Re: Administrivia - spam (sorry)

["Steve Makohin" <wateredg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Marc and members,

> Some of you may have received a phishing/spam msg that appeared to come
> from
> the oilheads mailing list.  I had a hole in my
> keep-spam-from-mailing-lists
> processing and at least one spammer found it.  If one did, so will others.
> I've temporarily plugged the exact hole that the spammer used, but still
> need to do some more work to come up with a permanent fix.
>
> Sorry for any inconvenience.

I usually keep this type of response off-list for obvious reasons, but it
seems to be fitting that I share it here on this occasion.

I have spent a few months researching a PC-based anti-spam, anti-phishing
tool to replace my resource-hungry and only somewhat effective Norton
AntiSpam. After researching dozens of options, and having installed and
trialed a handful of "the best", I have a solution that I can finally
recommend to others.

The product is called MailFrontier Desktop
(http://www.mailfrontier.com/products_matador.html). It's available for a
free 30-day trial period during which it is limited only in its ability to
do statistical reporting. That 30-day trial will give you a good idea if it
is suitable for you, or not. If not, it de-installs easily and cleanly,
without messing up any of your settings.

MailFrontier Pros:

o Does not impose any limitations on Outlook and Outlook Express (what ever
the email app can do, it can still do it without change, and without being
slowed down).

o VERY good at identifying spam, and avoiding false positives. It is amongst
the best.

o OPTIONAL white-list only (i.e., challenge and response) system can be 100%
effective in eliminating non-human spam. Even the software indicates this
option is not recommended because it will filter out non-human email such as
tech support auto-responders, online sales confirmations, etc.


MailFrontier cons:

o Annoying design constraints include:
     - First, all email shows up in your Inbox, and then the spam gets
       removed
     - Email that is moved to other folders by your mail rules does not get
       processed by MailFrontier
     - When incoming email gets scanned, you will briefly be interrupted as
       a MailFrontier dialog box momentarily becomes the active window.
       If you are busy typing, you may lose a few characters, or have to
       click to activate your desired window.
       (I am told this does not happen in Outlook, but I am using Outlook
       Express, so I cannot verify that)

o Statistics are not detailed enough, nor very precise (you can't actually
measure how effective the product is). Emails that have been moved by your
mail rules are excluded from the stats. It does not track the number false
positives, or false negatives.


CONCLUSIONS:

MailFrontier does the job well, but it is marred by a few annoyances that
may be show-stoppers for some users. If you can get past these issues, it's
a great product. Price: US$39/year

- -Steve Makohin
 '01 R1100S/ABS
 Oakville, Ontario, Canada


PS: I treat email from this list like any other email. I never saw the spam
that was sent to this list. It got filtered, just like the >100 spams I get
each day.

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