SpamSubtract
PRO
By Cade
Metz and Larry Seltzer
May 27, 2003
|
Editor Rating: 
Easily the most complicated product we tested, SpamSubtract PRO is
also the most flexible, and it supports the greatest number of mail
clients. It's the only filtering product not to integrate directly
into Outlook, though.
SpamSubtract runs as a POP3 mail proxy in a separate window,
where suspected spam messages are captured. From there you can
release messages to the in-box, delete them, or whitelist the user.
The first time you check messages on an account, SpamSubtract
doesn't filter spam. (This meant we couldn't apply our testing
methodology, but it should be a minor issue for real users.) You
must tell the program all your e-mail addresses, because it will
block any message where you are not in the to: or cc: list. This
means that if you are in the bcc: list, you will need some other
exception rule not to have the message blocked.
Conveniently, your Friends list is prepopulated from Outlook
Contacts and other address formats. SpamSubtract categorizes
"nice" and "bad" strangers. The latter includes
people who send pornography, people on your blacklist, people who
send messages with corrupt headers, and so on. Such messages are
held in the SpamSubtract window. A variety of lesser offenses makes
the sender a nice stranger, and you can set the program to send such
mail to the in-box. A large amount of our mail was blocked because
messages from nice strangers can't exceed 2,000 characters.
If you like having detailed control over your spam filtering, you
may profit from the extra work SpamSubtract imposes on you. If
you're looking for less involvement, one of the Outlook add-ins will
serve you better.
