-=PCTechTalk=- The Hunt for an Anti-Spam Program(Long)

Everyone loves Spam?  Right?  (At least in Hawaii and the canned variety.)

I used Cloudmark's Spamnet while it was in beta.  I found several things
that bugged me.

1.  While I loved the idea of it being a cooperative effort, I also hated it
for the same reason.    What I classified as spam, often got thru because
others declassified it as such.

2.  It only worked with Outlook.  Because I provide support for several
companies, I keep several different email clients handy so I can walk
clients thru setup and troubleshooting.  I wanted a program that would
support my anti-spam efforts on all these clients, just not Outlook.

3.  When Cloudmark's Spamnet came out of beta, I reviewed their perceived
effective rate versus my own and found a big discrepancy.  It left me with
the feeling that even at $1.99 per month for the beta testers it wasn't
worth it.  It took up too much HD space (2.68 megs to be precise), I often
had to go back and classify stuff due to the collaborative nature of the
program, and it just wasn't as accurate as I liked.

So I uninstalled it and went looking on this big web we call the Internet.

First thing I did was narrow down my program search dramatically.

I wanted a program that used Bayesian filters
(http://email.about.com/cs/bayesianfilters/).  Basically these types of
filters adapt based on probability of a message being spam.

I wanted a small program.  As my friends will tell you I don't like bloat.

I like small compact.  The only time I use bloat, is for compatibility
reasons (hence OE, Outlook, etc.)  I also wanted an anti-spam program that
would work with all the different email clients (POP3 not Hotmail, AOL, or
MSN).  I use POP3 exclusively now.

I wanted a program I could really believe in.  Not some commercial product,
but one that I could support because I felt good about it.  I wanted it to
be free, but I wanted a payment system in place for support if I felt it was
worth it.

So I went on my snipe hunt, and surprisingly the answer lay within
Microsoft. NOT!  But for just a second I had you going.  I caught my snipe
however thanks to a programmer named Robin Keir.  The program is called K-9
(http://keir.net/k9.html).

Let me warn you first.

1.  Much like it's namesake when you first install it, it is dumb.
Everything gets by it.  It's a puppy here folks it needs some training.

2.  It acts as a proxy server.  You will have to configure each of your POP3
email accounts to work with K-9.  It's not hard and the website provides
excellent documentation as to the ease of setup.

3.  The author provides extensive documentation on configuration of the
program, email accounts, and the whitelist/blacklist function ON THE
WEBSITE.  Wish it could be local, but it keeps the download small.
Personally I copy and pasted into Word and saved the directions on my HD.

That being sad here are the plusses as I see them:

1.  Much like a real puppy, it loves to learn.  I've been using it for two
days, and I'm at roughly 80% efficiency.  Not bad for two days and 30 spam
mails (of which I classified 10 of these myself).  But you do have to train
K-9 at first by designating spam.  And if it gives you a false positive you
have to correct it.

2.  It is not a collaborative effort.  So what you designate as spam, stays
spam.

3.  Because it acts as a proxy server, it is compatible with all the email
clients I tested it with. This would include OE, Outlook, Mozilla, Phoenix,
Netscape, Eudora, Mahogany.

4.  You set the message rule to filter your spam to the trash box etc inside
your email client.  K-9 can place the word "[Spam]" in the subject and you
can rule off that in OE and as this is pretty standard for most email
clients this is what I would recommend.  However, K-9 can also place a line
such as "X-Text-Classification: spam" in the header which can be ruled
through certain more sophisticated programs (and it's a bit classier).

5.  It's small.  With installer it's 92KB.

6.  You can also whitelist and blacklist as needed.  This overrules the
Bayesian filters.  So if you run into conflicts later you will have to
delete the rule in either list to take care of the problem.  No biggy.

7.  It's free but if you like it support the programmer.  Enough said.

8.  And not being one for aesthetics, the interface is clean and simple.
And the system tray icon can't be beat.  Go K-9.

I've playfully named mine Killer.

Check it out.

Dave









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