SPAMfighter Standard (5/5) Stars
Posted on: 08/18/2004 11:00 PM

SPAMfighter, based in Denmark, was founded and is still owned by Henrik SГёrensen, Martin Thorborg and Martin Dyring. The SPAMfighter Team is located in such diverse places as Denmark, USA, Canada and Russia. They came up with the idea for SPAMfighter after their mail server died at an ISP they owned and swore revenge. After they sold their ISP, they decided the time was right to take that revenge in the form of a spam fighting utility, including offering a free version.

<center>
[thumb]spamfighterpro1.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]spamfighterpro2.jpg[/thumb]
</center>

Install is a snap, but requires an online registration. We have not received any spam from doing this, even after a year of use. One main reason for registering is so you can report spam with a single click and help maintain the quality of spam that SPAMfighter can remove. At the time of this review, SPAMfighter has over 490,000 users in 156 countries. This is a trial version that can be converted to a limited freeware version at the end of 30 days for $25.00. SPAMfighter can still work well in the freeware mode for most users, but anyone who sends and receives a lot of email may need some of the professional features like support, unlimited blacklistwhitelist, removal of the SPAMfighter signature, etc.

SPAMfighter simply adds a convenient toolbar to the Outlook E-mail client for easy access to all of its features. It also adds a new folder called SPAMfighter along side your inbox so you can browse your spam to be sure something did not get by. Two buttons are clearly marked to block or unblock any email you happen to have highlighted. The “More” button allows you access to your whitelist and blacklist as well as clean folder, empty spam folders, tell a friend and options. Options included are languages, (8 languages supported) sensitivity, blacklist and whitelist management, statistics, help and product updates. The options section also can check your version and can easily update you to the latest version.

<center>
[thumb]spamfighterpro3.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]spamfighterpro4.jpg[/thumb]
</center>

SPAMfighter so far has been roughly 95% accurate with regards to what it flagged as spam. With over 1200 spam emails a day, Spamfighter only lets the occasional few through and rarely tags good email as bad. This is a very respectable ratio due to the many changing email addresses and sneaky ways spammers find to get their garbage to your inbox.

<center>
[thumb]spamfighterpro5.jpg[/thumb]
</center>


Overall, SPAMfighter is a very simple to use product, especially for the novice. It can be setup and run with little to no user intervention and simply begins working on its own. I currently run this as my spam program and have given it an Editors Pick due to its simplicity, effectiveness and ability to keep a free version. The free version should help most people cut down on the amount of spam in their inbox. The shareware version is priced reasonably and offers features that most other professional packages offer. While a lot of spam programs are their own email clients, or a standalone product that works between your email client and you, SPAMfighter is refreshing with its unobtrusive, easy to use toolbar plug-in built right into Outlook.

Originally, SPAMfighter had a couple of crashing issues as well as a problem loading the toolbar before the spam started coming in, but thanks to frequent updates, these problems are no more. This allows me to upgrade it from 4/5 to a 5/5 rating. It remains my only spam filter on my home and work computer.


(5/5) Stars

---