hello from New Mexico.

i was just wondering..how can you seperate a signal from interferance? is there a marker on the program to let you know?

Hi and welcome to the boards. Hopefully one of our members can answer this question. :o

Not me but welcome.

Must be talking about seti.... Their are filters..
Your power supply on your computer has filters too, but thats technical stuff....

Welcome coyotechief.

The SETI team has algorithms in place that filter for any known interference at the radio telescope sites the data comes from. If there is a "positive signal", something that comes up unexplained, then they have to go back through the results and re-interpret them to see if it was really something "different" or if there was a new or unknown source of interference in the area. Almost all the positive signals to date have been "false positives", that were able to be explained away by some interference that came to light after re-examining the data closer.
Hope that helps a little! Seth Shostak, one of the lead astronomers for SETI, wrote a book I read, Confessions of an Alien Hunter. That might be good reading if you're wanting a more serious, in-depth look at it.
Welcome to the boards!
Jed