Combat Comment Spam

Here are 3 solutions for fighting spam:

Akismet
Get the plugin: http://akismet.com
Signup at http://wordpress.com for your API key.
( You do not need a blog there, just sign up)
Help here: http://wordpress.com/api-keys

Bad-behavior
Get the plugin: http://www.ioerror.us/software/bad-behavior
Does NOT work at godaddy as far as I know.

Spam Karma 2
Get the plugin: http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma
Aksimet plugin for SK2: http://www.sebbi.de/archives/2006/01/31/spam-karma-2-akismet-plugin
Comment moderation plugin for SK2: http://blog.ftwr.co.uk/wordpress/sk2-moderate-plugin


They are ALL good and yes, they can all be used together.

SK2 will run all existing comments through it's filters to catch spam already there.

CJD Spam Nuke from http://chrisjdavis.org will also ID and let you remove spam with one click

Captcha (where you have to type words in to verify you are a human) are NOT that effective. You will still get spammed. So use one of the above.

You may also see little 'Donate' buttons on the above sites. As their work was given freely and saves you masses of time (do you want to delete spam by hand every morning?), saying Thanks by dropping a tip into their jar would be appreciated I'm sure.