sophomore, said he was not aware the service existed.

"I wish OU had publicized this more," said Su Zhu, chemical engineering sophomore.

IT promotions for the service included mass e-mails, banners and signs in computer labs, Wiginton said.

OU averages 53 percent, or 397,500 messages, tagged as spam each day, according to http://it.ou.edu.

IT staff can be reached with questions or concerns at 325-HELP or at needhelp@ou.edu.
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