Unsolicited, unwanted advertising e-mail, commonly known as 'spam', has become a big problem. It's reached such proportions that most e-mail services and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have put some sort of blocking or filtering system in place or begun relying on blacklists to tell the good guys from the bad.

If you suspect that you are not receiving the emails you have requested from the Bengies, you may need to add us to your "whitelist" or "approved senders list."

Please look at the following tips and adjust your email client to insure that you don't miss your weekly email of "The Voice."

To find instructions for your e-mail provider or software, scroll down or use the menu on the left.

• Open the latest issue of the e-mail you want to whitelist.
• Click the Add Address button (over on the right) to add that sender to your "People I Know" list.

Alternatively, you can just send an e-mail to the "From" address, and that will add the address to your "People I Know" list automatically.

• Open the latest issue of the e-mail you want to whitelist.
• Copy the address in the "From" line.
• Click the Reply button (it's in the top right corner).
• A new email window opens with an address pre-filled in the "Send To" box.
• Replace the address in the Send To box with the one you copied out of the From line.
• Click Send Now (it's in the top right corner).

Even if the e-mail you send doesn't get through (for whatever reason), the act of sending it does the job of putting the address into your "People I Know" list--and that's what counts.

If you're using an earlier version of AOL, you'll need to set your Mail Controls instead. Here's how:

• Go to Keyword Mail Controls.
• Select the screen name the valued e-mail is coming to.
• Click Customize Mail Controls For This Screen Name.

For AOL version 8.0: Select Allow email from all AOL members, email addresses and domains.

• Click Next until the Save button shows up at the bottom.
• Click Save.

For AOL version 7.0: In the section for "exclusion and inclusion parameters", include the domain of the "From" address (the part after the "@" (the at sign).

• Open your Yahoo mailbox.
• Click Mail Options.
• Click Filters.
• Next, click Add Filter.
• In the top row, labeled From header:, make sure contains is selected in the pull-down menu.
• Click in the text box next to that pull-down menu, then enter the address in the "From" line of your most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• At the bottom, where it says Move the message to:, select Inbox from the pull-down menu.
• Click the Add Filter button again.

• Log on and click the Mail tab to get into your mailbox.
• Click Options (it's over at the top right, next to Help).
• Click Junk e-Mail Protection.
• Select Safe List.
• In the space provided, enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Click Add.
• When you see the address you entered in the Safe List box, click OK.

Alternatively, you can add the "From" address to your Contacts list:

• Open the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Click the Save Address button. (It's over to the right in the line of options just above the e-mail.)
• Click OK.

• Open any e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist, then add the sender or the sender's domain to your Safe List.
• Find the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist and add it to Personal Contacts in your Outlook Address Book.
• Open any e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist, then select Mark as Not Junk.

• Open the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Copy the address in the "From" line.
• Click on Address Book (it's over on the left, below your Folders).
• When your Address Book opens, click the Add button.
• On the Add Contact screen, find the Internet Information box.
• Enter the address you copied from the "From" line into the top Email box.
• Click Save.

• Open the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Copy the address in the "From" line.
• Click on Settings: E-mail | Junk e-mail (it's at the bottom left of the screen, just above Calendar).
• On the E-mail settings screen, click Junk E-Mail Guard.
• Select Safe List.
• In the space provided under "Add people to the safe list", enter the address you copied from the "From" line.
• Click Add.

For older versions of MSN, you add our sending address to your Safe List like this:

• Open the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Copy the address in the "From" line.
• Click on E-mail settings (it's at the bottom left of the screen, just above Calendar).
• On the E-mail settings screen, click Junk Mail.
• Select Safe List.
• Click Add an item to this list.
• When the Add To Safe List box appears, enter the address you copied from the "From" line into the space provided.
• Click Add.

• Go to your Verizon Inbox.
• Click Options.
• Select the Block Senders tab (near the top of the screen).
• On the Block Senders screen, you'll see both a "Block Sender List" and a "Safe List". In the space where it says, "Enter e-mail address or sub domain to always accept even if the domain is blocked", enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.

• Open the latest issue of the e-mail you want to whitelist.
• Click the More Options link. It's on the title line of the e-mail, over on the right, next to the date. (If you see "Hide Options" instead, then you already have the extra options visible and can just skip this step.)
• When the extra options are visible (just below the subject line), click the Add sender to contacts list link.

• Open the latest issue of the e-mail you want to whitelist.
• Click the Reply link (it's at the bottom of the e-mail, on the left).
• A new email window opens with an address pre-filled in the "Send To" box.
• Click Send Now (it's in the top right corner).

If one of your valued e-mails has been filtered into the Spam folder, you can prevent that ever happening again for that particular "From" address:

• Click on the Spam link to open your Spam folder.
• Click on the wrongly filtered e-mail to open it.
• Click the Not Spam button at the top of the e-mail (right next to "Delete Forever").

• Open your browser and go to this page: http://webmail.spamcop.net/
• Log into your SpamCop account.
• Click on the Options icon in the toolbar.
• Under Mail Management (in the middle), click SpamCop Tools.
• Select Manage your personal whitelist.
• Near the bottom, where it reads "Click here to add to your whitelist", click on Click here.
• Enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist in the first empty slot.
• Click Submit.

• Search your hard drive for the spamassassin folder, then open it.
• In that folder should be a file named user_prefs. Open it with a text editor (Notepad, for example). If there is no such file, you can create it. The detailed instructions are at http://spamassassin.taint.org/doc/Mail_SpamAssassin_Conf.html.
• Make a new (blank) line in the file. On that line, enter whitelist_from, followed by the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist .
• Save the file and close it.

• On the Spamkiller sidebar, click Friends.
• Click Add.
• Enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Click the OK button.

• In Mailblocks, click the Addresses tab.
• Select New.
• Enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist .
• In the Receiving Options, select Accept Mail From This Address.
• In the Other Options, make sure Display in People Picker is not selected.
• Click Submit.
• Click OK.

• On the MailShield toolbar, click Friends.
• Click Add.
• Enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Click the OK button.

• In MailWasher, select Tools.
• Select Blacklist & Friends.
• On the right-hand side is the "Friends" list. Click the Friends Add button.
• Select Plain email address.
• Enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist , then click OK.
• Click OK again.

• Click the Whitelist button.
• Add to the list the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Click the Submit List button.

• Find any e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist that's in your Probably Spam folder.
• Click on that e-mail to select it.
• Click the Move to Inbox and Mark as Not Spam button.

• Open Outlook.
• On the Spam Inspector menu or toolbar, find and select Manage Friends List .
• In the Add a New Friend area, select E-mail .
• Enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Click the >> (add) button.
• Click Close.

• Open Spam Interceptor and select Authentication Lists .
• Click Trusted .
• Enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Click Add.

• Open Spam Sleuth.
• From the File menu, select Configure .
• In the Friends category, make sure Active is selected.
• In the space provided for the list, make a new (blank) line and on it enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Click OK.

• Open Spam Butcher and click the Configure button.
• Select the Known Senders tab.
• Under Known Good Senders and Recipients, click Add .
• Enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist, and click OK .
• Click OK.

• On the Spameater sidebar, click Filters .
• Select the Approved Senders tab.
• Click Add Filter .
• In the Address space, enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• For Address Type, select Full Email Address .
• Click OK.

• Open your Outlook Inbox.
• On the Cloudmark SpamNet toolbar, click Options .
• Click Advanced.
• Select the Whitelist tab.
• Click the Add button.
• Enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist, and click the OK button.
• Click OK again, then Yes, then OK one last time.

• When SpamPal is running, find the SpamPal icon in your Windows system tray and right-click on it.
• Select Add to Whitelist .
• Enter the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
• Click Add.

If after adjusting your email client's settings, you still aren't receiving your Bengies emails, please contact the customer service people or the postmaster at the company that provides your e-mail or Internet connection (your ISP). Explain to them what subscriptions are e-mail that you asked for (or paid for) and value. Ask them if they can white-list the sender. (Unfortunately, some e-mail systems don't allow white-listing.) If they do white-list, they'll probably ask you for some information about the publisher. Here's what to tell them:

• Sending Address: If your ISP asks for the "sender" or "from" address, give them the address in the "From" line of the most recent e-mail from the sender you want to whitelist.
   
• Domain: If your ISP needs to know the domain the publisher is mailing from, try forwarding them an e-mail from the publisher. The domain is in the "header" of every e-mail. If that doesn't work, you'll have to contact the publisher to ask them what domain they're sending from. There might be more than one, especially if you have multiple subscriptions.