Spambot Protector Review Remember when posting your e-mail address on your web site was a convenient way for people to contact you? Well, people will still contact you but it won't be the ones you want. Anymore, posting your e-mail address is the same as inviting a hoard of spammers and computer viruses to take up residence in your inbox. The problem is that spammers send robot programs sneaking around the net to look for e-mail addresses on web pages. When one of these spambots find an e-mail address, like yours, it puts it on a list and you start getting all sorts of spam. What can you do? I've seen some people cancel or abandon e-mail accounts due to spam; a drastic solution that requires you to tell EVERYONE you want to hear from about your new address. Fortunately, Spambot Protector offers you an easy and inexpensive solution. Download Spambot Protector and follow along with the examples. In case you're wondering, the actual name of Spambot Protector is "0-Code E-mail Address Protector" so don't be confused when you install the program. 3 Screens - 3 Wizards Spambot Protector hides your e-mail address in three ways: 1) Encodes your e-mail as a non-linking text string 2) Encodes your e-mail address as a non-linking image. 3) Encodes your e-mail address as a mailto link. Each of the three procedures has a wizard page that can be opened using the "wizard" pick on the top menu bar. You can also combine steps 2 and 3 to create a mailto linked image which is described below. The three options are accessed using the menu on the left side of the Spambot Protector screen as shown below. Non-Linking Text String Spambot Protector uses JavaScript to encode your e-mail address so that Spambots can't read it. To create the JavaScript code: 1) Click on the "Only Address (text)" choice on the left side of the program window. The window is shown in the above screenshot. 2) Type in your e-mail address. For this example, I typed in the products account for the Shareware Genie site. 3) Click the "Make Script" button. 4) Click the "Copy to Clipboard" button. 5) Copy the code to the location of your choice on your website. This is what the code will look like on a web site: As you can see, it is readable but will be unseen by Spambots harvesting e-mail addresses. As you can also see, it isn't an active link. Non Linking Image This option allows you to turn your e-mail address into an easily read image which is invisible to SpamBots. To create the image: 1) Click the "Email to Image" choice on the menu. The right section of the window is shown above. 2) Enter your e-mail address. In this example, I've used the same address mentioned above. 3) Select the font type and size by clicking on the "Font Properties" button. 4) Select the color by clicking on one of the two boxes on the right side of the window. A small text box that says "Forground Color" will open when your mouse in on the proper box. A color selection window will open. 5) Select format from one of the radio boxes at the bottom of the window. You can only have a transparent background if you choose the GIF format. 6) Click "Save Image" to save the image. Below is what the image will look like using a 12 Bold Arial font. This image can be used with the next section to create a linkable image Mail To Link A mail to link allows visitors to your website to click on an address or image and their default e-mail program will open a blank page with your address and the subject line filled in. Spambot protector encodes both the e-mail address and the HTML code used to create the mail to link. The procedure is as simple as the previous two. 1) Select the Mail-to link tab on the left side of the window. 2) Enter your e-mail address and subject line. For this example, I used the product account and the heading "Spambot Protector comments". 3) Type in the text that you want to have the active link. In the first example, I chose the string "hear your comments" to be the active link. The following sentence shows how this can be used: I'd like to about Spambot Protector. To create the following link, I chose a string containing the e-mail address itself. Spambot Protector encoded both the mail to link as well as the address itself. If you click the Image button in the center of the window, you will be allowed to use an image as the mail to link. In the following example, I used the image of the e-mail address that was created above. Wizards and Help Files Help is never far off with SpamBot Protector. Each of the three methods mentioned above have a separate Wizard which walks you through the process while providing additional information about JavaScript and Spambots. Almost every textbox has it's own help file which you can access by clicking on the question mark with a yellow circle around it. Conclusion and Registration SpamBot Protector allows you to share your e-mail address without giving it to spammers in the process. An easy to use interface and a low registration fee of $9.95 make this a welcome addition to any webmaster's toolkit. To register, click the "Buy Now" button visible when you open or close the program and follow the directions. You can download the trial version of SpamBot Protector by clicking on the button below. I hope you find the program useful and would like to hear your comments at - The Genie - > News || Reviews || Utilities || Home/Office || Web Tools || Web Utils || Graphics || Security || Games || Other Categories || Program List || FAQ || Forum || About Us || Contact Us || Home Strategy Games || Action Games || Puzzle Games || Card Games ||