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iHateSpam filters out about 85 percent of the spam that comes into my Windows inbox with no effort from me. On my OS X Mac, Apple Mail picks up cues from every letter it checks, and has the best spam blocker around.
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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T e c h n o f i l e
'iHate Spam' still the best for blocking spam in Windows; Apple Mail does well on OS X


May 11, 2003


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, The Post-Standard

   Last week I explained how spammers get your e-mail address. It's time to look at ways to block spam under Windows and Mac OS X.
   When I reported on spam blockers for Windows PCs last July, I raved about a program I'd just started to use called iHateSpam. The software is even better now, and remains my first choice for Windows PCs running Outlook. (My usual warning: Outlook, the e-mail and personal organizing software from Microsoft, is not the same as Outlook Express, the free e-mail program that comes with Windows.)
   I run iHateSpam on my Windows 2000 PC. It filters out about 85 percent of the spam that comes into my Outlook inbox with no effort from me. I literally don't have to do anything unless I want to fine-tune the way iHateSpam makes its decisions.
   iHateSpam ($20; available in stores or from www.sunbelt-software.com) learns as it goes. If it guesses wrong and lets spam through, you can teach it to recognize that kind of spam by clicking a button labeled "Is Spam!" on the Outlook toolbar. Likewise, if you check the spam folder and find mail that should not be there, you click a button labeled "Not Spam!" to tell iHateSpam to let that sort of letter through.
   iHateSpam has a complete override system, too, for mail that should always get through no matter what (such as a note from your broker) and mail that you never want to see, such as mail from that pesky sister-in-law who forwards a dozen joke e-mails a day. (You can tell her you never saw her letters.)
   It would be hard to beat iHateSpam as the ideal spam blocker for Outlook, which is designed to work well with add-on programs. But Outlook Express can't be integrated into a spam blocker as well as Outlook can, leaving antispam programmers to find alternative ways of handling way their software works with Outlook Express.
   But don't let that stop you from trying the Outlook Express version of iHateSpam. It's been improved quite a bit since the first release last year.
   (For the next few months, you can get iHateSpam free. Go to the Sunbelt site at www.sunbelt-software.com for information.)
   I've left out a few other Windows spam blockers that have what I consider a major flaw. They create and share blacklists of spammers. Addresses are added to the circulating blacklist any time a user decides that a particular piece of e-mail is spam.
   This might seem like a great idea to all of us who get spam, but it's actually a very bad way of blocking spam. A single mistake -- clicking at the wrong time, for example, so that a legitimate letter gets marked as spam -- can quickly multiply when user blacklists are shared.
   I'm leaving the best for last. If you're considering switching to a Mac, here's something that might help: The built-in mail software on modern Macintosh computers has the best spam blocking I have ever encountered. It's integrated so well into the mail software that you might not even realize it's there, so be sure to open the preferences menu to see if it's active.
   The spam blocking in Apple Mail picks up cues from every letter it checks. It gets better day by day, runs unobtrusively and seldom misidentifies spam.
   You need to upgrade to OS X "Jaguar" if your version of Apple Mail lacks a spam filter. You can order the newer operating system at a local Mac store or from Apple's own store, through its Web site.