Review of Spam Blocker

Software to filter and kill email spam

Written by Tom from Tom's Newbie Booster

CoffeeCup Software Homepage: http://www.coffeecup.com/
Download: http://www.coffeecup.com/spam-blocker/
Features and screenshots: http://www.coffeecup.com/spam-blocker/features/

About the only thing that seems to keep up with the explosive growth of the internet is email SPAM. It could be that it's not too much of a problem for you, or that you don't really mind getting it. If that's the case, then skip this little review. If on the other hand you're getting a bit peeved with all the offers of penis enlargement (even if you're female), holiday giveaways, hair replacement and a zillion other annoying email messages, then this might be of interest to you.

About a week ago I started testing out some tools that would keep down the amount of spam email in my inbox.

Killing junk email

Anti-spam software seems to work in a similar way whichever tool you install. It reads each of your emails and then decides if it's spam or not. It does this by checking each email against a set of rules. An example would be something like this:

"look at the email and if it contains the words 'avoid bankruptcy', it is spam"

This is just one example. The spam software could work from a list of 'bad emails' of known spammers, or automatically be wary of anything with an .exe file attached. While the mechanics vary from one piece of software to the next, the idea is the same: make a decision about whether an email is spam or not, based on a set of rules.

Doesn't email software already do that?

Some email software (like Outlook Express) allows you to set your own rules as to what email should be deleted. While these rules definitely help reduce the spam in your inbox, they don't compare favorably to the depth of rules available in most email spam protection software. The anti-spam software will also come with a vast default set of rules which will begin filtering out the junk as soon as it's installed. CoffeeCup's Email Blocker software has an entire section devoted to what it calls it's BLACKLIST. This filter contains the following guard dogs:

Email Blacklist

This comes with a lot of emails in there but you can add to this as time goes by.

Attachments

There's a list of files which should ring the alarm bells. They include things like .bat and other suspicious files. I'm sure we've all had people sending us malicious files in the past.

Kill Words

Email containing these words will be destroyed completely.

Blocked Countries

This is a list of countries, each with a checkable box to the left of it.

Delete if .exe is under 300kb
Delete email with non-western character sets

Installation

Installing the software was very easy and there's a 21 day trial of it. For some reason mine doesn't seem to be ticking down and it still says "21 days left" at the top of the screen. Anyways, there's no annoying nag screens during your trial and it doesn't look like there's any limitations to the demo. So it's a simple way to test out if you really want to use it or not. The software has not crashed since I installed it, and it's fully XP compatible.

Running the software

When you first install the software you need to give it basic details about the email account you'd like it to patrol. This is exactly the same as setting up your outlook express account, or any other email software account. If you've done this before, setting up Spam Blocker should be a piece of cake.

The software needs to be running all of the time and sits in the tray area with the likes of the ICQ icon. It's a green icon which looks like a small envelope. Every few minutes it checks your email account and runs through the various filters on each email. When there's possible email spam, the icon in the tray changes to a SPAM graphic and you can then double click it to bring up this screen:

The screen is broken into two halves:

The top window - SPAM email.
The bottom window - 'good' email.

Your job is then to double check on the software to make sure that it's blocking what it should, and not deleting anything it shouldn't. You have to look at each email in Spam Blocker and make sure it's working correctly. If you see something that is in the wrong category, click "accept message" (if it was marked as spam but ISN'T) or "No - it's spam" (if it was in the real email section but is really spam). There's also a button to either add the email to a blacklist OR to add it to the friends list. You'll find that when you start using the software you'll have to correct it more than after a day. The longer you use the software the better it gets at blocking the junk or accepting the good emails.

Any email that appears in the TOP window won't be downloaded when you run your email software. Any that appear in the bottom window WILL be. Spam Blocker works in conjunction with any email software because of the way it also works independently from all email software. It's a filter than cleans your mailbox BEFORE your regular email software gets to it. It might sound like it's extra work, all this checking, but it's actually much faster and easier than hammering the delete key in your INBOX. It's also about the only real way to kill email spam. It's sad that it's actually strange to check email and ONLY have real ones come down into your INBOX.

Other Spam Blocker tools...

The second of two set up screen for Spam Blocker looks like this:

There's an especially good feature on here which allows you to IMPORT all of the email addresses you have from a variety of sources like Outlook Express or Eudora. Any emails you import here are 'friendly' and will not be blocked by the software. This is a really good system as it means that people you have been talking to in the past will easily be able to get though. Spam Blocker also lets you add to this list from the previous screen by right clicking on any emails that arrive and choosing "add to friendly email list".

The spam keywords section there is also pretty good at spotting the spam. Again, it's something you can add to if you need to.

So what sucks?

One feature that would have been nice would have been an 'UPDATE' button (similar to what most anti-virus software has). If there's one thing you can say about email spammers, it's that they're persistent! For every blocking device out there - they'll find a way around it eventually. So although this software seems to work well at the moment, it could be a different situation a couple of months down the line.

The site does say:

"Please enter your email address below and we will email your download locations for all the latest versions of the software you have purchased automatically for FREE!"

...so perhaps this isn't such a great problem. Time will tell whether the software maintains what seems to be a stern defense against junk email.

Summing up

If you're getting tired of email spam, and want some kind of a tool to do it, then this should definitely be on your list of possible tools to try out. It's fast and easy to get up 'n' running and although you WILL have to monitor it carefully in it's first few hours of usage, it does save a lot of time and 'delete key pressing' when it comes to filtering out all those junk emails. I've only been using the software for a short time so I'll post an update a little later down the line as to how things went with the tool later on.

Spam Blocker Scores:

Ability to do the job: 9
Help files: 9
Functions: 8
Ease of use: 8
Value for money: 9

Overall: 9/10

Excellent tool - try the trial for yourself.

TOM ^"^

ICQ 12616560
Email tom@tomsnewbiebooster.com