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Here’s a technique I learned a few months back that I’ve been meaning to blog about. I’ve always been displeased by my client’s spam detection, as it was always either of two extremes: ignoring spam or marking legitimate mail as spam. From my experience, Gmail has always provided the most reliable spam filtering, and it was right around this time that I discovered a way to utilize it. The steps involved vary depending on what your mailserver supports, so I’ve listed two different solutions:

Before you begin, log into your mailserver and see what options it provides for handling incoming mail. Most mailservers have the option to forward it, but if yours allows you to filter the forward feature, then you’re in luck; You get to follow the first (and easier) guide. If you’re like me, then you’ll be stuck with the second guide.

For those whose mailserver can filter forwards:

1. In your mailserver, forward all incoming mail to a new Gmail account, except mail from the Gmail account itself. This step is key.
2. In your Gmail account, go to settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP, and check the Forward a copy of incoming mail… radio button.
3. Enter your POP3 address in the text field, and set the drop-down menu to archive.
4. You’re all done!

For those whose mailserver can’t filter forwards:

1. In your mailserver, forward all incoming mail to a new Gmail account.
2. In your Gmail account, go to settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP, and check the Enable POP for all mail radio button.
3. Configure your Email client to read from your Gmail account instead of your POP3 account.
4. In your POP3 account settings, you should have an option to set a different outgoing E-mail address than your incoming address. (I use Entourage, which lets you define this in your Account Settings tab under Personal Information. I also use a Blackberry, which calls this field Reply to under Set up Internet E-mail). Set your outgoing address to be your original POP3 account, so you can reply to your incoming mail under the same address that is originally used to send to you in the first place. Keep in mind you must do this for all E-mail clients that you use to communicate through.
5. You’re all done!

With either guide, you’ll be set up such that you can send and receive E-mail through your original POP3 account, and still take advantage of Gmail’s spam filter system. Don’t forget to disable the filter systems already set up on your mail client, you won’t be needing them anymore.