ITinfo: McAfee Releases AntiSpam Software

New AntiSpam Software

McAfee takes on the e-mail's biggest enemy

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McAfee Releases AntiSpam Software

by Dave Murphy
ISSN 1535-3613

McAfee started selling it's new SpamKiller software online today. The application filters spam from incoming e-mail messages. Although it works with industry-standard POP e-mail accounts, it won't be of much help for the millions of users who have web-based e-mail accounts such as hotmail.com.

SpamKiller comes with a preliminary set of filters to detect common indications of spam, and the filters may be easily modified and appended by the user. McAfee promises to make additional filters available for download later. Filters can search incoming messages by keyword, punctuation, domains of common spammers, and other indicators.

Of particular interest is SpamKiller's ability to send a fake bounce message to the spammers indicating that the mailbox is no longer active.

Dave's Opinion

I've tested a number of antispam applications, and each has had good and bad points. My current favorite is SpamEater Pro from High Mountain Software. My peeve with this application is that it "pre-reads" all messages in the defined POP3 mailboxes, deletes the spam, and leaves the "good" messages to be downloaded by my e-mail application. This pre-reading changes the attribute of all the messages to previously read. When the good messages are received by my e-mail application, I don't get a visual cue as to which messages are new and not yet read (by me).

I thought I'd check to see if SpamKiller caused the same pre-read attribute problem. I called McAfee's tech support, got bounced around three staff members, spent 17 minutes on hold, and finally was told that McAfee doesn't support SpamKiller. I then called McAfee's PR department and received a recorded message that no one was in the office today. So, I returned online and visited McAfee's support site. I held an online chat with technician Salie Fredericks.

Salie very politely read my question about POP3 accounts and changing the mail's attributes, and then she told me that McAfee doesn't support SpamKiller, it only supports its own products. I ignored her last comment and asked her if she could please direct me to the head of technical support or the PR department as I was preparing this article for the ITinfo e-zine and that I'd like to promote the SpamKiller product to IT professionals. Her response, toeing the corporate line was "Here at Mcafee we have our own internal promoters as well as public relations people but thank you very much for your offer. We are the number 1 company that provides the best anti virus in the world along with other great programs and our structures are already strategically set out."

Way to go, McAfee. You've just ticked off one of your biggest fans.

Call for Comments

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References

McAfee
High Mountain Software
McAfee Online Help
Message Center

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updated May 7, 2002
http://dgl.com/itinfo/2002/it020507.html