Anti-spam software

Spam is becoming a seriously annoying problem, clogging up our inboxes. Without ways of filtering out spam, serious inroads will be made into our time. The built-in filtering methods in email programs, such as Outlook, Eudora and Pegasus are no longer effective. But there's now highly effective software available which filters your email before it reaches your email program. Here's a few very affordable solutions which I recommend.

Spytech SpamAgent

I think that SpamAgent's great advantages are its ease of use and the huge number of filters that it uses - more than 1,500. Because of this ease of use, it perhaps lacks the flexibility of more complex software.

If your prime concern is simplicity, SpamAgent is the one for you!

• Filter by Sender SpamAgent allows you to filter incoming messages by sender - preset filters including many known spam domains to start filtering with. (over 660 sender filters are included to start with)
• Filter by Recipient SpamAgent allows you to filter incoming messages by recipient - this allows you to reject e-mails that do not contain your e-mail address in the recipient field.
• Filter by Subject SpamAgent allows you to filter incoming messages its subject. (over 300 subject filters are included to start with)
• Filter by Body SpamAgent allows you to filter incoming messages by text in its body and header. (over 530 body filters are included to start with)
• Special Filters Special filters include Attachment filtering, Filtering if no subject is present, Filtering if sender equals Recipient, and Filtering if the incoming message is a forward.
• Friends The SpamAgent friends list allows you to specify email addresses that you always accept email from, regardless of the content.

Operating Systems: Windows 95,98,ME,NT4,2000, or XP. MSN, AOL, Hotmail, Webmail NOT supported

Click here to buy - $29.95 - instant download

Firetrust's Mailwasher Pro

What I like about Mailwasher - and I've been using it for nearly two years now - is that, once you've had it running for a week or so, and have filtered in your friends, its powerful auto-filter mechanisms mean that you can process a couple of hundred emails in a minute or so (yes, I get twice that amount of spam every day!). It doesn't just rely on internal filters. Mailwasher also interrogates several external databases of known spammers, so it can catch spammers who have never hit you personally before! It's also pretty hot at spotting viruses.

If you are happy to invest a bit of time in the first few weeks for huge time savings later, then you should buy Mailwasher.

Key features

• View your e-mail before it gets to your computer - see what e-mail is waiting for you so you can deal to it effectively. You can even read the whole message.
• Bounce back unwanted e-mail so it looks as if your e-mail address is not valid. This will make the sender think your address is no longer active so your name can be removed from their list. This unique feature is great for privacy and it couldn't be simpler!
• Checks online databases of known spammers. MailWasher Pro analyses each e-mail as it arrives and warns you if it is suspected junk mail or a virus by using fuzzy logic and filtering. The standard status categories are - Virus, Possibly virus, Possibly spam, Probably spam, Blacklisted, Blacklisted by (ORDB, Spam Cop etc). MailWasher Pro even recognises the Klez virus.
• Blacklist and Friends Lists. Easily add to these based on sender or subject line
• Auto Filtering. Effective filtering to automatically spot spam, plus it uses a customizable list of blacklisted e-mail senders and/or regular expressions to filter out potential spammer addresses and messages.
• Unlimited email accounts. You can have as many email accounts as you want to check.
• Support and upgrades for a whole year.

Operating systems: Windows 95,98,Me,NT,2000 and XP. Support for POP3 and Hotmail.

Click here to buy - $29.95 - instant download

BrezoSoft's MailMate

MailMate works in a slightly different way from the previous two products. With SpamAgent and Mailwasher, you run the software first, to filter out the spam (deleting it from the server) and then you immediately download your emails with your email software.

MailMate, like these other two, still sits between your service provider and your email software, but it runs in the background, regularly checking your mailbox, filtering out (but not deleting) the spam. So when you download your email in the usual way, it has already been filtered.

The main advantage of this method is that, if MailMate makes a mistake and filters out genuine mail, you can always go back and retrieve it from its junk folder. Apart from this, MailMate has many features in common with the previous two programs.

If you like this 'one-step' method, then you'll really like MailMate. But remember, you still have to clear out the junk folder from time to time!

Key features

• Stops 97% of unwanted e-mail (right after install)
• Preprocessing is not needed before receiving emails
• Don't need to change your accustomed email client
• Protects multiple email accounts
• Get off spam lists by bouncing email back to spammers
• Identifies spams not only by keywords
• Import Friendly Addresses from Outlook & other programs
• Blocks entire countries from sending you mail
• Blacklist e-mail addresses and complete domains
• Create Friendly email lists to protect wanted mail
• Safe preview of emails.
• The mail rule supports wildcard.
• Putting spams into the "Quarantine Area" avoids deleting normal emails by accident.
• Email Charset analysis. blocks emails from Japan, Korea, and China.
• Block spams according to the extension names of attachments.
• Block spams according to their priority levels.
• Several kinds of notification can be selected for new emails.

Operating systems: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP and Windows 2003. MSN, AOL, Hotmail, Webmail NOT supported

Click here to buy - $29.95 - instant download

In conclusion...

So there you have it - three excellent ways to reduce significantly the increasing mountain of spam in your inbox. Price is not the issue - they are all $29.95 (strange co-incidence, isn't it!). Here's a summary: