What Anti-Spam Program is Recommended?

[Sunny]

Hello:

I'm new to this MB. I run Win98SE, IE 6sp1, Outlook Express 6, on an HP Pavilion 8570, Pent. III, 256.

Can someone suggest a good, free if possible, anti-spam program for OE which runs well with Avast 4 Home?

Thank you all in advance for any suggestions.

[Max M.Wachtel III]

sunny-
have you tried mozilla? I tried it out about 2 wks ago now and I like it better than IE6+OE. The e-mail has a really easy to use junk mail filter with more settings than OE.
And I just imported my address book and favorites folder.
Good to go!
-max

[SirL]

I use K9 and 99.5%(and rising...) of all spam i get i sorted right. It's a small and free program.

http://keir.net/k9.html

/SirL

[Bluesman]

I use Spamihilator, works very well for me!

http://www.spamihilator.com

/Bluesman

[DavidR]

I use MailWasher Pro, too many good points to list, check it out. I'm not sure if there is still a freeware version, I used that to start with, that only scans one email account, if you have multiple accounts you would need the pro version @ $US 37.

http://www.firetrust.com/home/index.php

If nothing else use the 30 day free trial, I really like it and when I purchased it (29.95) 18 months ago, I have had three free upgrades to the current version 4.1.

David

[Lisandro]

I use Spamihilator, works very well for me!
http://www.spamihilator.com

Me too.
To configurate it with avast see http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=9;action=display;threadid=3413  

[Sunny]

Hello to all,

Thank you so much for your suggestions! I really appreciate them. It sounds as though AVAST will work with most anti-spam programs. Actually, I'm not surprised. I just downloaded Avast today...without a single hitch! And another surprise: My first scan detected no viruses! (I'll run another scan tomorrow just to be sure that everything was set to go when I did that one.) I'm very, VERY pleased.

To: Madmax:

I haven't tried Mozilla though I've considered doing so. To change a whole operating system would be drastic for me right now, but someday? Thanks anyway for your suggestion. Maybe one day I'll get really good and disgusted (like 6 security patches...for Win98SE...all in one day! It Could Happen!!!) Then I'll just do it!

Thank you all again!

Sunny

[.: Mac :.]

To change a whole operating system would be drastic for me right now

Mozilla is a web browser not an operating system.

But IF you want to change your Operating system..... How about getting a Macintosh?  

[trigger]

SpamPal overhere. http://www.spampal.org Pro over K9 is that it can download several mail account at the same time, and I have several.

Peter

[DavidR]

The thing that I hate about most Anti-Spam programs is, you have to download the email before you can filter it.

This is a pain, a cost (and a risk of potential infection) when you are using a dial-up connection to download up to 100 spam/suspect emails per day.

This is why I love MailWasher Pro so much, it checks email at source (mail server) and using its tools is very accurate at identifying and marking spam for deletion. All you need to do is click process to delete all the marked emails from the server, it then calls up your email program and you then only download the email that's left.

Downside, yes you have to pay for it, once and upgrades are free.

[trigger]

This is why I love MailWasher Pro so much, it checks email at source (mail server) and using its tools is very accurate at identifying and marking spam for deletion. All you need to do is click process to delete all the marked emails from the server, it then calls up your email program and you then only download the email that's left.

Correct me if I am wrong, but mailwasher pro downloads the email also and detrmines if it's spam or not. It then deletes spam from the server so your email client does not download the messages, but they will get onto your system anyway. Other spam software does the same but passes valid mail directly to your mail client.

Peter

[DavidR]

This is why I love MailWasher Pro so much, it checks email at source (mail server) and using its tools is very accurate at identifying and marking spam for deletion. All you need to do is click process to delete all the marked emails from the server, it then calls up your email program and you then only download the email that's left.

Correct me if I am wrong, but mailwasher pro downloads the email also and detrmines if it's spam or not. It then deletes spam from the server so your email client does not download the messages, but they will get onto your system anyway. Other spam software does the same but passes valid mail directly to your mail client.

Peter

Happy to correct you, mailwasher downloads headers and the first x lines (you define x number) which are viewed in plain text (if you have elected to view the preview pane) if you need to check content, this information is held in a temp location but the email still exists on the server, it is not downloaded into your email inbox, spam or other folder in your email program.

From this limited information it/you can identify and mark for deletion. It is currently recognising close to 100% of all spam having spent some time training it and its reference to spamcop and other spam blacklist/ip addresses. So I don't spend large ammounts of time checking it, simply clicking process, this deletes email from the email server, you then download the remainder with your email program.

[trigger]

Happy to correct you, mailwasher downloads headers and the first x lines (you define x number) which are viewed in plain text (if you have elected to view the preview pane) if you need to check content, this information is held in a temp location but the email still exists on the server, it is not downloaded into your email inbox, spam or other folder in your email program.

That will limit the amount of downloaded data. In the past I used a program that did similar things. Then Spammers started to add blank lines at the beginning of the message   so it was of no use anymore.

BUT:

From this limited information it/you can identify and mark for deletion. It is currently recognising close to 100% of all spam

It seems the way of spam changed again and it will pick up spam again. I will give mailwasher a try. I am happy with spampal, but if there is another, better program around... Why not use that  

Thanks for the heads up.

Peter

[neal62]

Sunny,

Just to add my bit of information to your question. I use a spam filter that is a Option type of filter. Its called QuikCop and is located at www.quikcop.com. Its a pay for type of program but works very well. You type in the e-mails you want to receive e-mail from and the rest of the e-mail goes into a "Jail" which you also can view. If there is a e-mail in the Jail you want delivered into your inbox of your e-mail program you can click on "deliver" and also click on"add to friends and acquaintences" list. At that point the e-mail from the Jail will be delivered into your inbox and will continue to be delivered there as its being recognized by the program as acceptable e-mail. This filter will weed out 98% of the Spam or more.
    Another alternative is a free program called "Poptray" located at www.poptray.org. It checks the mail at the server and allows you to delete anything you find objectionable before its downloaded into your e-mail program. I have found it to be very accurate and user friendly. I hope this adds some other choices for you. Have a good day and welcome to the forum.

[DavidR]

Happy to correct you, mailwasher downloads headers and the first x lines (you define x number) which are viewed in plain text (if you have elected to view the preview pane) if you need to check content, this information is held in a temp location but the email still exists on the server, it is not downloaded into your email inbox, spam or other folder in your email program.

That will limit the amount of downloaded data. In the past I used a program that did similar things. Then Spammers started to add blank lines at the beginning of the message   so it was of no use anymore.

They now ad blank lines spell words like t.hi.s use html text that is 0pt size so that you see t hi s, the human eye and brain can cope with this but many spam filters can't. This shows that spam blocking is working as they try ever more devious methods to get arround spam filters.

The other feature that I like is the Origin of Spam filter, it checks mail not by content but from origin, IP address and this is very accurate, it also allows you to add new databases of spamming IPs, I have added the one from SpamHaus.org (sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org, this checks two databases at spamhaus.org) to the other two which come by default.

BUT:

From this limited information it/you can identify and mark for deletion. It is currently recognising close to 100% of all spam

It seems the way of spam changed again and it will pick up spam again. I will give mailwasher a try. I am happy with spampal, but if there is another, better program around... Why not use that  

Thanks for the heads up.

Peter

Every mail that came in to one account that managed to get into the spam lists generated 25 emails (this morning, about 75-100 total per day), all identified correctly as Origin Blacklisted or Possible Spam (based on either baysian filter or my teaching it), I can't remember when I last had a false positive and the time savings have been great.

David