What's a good spam blocking tool?

Torque Junkie · August 11, 2004

What's a GOOD spam blocking application that interfaces with Microsoft Outlook. I'm willing to pay up to $30 for good software that blocks as much junk as possible but still lets lagit e-mail pass through.

My business e-mail is getting over 100 junk mails per day, and I can't change the address easily because all of my clients contact me via that e-mail

Thanks!

-Mike

blue2kzr2 · August 11, 2004

How would it be switch e-mail clients? I use Mozilla Thunderbird for my e-mail now. It does a GREAT job filtering out spam and such, once you start telling it what is spam. It USUALLY doesn't delete e-mails I actually want. There IS a learning curve for the program, it'll take a couple days to a week or 2 for the program to get sorted out on what is spam and what isn't. Plus, you can get "extensions" for the program that extend (for lack of a better word) the functionality of the program. This includes a calendar extension, to provide some of the same functionality as Outlook.

The program uses a "junk" folder to hold messages it detects as spam, so you can go through and save ones you really wanted, and tell the program they are NOT junk. I'm just a happy end-user, best part about the program is that it's free, and it's also not as suceptible to the security exploitations that are primarily written to get through loopholes in the Outlook programming.

tmf6902 · August 11, 2004

I use yahoo, as my email provider, and it's pop3 service....I never get spam, I get tons in my junk folder but very rarely does it get to my inbox....there is the occasional learning curve till you tell it what is good and what's not. A cool thing about it is, I can set up dummy addresses to give to people....Basically, I have one for ebay, and buying stuff online....so I can receive mail from those people, but they don't know my real address....if they give my address out to someone who bombs me with junk, I can delete it and make a new one.

I'm not really sure there is a program that interfaces with outlook to stop spam? But you certainly have a choice in email providers.

tmf

Shaners · August 11, 2004

Most of the spam I get has specific words in the heading or the body of the message. In Outlook Express I went to the "tools" tab and then chose "message rules", then picked mail. This allowed me to scan these messages for words like Viagra, mortgage rates, pharmacy, software etc... I just applied whatever words were most common spam words, and these emails go right to my deleted folder. It catches more than 50% of the junk mail on just a few specific words.

After the mail is downloaded I do a quick scan of my deleted folder to make sure there were no accidental deletions, and then I just empty the contents.

Torque Junkie · August 11, 2004

Most of the spam I get has specific words in the heading or the body of the message. In Outlook Express I went to the "tools" tab and then chose "message rules", then picked mail. This allowed me to scan these messages for words like Viagra, mortgage rates, pharmacy, software etc... I just applied whatever words were most common spam words, and these emails go right to my deleted folder. It catches more than 50% of the junk mail on just a few specific words.

After the mail is downloaded I do a quick scan of my deleted folder to make sure there were no accidental deletions, and then I just empty the contents.

I spent about a week making a message rules list of keywords to trash (such as mortgage, loan, viagra, etc) but that filtered at best 10% of it becuase I started getting the V1@GRA and M.o.r.t.g.a.g.e. ones.

I'll probably give Thunderbird a try, but I'll lose the contact & appointment calender interface with my PDA.

bigdogs · August 11, 2004

I use a program (altho it is more than $30) that will prevent 100% of SPAM from reaching your inbox. It uses a challange method to block it. If you want to check it out at www.zaep.com.

Torque Junkie · August 11, 2004

I use a program (altho it is more than $30) that will prevent 100% of SPAM from reaching your inbox. It uses a challange method to block it. If you want to check it out at www.zaep.com.

Thats a little too rich for my blood, but if it gets to that point I might just have to. It is a tax write-off, so it's a little more justifiable. ;)

-Mike

rikhek · August 12, 2004

I use "Spamnet". It's free for something like 3 - 6 month and then it's $1.99/month. I get over 100 junk emails a day and it catches probably 98%. Pretty good deal. Go to www.spamnet.com.

bigdogs · August 12, 2004

Thats a little too rich for my blood, but if it gets to that point I might just have to. It is a tax write-off, so it's a little more justifiable. ;)

-Mike

It's not a cheap program I agree and does take some setting up but it will stop any spam from getting in.