This is just my personal home computer, a humble Mac Book laptop (not the newest incarnation: 10.4.11) so there's no "sysadmin" except moi.

I think SpamSieve is the way forward for me (re-formatting the hard drive, yikes!!). I had a look at its website earlier, and it seems quite good, particularly as it will work with both Mail and Entourage.

One no doubt dumb question: Is Mail a "cloud" programme? I thought it was an ordinary POP server client, and that this was the opposite type from Cloud - ?? I don't use it as a part of any network.

While everybody's here, can anyone recommend a good free-download firewall? I wanted to get ZoneAlarm but it wasn't available for Macs. Or should I just fork out, and if so, for what? Sieve costs (not much) and sounds well worth it, so I'll definitely get that, whether I stay with Mail or trek over to Entourage.

Think I'm starting to see a way forward - thanks for the help, you guys -