[Toto]

Good comments Greencreeper, however, a couple of observations.

I think it had (has) more to do with NTL simply being incapable of delivering on its promises to customers. I think you missed my point regarding responding to spam. It's only because people respond that spammers are still spamming

You then said:

Responses to spam have little impact on network traffic compared to the volume of spam itself.

So responding to spam does or does not cuase network problems? I hardly think that a handfull of spam responses by ntl customers is responsible for the millions of spams per day that ntl has to handle.

I think it had (has) more to do with NTL simply being incapable of delivering on its promises to customers.

So ntl identifying that Spam has been the major cause of its recent, and well published email problems, then actually starting doing something about it is a break of its promises to its customers?

Oh and the fact that there's no chance of stopping spammers at source because the countries of origin, such as Eastern Europe, don't have, and aren't ever likely to have, the required legislation and couldn't enforce it if they did.

Spot on, so the solution is to block the spam at the server side, it has to be stopped somewhere, the problem cannot be allowed to get out of hand, with no hope of a respite.

What about the mail you weren't expecting - how do you know you haven't lost any of that? Chances are you will have. That's why I have a non-NTL account for work/professional purposes.

Agreed, and I also have a number of email accounts I can use to be certain I get the email I want. Given the fact that so many ntl customers are complaining about the volumes of spam, ntl would be foolish to continue to think there is no problem, that everybody is in the same boat, and that there is not a solution. The truth is there IS a problem, all ISP's suffer from the effects of spam, and there ARE solutions. Filtering is the only way forward until the major networks can agree on a system of email verification and delivery that will ensure a fair and working spam prevention system. Until that time, ntl and the other major ISP's must take drastic measures

It's not a perfect solution, nobody is arguing with you there, but ntl has about 1.2M Broadband subscribers, they dictate what they want, because they are a genuine, and profitable revenue source to ntl, and if they say "We want protection from this onslaught of junk email", ntl will have to give it to them, or they (we) walk , en mass.