Spam Inspector 4.0 |
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Product: Spam Inspector Vendor: Giant Company Price: Editor Rating: 4 stars DOWNLOAD NOW |
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+ The most effective protection against spam out of all products tested.
Cons
- Some minor cosmetic glitches with the user interface on Windows XP
- More features than most users would ever use.
Review
We test each spam filter by first sending 100 spam emails to a test account with the spam filter installed. If necessary, we then train the product, typically by pressing a button marking the email as spam. After the training process is complete, we then send a large set of spam emails to the same account to determine the overall effectiveness of the product.
We tested each spam filter on Outlook Express, Eudora, and Yahoo.
Installation
Spam Inspector installed perfectly the first time. It correctly found our email clients and integrated into each one automatically. The first time we ran Outlook, it popped up a helpful screen of information teaching us how to get started. However, spam filtering did not appear to work at all the first time we ran the program … but this was our fault. The installation program instructed us to reboot our PC before running the program, but we ignored it. After a reboot everything worked perfectly.
Usability
Spam Inspector was easy to use. It installed a toolbar directly into Outlook Express with just a few, easy-to-understand buttons:
The first two buttons, “Is Spam” and “Not Spam” allow you to teach the program which email is spam and which isn’t. However, other buttons allow you to simulate a bounce message back to the sender, reducing the possibility of receiving more spam, or even report abuse to the sender’s ISP with a single-click of the button (note: this is addictive!).
We did notice a few minor cosmetic issues on Windows XP, but this may be due to the fact that we are using an LCD display rotated at 90 degrees. Unlike most other vendors, the makers of Spam Inspector paid great attention to aesthetics down to the most trivial of help screens and it shows.
Training
Immediately after installing Spam Inspector for the first time, we downloaded 96 spam emails and 4 legitimate emails from our test account. It quarantined all 96 of the spam messages and allowed the 4 legitimate emails to pass through … 100% accuracy!
There was nothing to train, so we then imported an additional 291 spam email and 15 legitimate emails. Spam Inspector quarantined 289 of them (99.3%) and allowed the legitimate emails to pass through. This was the most impressive effectiveness of any of the products we’ve tested, and far better than Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s built-in spam filters. This was even more impressive considering that SI achieved this accuracy with the “out-of-box” settings (ie: no training). Presumably with training, the accuracy would have been even higher.
Other Features
Spam Inspector has few flaws, but we did feel that the sheer number of features can be confusing. Unlike most of the products we tested which have too few features, Spam Inspector allows you to exert control over every aspect of the program, and this can make the options screen a little daunting for some users. Fortunately, they’ve tucked this functionality away so the average user will never be bothered by it.
Other features include friend and enemy lists, abuse reporting, and automatic update. One feature we found helpful that is not found in any other spam filtering program is that Spam Inspector maintains a list of known opt-in email newsletters. If you attempt to block an opt-in email, the program will alert you, letting you know that it comes from a reputable source.
Summary
Spam Inspector was by far the most effective spam filter we could find. While jam-packed with features, its unobtrusive and easy-to-use interface and competitive price make this your best bet.
Price: $29.95 $19.95 for SpamReviews readers (Enter discount code SPAMFIGHTER)
Free Trial: Yes - Click here to download
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