If you are drowning in spam, help is available from software and e-mail services that block unwanted mail. Some work better than others. Here's a look at seven antispam apps and services.
Spam is out of hand. In fact, unsolicited e-mail is so bad that students have written academic papers regarding your likelihood of receiving spam. Enough, we say. ZDNet enlisted its veteran spam reviewer to look at eight of the most popular antispam products on the market to find out which does the best job of keeping unwanted mail out of your in-box.
Perhaps the most effective method we've seen is the use of an algorithm, or a variety of tests, to determine whether a piece of incoming mail is spam. This method produces far fewer false positives over time than any other antispam method we tested, keeping the mail that you want to get safely in your in-box. Unfortunately, our favorite such algorithm-based Outlook app, SpamAssassin Pro, is no longer available. Fortunately, Eudora users can still benefit from the underlying spam-blocking algorithm with Spamnix for Eudora, and, if you're willing to compile your own code, SpamAssassin's original open-source algorithm is still available at Spamassassin.org.
The next-best approach to stopping spam involves a third-party mail server that filters your mail before it even hits your desktop e-mail client. An example is SpamCop. The chief advantage in using a third-party server is that it keeps track of the latest spam blacklist of IP addresses so that you don't have to. A similar method is used by SpamKiller, which filters mail on your PC's hard drive before sending it on to your e-mail client; this program downloads updated blacklist filters automatically.
A third approach is gaining in popularity, although it is still too early to tell whether it will be as effective as the other methods. A number of new products use your existing address list to create a whitelist, a list of senders who are allowed to send you e-mail. The software then blocks mail coming from anyone not on your whitelist. For the blocked senders, three of these products (Mailblocks, Qurb, and Matador) employ a controversial new practice of sending an e-mail challenge that automated spammers won't be able to meet. So far, this practice still hits a few snags.
While each method has its pros and cons, in all cases, we did see a significant decrease in unsolicited e-mail once we started testing. Your actual mileage may vary, but having some filtering capabilities is still better than having none at all.
| Spamnix for Eudora | |||||
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If you use the Eudora e-mail client and hate spam, try Spamnix. It's the best spam filter we've seen to date.  Read review |
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Deersoft SpamAssassin Pro | |||||
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A no-muss, no-fuss tool for Outlook users, the US$30 SpamAssassin Pro is an easy and effective way to snuff out spam. Read review |
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McAfee SpamKiller 4.0 | |||||
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Though a tad pricey, SpamKiller is an effective spam filter. By routing your mail through a remote server, it works with most e-mail clients. Read review |
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Qurb | |||||
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This Outlook plug-in stops 100 percent of spam and 10 percent of your legitimate e-mail. Still, Qurb is one of the better antispam apps. Read review |
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MailFrontier Matador for Outlook | |||||
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Matador is ambitious and sophisticated. Unfortunately, the Outlook plug-in blocks too much legitimate mail. Read review |
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Sunbelt iHateSpam 3.2 | |||||
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If you run Microsoft Outlook, iHateSpam thins the junk mail in your in-box. The Outlook Express version, however, isn't worth the hassle. Read review |
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Mailblocks | |||||
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Despite the hype, Mailblocks is buggy, and it lacks features found in similar antispam apps. We suggest you wait for version 2.0 or try Qurb or SpamKiller instead. Read review |
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Thanks for interesting information!
I would recommend other anti-spam tool – <a href="http://www.spambully.com/">SpamBully</a>. It is a nice and easy to use Bayesian spam filtering program, it integrates with Outlook and Outlook Express.
The way SpamBully is that it views your current email folders' contents and learns from that to help distinguish between spam and regular emails.
Also it has a lot of great features such as Friends/Spammers lists, email blocking by country/language, Allow/Block words and phrases, attachment blocking…
Also it allows you to see detailed information about each email you receive - IP address, country, character set, and how SpamBully ranked it. Tells you why a message was or was not blocked and how to correct this in the future.