Obfuscate Your Email Address to Stop Spam

We hate spam so much that we wrote the SpamVault and an easy tutorial on how to reduce your spam problem. SpamVault is our spam blocking program that comes free with every account. We also wrote the following script to help you avoid getting spam in the first place. This program converts normal email addresses into code that spam-bots (programs that harvest email addresses) cannot read. As a result, you get a lot less spam. It's simple to use, just fill out two fields on the form, click the ENCODE button and copy the results into the HTML of a page on your site where you want your email address to be used.

You enter the name you want to show as the link (for example: BobSmith). Then enter his email address (for example: bobsmith@microsoft.com). Then click on the encode button to receive the encoded HTML that you cut and paste into your web site.

	Protect your email identity: Enter the name to show on link: Enter the email address: Click the ENCODE button below to encode this information. Below is your encoded email address: Now just copy and paste this into the HTML of your web page and it will be converted into a link that only browsers will understand.

Another tool you can use is JavaScript. Traditional mailto links are set up in the following way:

<a href="mailto:name@domain.com">Your Name</a>

When the user clicks on the link their default email tool is opened and 'name@domain.com' is entered into the send-to field. It is this format that the spider bot is programmed to recognize and collect. Using JavaScript you can achieve the same on-screen result in a manner designed to confuse the bot, therefore protecting your online privacy:

	Use JavaScript to hide your address <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> user = 'name'; site = 'domain.com'; document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + user + '@' + site + '\">'); document.write(user + '@' + site + '</a>'); </SCRIPT>

Simply place this script in the same position in your document as your normal mailto link. Replace 'name' with your email name and 'domain.com' with your domain name. There you have it, a simple solution to an online headache.

At ez2ba.com, we offer more than just website hosting, we are always looking for new ways to block spam. Our most recent addition is the use of special black lists of spammers. To see the results of how many spams we block each day go to our Spam Statistics Page.

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