McAfee Spamkiller 2005

 McAfee Virus Spamkiller 2005

McAfee has decided to comit to the spamkiller as independent application. Set up does involve entering all of your email information manually. Unlike other spam killers, this one is not automatic, however it does kill hotmail email, which is something of a rarity. The only problem is that the program is plagued with bugs.

McAfee Spamkiller 2005

Company: McAfee Inc.

www.mcafee.com

Price: $ 34.95  to $ 49.9 

Requirements 

Windows 98 through XP

16 Megs of Ram

35 MB hard drive space

Internet Explorer 5.5 and higher 

Review By Kurt von Behrmann 

Spam, the electronic equivalent of junk mail, is one of the biggest problems going. Even if you only give our email address to a few trusted people and sites, that is no guarantee you are not at some point going to get flooded with ads from Viagra to Porn.  There is no real way around the problem, provided you obtain a spam blocker. 

There are two ways spam protection works. One is to operate as a stand alone email client that filters email before it hits your email box. The second method is to act as a plug in for an email program like Outlook, Outlook Express or Eudora. 

McAfee has taken the path of offering a spam filter that operates as an independent program. While it works in concert with email programs, it does not filter within them. The advantage here is that nothing bad gets into your in box. 

The first incarnation of Spamkiller demonstrated promise. It also showed a number of very irritating bugs. It often stalled opening, crashed or made your little spinning hour glass into a windows fixture. If that was not bad enough, the accuracy rate left something to be desired. 

No doubt the feedback indicated that a program this buggy needed an overhaul. So McAfee is back with the new version, Spamkiller 2005 up and ready to go. 

Interface wise and feature wise, a few new additions have been made. The program does operate a little smoother than before, but there are still minor problems. 

Like the original one, this one can be slow at times. Although it is not nearly as slow as the previous rendition, it can be slow in allowing you to delete email or delete in mass. Moving blocked email into acceptable email can be time consuming. Opening the program is something a kin to a jack in the box.  You crank and crank and nothing happens, or you crank once and things fly out with ease. 

There was one time during my informal test where every email, blocked and not blocked simply vanished. After a reboot the emails were intact.  Granted this was an informal test, but it was a bit disconcerting to see emails you needed to respond to vanish.   

Even in my environment the program did not freeze or lock up as it once did. Even in its much improved state, the program seems a tad buggy.  This is not buggy in the same way that ACT 2005 ! is buggy, but it is very shaky at times. 

I also felt that certain features in the program needed to be easier to access. Deleting group emails requires a keyboard short cut. For most users that are mouse based, I can see some frustration. As user friendly as McAfee products are, for some reason settings in some programs are either stuck in the little M that must reside on your task bar, or not available at all from within the interface of the program you are using. 

The big selling point with Spamkiller is that it does filter Hotmail accounts, something of a rarity still.  For online email like Yahoo and others, it does not filter those browser based clients. 

For those that need hotmail blocking and want a stand alone client, McAfee is one of the few products that is out there ready to take on the job. 

Summation 

With programs like Lockspam and the new Antispam from Symantec out there, competition here is fierce. There is much to like about the standalone concept. From a security point it makes logical sense. Your emails are kept in a safe place away from the email client that allows in and out transmissions. The only problem here is that reading email becomes a multi process multi program procedure. You download to the filtering client, sort the email and then read them in your email client in order to respond. If you don’t mind the extra steps, there is nothing wrong with going this route.  The big point here is that it does filter out Hotmail garbage, a skill that Lockspam has yet to manage. 

My only complaint is that McAfee’s product still feels a bit “buggy.” The system that I use was a “dirty” one. This means that it has programs that are here, some erased, in short it is in the same condition that most users have.  While my tests are very very informal, if I see a problem, or even the potential for one, I pass it one to you.  Here I lost email and had to reboot to get them back. 

As for speed, this program can come to a crawl when you delete email or pass it on to your email client. I found that very frustrating. Depending on your system and configuration, your experiences may differ. I do suggest that you try this program before making a purchase. 

McAfee is one of the few spam killers going this way with an independent email client.

If that is what you are seeking, this is not a bad way to go, but I strongly suggest you try before buying to make sure you have no issues.