Competition among 11 anti-spam Software

Today, many email clients and services provide built-in anti-spam tools, such as Yahoo! Emails, Hotmail, and Microsoft Outlook 2003. In fact, the Built-in anti-spam functions of some products (especially Hotmail and Oddpost) seem to be no worse than some specialized anti-spam tools. However, what if the email client you are using does not have a valid anti-spam filter? It is estimated that by next year, the proportion of spam in all emails will exceed 70%. In this case, the necessity of installing professional anti-spam tools becomes more and more prominent.

11 anti-spam tools were evaluated in this topic. Eight of them depend heavily on the complex technology of separating spam from normal emails. Generally, batch emails that are not sent by yourself are very different from those of daily emails. These anti-spam tools strive to find these differences. When testing these applications, we used an email account in PC Magazine to receive daily emails from readers (and, of course, a large number of spam emails ). We re-allocate the email for this account to eight identical user accounts, so we can use the same email for testing.

Some of these anti-spam tools allow you to train filter rules. We trained filter rules in a few days: in hundreds of emails, we pointed out which are spam and which are not spam. After this process, we waited until we received nearly 500 new emails before the formal test began. We let every tool program process the same email to test their ability to distinguish normal and spam (we determine spam. However, it should be noted that the White List, blacklist, or question/answer technology is not used to test their spam resolution capabilities. For test results, see the score table. "No spam is intercepted" indicates the proportion of spam mails that have escaped the filter of the anti-spam program and entered the inbox. Blocking a legitimate email indicates a false positive rate. Misjudgment means that normal mail errors are treated as spam, which is worse than missing spam emails in the inbox.

The other three tools used in this evaluation use the whitelist technology. These tools record a list in which the email addresses are allowed to be received. The whitelist is the main method to filter received emails. If someone in the whitelist sends you an email, the email enters your inbox. If the sender is not in this list, the email will be questioned or blocked to another specific email address.

The above filter revision process is not required for whitelist products. This type of anti-spam products determine which emails are allowed and which emails are blocked manually. The difference between different products is to build an authenticated sender list to check the convenience of important emails from unknown sources.

Filter Products

Filter-based anti-spam applications can prohibit spam from entering the inbox by checking the mail header and content.

IHateSpam

Sunbelt Software, developer of iHateSpam, still fails to solve the false positive rate problem. When we evaluated iHateSpam last spring, it was one of the products with the highest false positive rate. It has not improved much in this evaluation: almost 20% of normal emails were misjudged as spam.

To be fair, iHateSpam blocks a considerable number of spam messages. 400 of the more than 91% spam mails sent in our test can be correctly identified. In iHateSpam, you can easily set traditional whitelists and blacklists, and customize filters to block emails containing specific words or phrases, you can even customize the filter to receive emails containing specific words or phrases.

Sunbelt provides two versions of iHateSpam: one for Outlook Express and the other for Outlook. The latter can process IMAP and Exchange accounts, both of which are easy to use. In addition, a striking feature is iHateSpam's Hotmail integration. Among the anti-spam products we have seen on the Hotmail Web interface, iHateSpam is one of the best products. All products except SpamKiller evaluated in this evaluation can only run in Outlook or Outlook Express. We especially like that after installing iHateSpam, there will be a wizard to help you configure the sensitivity of the filter.

IHateSpam has five different sensitivity settings. We use the default Medium setting during testing. Considering the high false positive rate of this application, you should select one of the two low-sensitivity settings at the beginning.

Direct Selling Price: USD 19.95.

Sunbelt Software USA, www.sunbelt-software.com. Overall Evaluation:★★☆☆☆

MailFrontier Matador

If you have been paying attention to the anti-spam war, you may have heard of MailFrontier Matador and its inquiry emails. By configuring this application, you can enable it to automatically send an email to an unknown sender, asking the recipient to answer the number of small animals in the sent digital image. If the recipient's answer is correct, in theory, the automatic email program cannot answer the question), the sender will be added to the White List. In fact, the inquiry email is only a small part of Matador. If you are worried that the inquiry email will cause troubles to your friends or colleagues, or you are worried about losing the normal business email you actually need to receive, you can also disable the question email function. In addition to querying emails, Matador can also block spam through email analysis.

Matador is similar to Cloudmark's SpamNet, which adjusts filter rules by collecting data from its user base. This application adds two buttons to each user's email client. You can point out the emails that you think are spam. However, Matador does not force you to rely too much on others' opinions: You can lower the level of the collaborative filter and carefully customize your own mail filter. Matador provides you with six controls for managing filter rules.

When testing the Matador Email Filtering Function in PC Lab, this application always has some minor problems in the aspect of misjudgment. This time, Matador is more serious: it mistakenly blocks 14% of normal emails. In addition, it has spared more spam: 20% of spam have escaped its filter. However, this does not mean that Matador is not worth considering. We still like its powerful and easy-to-use interface. If more improvements are made to Matador, the performance of Matador may be improved.

Direct Selling Price: USD 29.95.

MailFrontier, www.mailfrontier.com. Overall Evaluation:★★☆☆☆

Matador's inquiry system automatically intercepts Spam

Mailcycler Pro

Firetrust's mailcycler Pro has the same problem as DigiPortal's famous white list product ChoiceMail: it cannot be integrated with users' mail clients, it can only reside in a completely independent window and is actually the second inbox ). More importantly, this product did not do well in tests: it was the product that caught the least spam in this evaluation, and its false positive rate also reached a regrettable 16%.

Programs like Norton AntiSpam and Qurb are tightly integrated with Outlook, and isolated emails are placed on your email client, which is easy to view. However, if you do not switch to another window, you cannot view (or process) the emails that are isolated. The only advantage of mailcycler is that it is applicable to almost any POP3, IMAP, AOL, or Hotmail account. However, mailcycler cannot process Exchage accounts. In addition, we also hope that the installation process of mailreceiver will be simpler. During the installation process, you must manually enter the email server and user name. However, mailcycler does have the following advantages: you can create your own email filter. You can add the entire domain to the whitelist or blacklist. In addition, if you are willing to launch some "counterattack" actions (although this does not necessarily work), you can also bounce the Spam back to its source.

Direct Selling Price: USD 29.95.

Firetrust Ltd., www.firetrust.com. Overall Evaluation:★★☆☆Mcafee

SpamKiller

If you have been using McAfee products, including virus scanning tools and personal firewalls, SpamKiller is also worth studying. Like other McAfee applications, SpamKiller is integrated into its unified and regular user interface, namely, SecurityCenter. However, we do not recommend using this product after testing. First, it is not closely integrated with the mail client as we expect: You must check the mail folder through a separate window. This reduces the efficiency. When you open the folder, the program will take a few seconds to open the mail content. Its biggest drawback is that it only blocks 64% of spam and the false positive rate is as high as 50%, which is unacceptable. The advantage of SpamKiller is that it not only supports POP3, but also integrates Hotmail and Exchange accounts. It provides a large number of tools for customizing the anti-spam mechanism. The process of adding a whitelist or blacklist is simple. You can view and edit independent folders and set different configurations for different email addresses on the same machine.

Direct Selling Price: USD 34.95/year.

Mda1_security. Www.mcafee.com. Overall Evaluation:★☆☆☆☆

Norton AntiSpam 2004

Let's have a drink for the birth of Symantec Norton AntiSpam 2004. This application can be obtained in the Norton Network Security Special Police 2004 suite. Norton AntiSpam 2004 is Symantec's first independent product in the Anti-Spam market. In terms of capturing spam, it is more effective than any other independent tool involved in the test. Norton AntiSpam 2004 provides many custom filter tools. This product is only applicable to POP3 clients. IMAP, Exchange, and Hotmai users cannot use this product.

In Norton AntiSpam 2004, you can easily create a whitelist and blacklist. You can create your own filter to tell the program to block all emails containing specific words or phrases. In addition, by adding two buttons to the email client, you can also guide its Bayesian engine to identify the emails you think are spam. After guidance, we found in our lab tests that Norton AntiSpam 2004 blocked 93% of spam mails, and the normal mail that misjudges was only 3%.

Although the sensitivity of the application's filter engine can be adjusted, you only have three options: low, medium, and high. In the test, we use the default moderate level. Symantec also offered a tool to block the Web pop-up window with the product.

Reference price: 2004 yuan for Norton Cyber Security Special Police (English version.

Symantec, www.deletec.com/region/cn/product/index.html. Overall Evaluation:★★★★☆

SAproxy Pro

The SAproxy Pro of Stata Labs applies SpamAssassin based on open-source mail filters. SAproxy is the most effective anti-spam tool in the market. In our tests, it blocks 89% of spam without any customization process, and the false positive rate is lower than 2%. But the problem is that, although SAproxy is applicable to any POP3 mail client, it can only exert its maximum potential when using Stata Labs's own client Bloomba.

If you are a Bloomba user, installing SAproxy will be fast and simple. It can automatically put suspicious spam into the existing isolation folder of Bloomba, And it will activate a button in the Bloomba toolbar. With this button, you can easily train its Bayesian filter. If you use Outlook, Outlook Express, or other mail clients, it is difficult to install SAproxy. Moreover, if you do not use Bloomba, you cannot guide the Bayesian filter of SAproxy. You must manually update the client settings to allow the mail routing to pass SAproxy. In addition, unless you create a new rule for your client, the suspicious spam will only add a tag and will not be filtered into the spam folder.

In addition, SAproxy can also be applied to other third-party mail clients. You can create a whitelist and blacklist, filter words or phrases based on specific words, or even guide the product to automatically delete potentially dangerous content, such as attachments, from suspicious spam.

Direct Selling Price: USD 29.95.

Stata Labs, www.statalabs.com. Overall Evaluation:★★★☆☆

SpamCatcher

The last time we evaluated Mailshell's SpamCatcher, we praised it for its ability to avoid misjudgment, but also criticized it for its ability to capture spam. After that, SpamCatcher sought a more appropriate balance between the two. In the test, it captured 91% of spam, and the false positive rate was not higher than 3.2%.

SpamCatcher provides two versions: one for Outlook and the other for other POP3 clients. In these two versions, the Outlook version is better. It is tightly integrated with Outlook, and the buttons added in the program can quickly add the sender to the whitelist or blacklist, and provide a long drop-down menu for quick access to other tools. However, one disadvantage of SpamCatcher is that it significantly affects the speed of Outlook. When this program is used in a mailbox containing thousands of emails, it is almost impossible to jump between folders even if the program does not analyze the received emails.

SpamCatcher's anti-spam engine runs like MailFrontier Matador. Its filters are partly dependent on the opinions of its user group. Select the appropriate command from the drop-down menu in SpamCatcher. You can also submit your comments to the user group. Unlike many products, SpamCatcher also allows you to easily add the entire domain to the whitelist or blacklist. In addition, SpamCatcher allows you to flexibly select the Outlook folder for storing quarantined emails.

Direct Selling Price: USD 29.99.

Mailshell company, www.mailshell.com. Overall Evaluation:★★★★☆

SpamNet

Cloudmark's SpamNet has a long history of Blocking spam based on the opinions of the user community. When SpamNet filters emails, you can identify errors and spam emails that are missed and normal emails that are blocked. In this way, the filter can be updated accordingly. However, you can create your own whitelist without listening to others' opinions.

Cloudmark provides two versions of SpamNet: one for Outlook and the other for Outlook Express. The OE version is still in the test phase. when the test is completed, the two versions are released together. However, SpamNet does not support other clients, but it does support Exchange and POP3 connections. Both versions are very simple. They add up to three new buttons and an isolated folder to the mail client. The Block and Unblock buttons bring your comments to the user community. The third button opens a small tool list to configure the whitelist and check the spam statistics. However, the address book content cannot be automatically imported to the whitelist.

In the test, SpamNet successfully blocked 91% of spam mails, and only filtered out a normal email by mistake. In addition, SpamNet performance will be improved after the whitelist is set up.

Direct Selling Price: USD 3.99 per month or USD 39.95 per year.

Cloudmark, www.cloudmark.com. Overall Evaluation:★★★★☆

The AntiSpam produced by Norton can adjust the setting of the spam filter by analyzing sent mails.

The security settings of SAproxy can achieve different levels of anti-spam.

A whitelist-based anti-spam tool can block spam from entering the inbox by only receiving emails from specified senders.

ChoiceMail 2.0.

DigiPortal ChoiceMail is the first application to filter spam completely by whitelist. In addition, some experts call it the ultimate anti-spam tool. ChoiceMail 2.0 is indeed very effective, but it relies too much on inquiry emails. Inquiry emails may cause troubles to friends and colleagues, it may not work properly when handling normal business emails. In fact, DigiPortal is adding a filter that can block spam through email analysis.

During the installation process, the application creates a whitelist of authenticated senders from your address book. Then, you can edit the whitelist or create another blacklist. Emails from authenticated senders automatically enter your inbox. Emails from unknown senders will enter the ChoiceMail deleted email folder, and the sender will receive a question email.

One drawback of ChoiceMai is that it cannot be integrated with the email client. In this way, when you check the isolation folder, you must switch between the two windows. In addition, the initial whitelist of ChoiceMail is not as comprehensive as Qurb, because the latter can extract address information from all sent or stored emails.

ChoiceMail provides an independent and downloadable tool that can be used to build an initial whitelist similar to Qurb. Besides, unlike Qurb that can only be used for Outlook and Outlook Express, ChoiceMail can be applied to any POP3 email client and several Web-based mail services.

In addition, ChoiceMail has a new "License Management" sub-system that can block emails with specific characteristics. ChoiceMail provides a downloadable pre-defined filter, and you can also create your own filter.

Direct Selling Price: USD 39.95.

DigiPortal Software, www.digiportal.com. Overall Evaluation:★★☆☆☆

2.0 Qurb

If you haven't considered using whitelist products to solve spam problems, after using Qurb 2.0, you may be inclined to use such products. Although Qurb only uses a whitelist to filter received emails, it avoids the typical problems that may arise from the whitelist method. Qurb's White List construction technology is very mature, so almost no normal mail will enter the isolation zone, and, unlike ChoiceMail, It is closely integrated with Outlook or Outlook Express client, therefore, it is not difficult to view isolated folders. One drawback of Qurb is that it does not support other mail clients.

During the installation process, Qurb adds three buttons "Qurb", "allow", and "Block" to the user's mail client program, and an isolated folder icon. Qurb then creates a whitelist Based on the Outlook contact database and calendar, and all sent, received, opened, or stored emails. Even if you rarely update contacts, the whitelist created by Qurb is comprehensive and accurate.

Of course, you must always check the isolation folder. This process is simple and intuitive. You only need to click one to transfer to the quarantine folder, and then click one to return to the inbox. If an important email is isolated or spam is in the inbox, you can immediately use the "allow" and "Block" Buttons added to the mail client toolbar to edit the White List. In addition, you can configure Qurb to send a question message, and then automatically add the sender of the question message to the White List. However, this function is disabled by default.

Direct Selling Price: USD 29.95.

Qurb, www.qurb.com. Overall Evaluation:★★★★☆

Vanquish Pro 1.135

Vanquish Pro 1.135 adds new features to the whitelist mechanism. Although Vanquish provides a regular whitelist (although not as good as Qurb), it does not require that the recipients of emails be listed in the whitelist, they are not required to answer the question email. If the sender pays a deposit to the Vanquish developer, he can send you an email. This is a small guarantee that they will not send spam to you.

If the user who pays the deposit sends you a spam, you can deduct part of the amount from the deposit. Although each spam only deducts 5 cents, a large amount of deposits will soon be deducted from the manufacturers who send large volumes of spam. The above 5 cents will not be given to you, but to your ISP, so that you can avoid deliberately reporting normal emails as spam. However, Vanquish was available for a short period of time. Only a few users paid the deposit (Vanquish paid the deposit for all new users), and they did not know whether non-Vanquish users would voluntarily pay the deposit.

Most white lists occasionally block response emails. For example, emails sent to the consulting office receive replies, but the respondent's name is not on your sender's white list. The SmartSubject of Vanquish can monitor the emails that match the subject of the emails you recently sent and bring these emails into the inbox. In addition, the whitelist may also block confirmation emails from shopping websites. Vanquish SurfWatch can record your access to these shopping websites and temporarily allow emails from these websites to enter your inbox.

On the other hand, Vanquish does not have a real isolation Folder: although you can view the list of emails sent by unknown senders who have answered the question, the emails in the list cannot be opened, you can only view the sender's address and topic line. In addition, the storage location of this list is not clear. However, Vanquish is indeed easy to install and is quite good at creating an accurate white list. The final use effect of Vanquish depends on whether it can be widely used.

Direct Selling Price: USD 24.95.

Vanquish, www.vanquish.com. Overall Evaluation:★★☆☆☆

ChoiceMail is an independent running mode application that can intercept emails from unknown senders.

In Vanquish, you cannot read blocked emails. You can only view email addresses.