Classification of Spam Blocker Software

These days spam has become the most annoying word in our day to day lives; however this article will provide you an insight about the types of the spam blockers which are available and their features. Basically the spam blockers are of three different types:

1.    Integrated: This is one of the most popular spams filtering software. As this software is installed it will have a close watch on your email and you would have some additional buttons in the software of your email. After the installation of this you will have an option whether to mark your mail as spam or not a spam, or even bounce the mail back to the sender. However there are wide range of options available in this software with different buttons in different positions but the functions remain the same. Another benefit of this blocker is that these blockers suspectively will place the email into a separate folder so that you can review them at a later stage at your discretion. The new versions are so effective these days that they just track down the difference between the spam mails and put them in the junk mails. Some of the popular spam blocker software’s are Qurb eTrust Anti Spam, iHate Spam and Spam Bully. This is the most apt choice for the users who just want a one click solution to segregate the email and the junk mail. This software is one of the best and the simplest solution to the routine spam mails. The only disadvantage with this software is that they are mail specific like some work only with outlook express. So before purchasing ensure that this feature is not present.

2.    Standalone: A standalone spam blocker is a separate piece of software that is been installed in your system for checking the email spam.  The first thing which you will have to ensure is the launch of the spam blocker software first and then process your emails on your server after this launch the regular email software so that you can download them. The biggest benefit which is facilitated by this software is that you can view the mail on your mail server first before it comes on to your PC. This feature helps you in downloading the mails which you need and deleting the ones which you are not intending to read. The stand alone spam blocker requires some extra effort as you need to configure the spam blocker every time before you open your mail. This spam caters to the need of some specific class of people. Further this spam blocker is not software specific. The most popular stand alone spam blocker is Mail washer Pro.

3.    Online Spam blocker: The online spam blocker has been developed for two purposes i.e.; for the business and personal use. The typical example of the business mail is the iHate wherein the software automatically deletes the junk mails even without the review of the person. This is particularly used in the large scale companies.  An example of the online software is Spam arrest.

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Not everyone will like changing his email address to get rid of spam because many people share their email addresses with their friends, colleagues, subscribers, and customers. They also may have business cards and other material with the email addresses printed on them. Moreover, getting a new email address won’t free you from spam forever. It will work the first time while your email is new. But as far as you will be using it to communicate with your contacts, the spam flow coming to that email address will be growing. So, how to combat spam? Where is the right solution? One of the effective ways to combat spam is using an anti-spam filter. Fortunately, there are a lot of anti-spam tools available on the Internet.

I am using the anti-spam filter is called SpamCombat. For me, it’s a “must-have” tool. I’ve been using it for about 2 years and my statistics show that 80% of emails I receive are deleted by SpamCombat.

The particularity of SpamCombat is that it works at the source i.e. it connects directly to your inbox on the server and manages the emails there. It’s not the same when you are using the filters in your email software, for example Outlook or Thunderbird. The major difference is that SpamCombat deletes spam and junk emails on the email server so that you never have to download them. Using an anti-spam filter in Outlook, for instance, would mean that you have to pull down the messages onto your computer first and then analyze and manage them accordingly. This may pose a threat if some emails contain viruses.

SpamCombat is easy to use. It’ll take just a few minutes to set it up. The downloadable version of SpamCombat will never expire so you have plenty of time to decide if it is working for you. SpamCombat is provided with 6 filters, which detect spam emails with great accuracy and precision. You can customize the filters for your needs. On the company’s user forum there is a topic dedicated to SpamCombat filters: http://www.justlan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=937

The program users gratefully share their filters with others and I found many useful anti-spam filters there. I added some of them to my SpamCombat installation and the amount of spam that was identified increased to 80%. This means that on average, 3 of every 10 emails I receive are legitimate and are allowed through by SpamCombat. The rest are deleted at the server and I don’t have to spend time downloading them. This is a big deal if you are using dialup access to the Internet.

There is a concept of a blacklist and a whitelist. You can “whitelist” and “blacklist” the emails by any field from the message header (not only by the From field where the message sender’s email address is) and by any word or phrase from the message content. SpamCombat will allow all emails through that are on the whitelist, and it will mark for deletion or automatically delete all those that are on the blacklist. Adding or removing someone from the whitelist or blacklist is a very simple point and click exercise.

SpamCombat also allows using wildcards and regular expressions to set legitimate filters up. For example, if you specify all emails coming from your company domain name as being legitimate, then all messages from your colleagues will be allowed through without you having to specify each person. You can achieve this by using a wildcard setting such as “*@youworkdomain.com”. This can also be used to blacklist an entire domain such that all messages are immediately marked for deletion or automatically deleted depending on your settings.

There is also the Bayesian filter, self-learning system based on legitimate and spam emails you receive. I trained the Bayesian filter well and now it identifies my legitimate and spam emails in the proper way.

SpamCombat also has more advanced filters. One of them is known as “DNSBL filter”. There are servers on the internet which list known spam addresses. When you receive a message from one of these addresses, SpamCombat automatically marks it as spam without your filters even being invoked. This is a remarkable filter. It identifies about 10% of spam emails that I get.

Another advanced filter is called Complex Filter. This filter is based on the VBScript. If you are familiar with the VBScript, you can write a script and add it to the Complex Filter. A nice filter is described there: http://www.glocksoft.net/sc/discover-amazingly-powerful-anti-spam-filter/

The software configuration is very flexible. You can choose a deletion mode for spam emails by yourself: you can specify the emails to be deleted automatically without your participation, or you can have the program mark them for deletion but let you preview them just in case. This is important at the beginning until you tailor the program for your mail.

You can also set SpamCombat to move spam emails to the internal program trash or delete them permanently. The emails will be stored in the trash for a number of days depending on your settings. There is also a way to recover an email from the trash and receive it with your regular email client.

SpamCombat is independent software and does not interfere with your email client. It sits in the system tray and does its work thoroughly. On my computer, it checks my inbox every 20 minutes and notifies me that new emails arrived. I then review them and do a cleanout. I have my email client setup to only receive messages when I instruct it to so that SpamCombat has the most opportunity to do its work.

SpamCombat is an indispensable tool in my email arsenal. If spam is a vital problem for you, it could do likewise for you. Download your free copy today and use it for as long as you want to fight spam on your main email account.