Antispam Software

Filter Spam With AntiSpam Software

Redundancy, customization, and the ability to retaliate against spammers are the main selling points of add-on antispam software. My community has police who keep an eye out for burglars. My house has a front door I can lock. But inside the house I may still have an alarm system that detects suspicious motion, scares off intruders with lights and alarms, and even calls the cops automatically. That's what add-on antispam software can do for your email inbox.

If you use a desktop email client such as Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows Mail, there are several programs that you can use to put the brakes on spam. Among the most popular spam filtering solutions are Spam Bully, MailWasher, Comodo AntiSpam, and Cloudmark Desktop. Let's take a look at each:

• Spam Bully is a widely used program that works with Outlook and Outlook Express. It screens your incoming email against lists of known spam sources and keywords just like other spam filters. But it also learns from your response to email what you want to read and what you don't. With a week or so of "training" Spam Bully becomes nearly perfect at filtering spam. It can quarantine suspicious email in a separate folder for later review or automatically delete it. It also lets you report spammers to the FTC, the spammer's ISP, and the keepers of spammer blacklists. So you can be part of the antispam police community. Spam Bully is free to try for 14 days; and a one-year subscription costs $29.95.
• MailWasher Free lets you check your email at the server before it gets to your inbox. This enables you to delete unwanted email, viruses or huge attachments so they never reach your computer in the first place. MailWasher learns as you go, and becomes very good at recognizing spam. It also supports blacklists, friend lists, and lets you add your own custom filters.
• Comodo Antipsam Desktop is a free antispam software solution from the Comodo security software team. It requires everyone who sends you email to prove they're human and not an automated spam-spewing robot. When a new sender's mail arrives, Comodo Antispam sends an authentication code to the sender which must be echoed back before the sender's mail is allowed into your inbox. It's like having a voicemail system that requires callers to press "1" before they're put through to you, effectively eliminating automated calling machines. Comodo also works with any POP3 account or email client, not just the big names like Outlook, Outlook Express, and Thunderbird.
• Cloudmark DesktopOne works with Mozilla Thunderbird as well as Outlook and Outlook Express. Spam, viruses and phising attempts are not identified by lists or sources or keywords, but by the entire community of Cloudmark antispam users worldwide. When you tag a message as spam it's added to the filter lists of every Cloudmark user. That could be good or bad; one man's spam is another's steak. But the idea is that with a large pool of actual humans, the bad stuff will be identified with a high degree of accuracy. DesktopOne works on Outlook, Windows Mail, Outlook Express, and Thunderbird. It can also be used as a pre-filter for web-based email accounts that have IMAP/POP access capability.

Do you have experience with any of these anti-spam software tools, or a favorite that's not mentioned here? Post your comment or question below...