... when this newspaper article is 4th most popular item in the last 24 hours of "email-this-article" from nytimes.com. (The first three items are "serious" editorials)
D.I.Y. Tools That Leave Spam D.O.A. January 30, 2003 By J. D. BIERSDORFER THE trickle of unsolicited commercial e-mail that started a few years ago had long since become a tsunami, but I realized that my problem had reached an absurd extreme when I got the spam about stopping spam. Scrolling through my various mail accounts, I routinely waded through countless unwanted messages advertising pornographic Web sites, and dozens upon dozens of missives trying to tempt me into clicking for loans, credit cards, inkjet cartridges, miniature race cars and opportunities to enlarge body parts that I don't even have. Buried in the mess were one or two messages I actually wanted or needed to read, but I could barely find them amid the dross. When I accidentally deleted a message and new-baby picture attachments from an old college roommate, though, I knew it was time to take out the trash. Rather than try to address the problem through my Internet service provider or an outside spam-filtering site, I was in an aggressive mood that inclined me toward anti-spam programs designed for home users. I immediately found three to test, each costing less than $40: iHateSpam by Sunbelt Software ($19.95; www.sunbelt -software.com), Spam Inspector by Giant Company ($29.95; www.giantcompany .com) and SpamKiller by McAfee Security ($39.95; www.mcafee.com). All three offer basic spam-swatting tools, like a starter set of junk mail filters, the ability to set your own rules (for example, weeding out any message containing XXX, placing beloved friends and annoying enemies on separate lists for mail routing and even policing multiple e-mail accounts). The bin of trashed spam is also easily accessible with each program, just in case you fear the software has gone too far and zapped that mass-mailed family newsletter from Aunt Ruby. I have several e-mail accounts that are deluged daily by spam, and the Junk Filter feature in Apple's Mail program for Mac OS X 10.2 gets a workout with the account I check on my home Macintosh. On the Windows side, SpamKiller will work with most e-mail programs and POP3, IMAP and MSN/Hotmail accounts, while iHateSpam is designed to work mainly with the Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express programs (and Hotmail accounts, if checked within Outlook). Spam Inspector also has versions for Outlook, but I downloaded the edition designed to work with America Online's mail system, because all my AOL addresses are powerful spam magnets. After installation on my Thinkpad, the iHateSpam set-up program walked me through the program configuration and asked me a few questions about how much and what kinds of spam I wanted to block. One feature I liked about this program was the ability to pick off messages with foreign characters, because I am finding that more and more of the mail I receive offering pornography or merchandise comes from Korea. (Since I don't have a Korean alphabet, or Hangul, character set installed on any of my computers, those messages consist of a string of question marks and exclamation points.) Once iHateSpam was installed, a new series of tabbed menus appeared within my Outlook Express toolbar. I could click the tabs to declare a message Spam or Not Spam or add an e-mail address to my Friends list of mail that can always make it past the spam filters. There was also an option to send a Bounce message (a note that looks like an automated reply from a mail server saying that your account does not exist) back to the spammers in the hope they will update their records and remove you from their Giant List of People to Hassle. The program caught a fair amount of spam even the first time I used it, shoveling the messages deemed junk straight into the Deleted Items folder. I would estimate that iHateSpam caught 70 percent of the spam from that account without any coaching and continued to improve as I set up filters and added spammers to my Enemies list. Heartened by seeing a load of spam sent directly into the digital Dumpster, I squared my shoulders and installed Spam Inspector for America Online 7.0 and 8.0. Granted, American Online 8.0 has added some spam-blocking tools, like the ability to sort mail based on people in your address book and one-click spam-reporting back to AOL. But previous versions of the AOL software have had limited filter control, and the company's Kremlin-like approach to e-mail protocols has made it tough to find a third-party program that works within the system. Finding Spam Inspector made me downright giddy. After installing the software, I noticed a new floating toolbar on my screen when I started up AOL. The Spam Inspector's controls and preferences stay within sight during an AOL session. The program offers to check the mail when you start America Online and can also sweep through the incoming messages each time the mailbox window is opened. While it is easy to configure, I noticed that Spam Inspector does add some lag time while it wades through the new mail. But this probably varies with the number of messages received. Since I get a bucket of spam every time I log on, I had a one- or two-minute wait each time while Spam Inspector waded through my In box. The integration with America Online is not especially elegant, but Spam Inspector was catching about 85 percent of my spam after just a few days, and I was catching up on my backlogged issues of The New Yorker while waiting for the spam to be inspected. Pleased with the decreasing quotient of postal pork in my mail, I picked yet another of my bulging e-mail accounts and unleashed SpamKiller. For those familiar with McAfee's antivirus and firewall security software, SpamKiller has a familiar interface and big icons that make clear what everything does. The program operates independently of the regular e-mail software but can tap directly into your e-mail accounts, so I had to remember to start it rather than Outlook each day. SpamKiller did stop an impressive amount of junk mail the first time I used it. The first day, I received 65 messages, and it correctly rerouted 41 of them into a Killed Mail area. Of the spam that did surface in my In box, the program placed a question mark beside each message it thought was junk, and it failed to recognize only about five messages as possible spam. SpamKiller gives a reason for each instance in which a message is quarantined, based on known spammer tactics like having random letters and numbers in the subject line. Setting up custom filters is easy, and you can base them on such criteria as country of origin or the message's text. SpamKiller can even trace the spam back to its source and send a complaint letter to the spammer's system administrator. I used the feature a lot, because if there's one thing I like to do, it's complain. Each spam-blocking program I tried had its strengths and weaknesses. But in every case, the more you work with it to define your mail standards, set up message rules and keep it updated with the latest professional spam filters, the less rubbish you will see. I found SpamKiller to be the most flexible and powerful for sheer spam-stomping ability, but I loved the way iHateSpam became integrated right into my Outlook toolbar. Spam Inspector took its time to do its job, but the extreme satisfaction of seeing my America Online mailboxes mostly purged of spam without my having to lift a mouse was a reward all by itself. And since I finally got caught up on The New Yorker, I can move on to my stack of The Atlantic Monthly. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/technology/circuits/30stat.html?ex=1044949840&ei=1&en=5d57a42caa6ff7fc HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
