I Vant to Be Alone - Software Review - Brief Article - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, June, 2000 by M.F.L.

Spamkiller Made E-Z

HOC RATING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

SICK OF SPAM? OF COURSE YOU ARE. JUNK e-mail not only clutters your inbox and wastes bandwidth, but can contain malicious attachments. Made E-Z Products' Spamkiller ($30; 800-822-4566, www.madee-z.com/ spamkillersoft.html) is a low-cost means of blocking unwanted messages at your ISP's server.

We let Spamkiller Made E-Z start checking our mail before each download. The program can target any part of an e-mail, whether the message header, the sender's domain or origin country, or specific words in the text. We appreciated the provision for adding "friends" to the filter list--addresses, domains, and mailing lists which aren't filtered. A huge list of prefab filters is included and updated periodically; Spamkiller can even send complaints, removal requests, and litigation threats automatically.

Ironically, our only complaint was the program's versatility--it's too easy to lose track and create contradictory filters, accidentally blocking messages you want. Also, there's no documentation of note, so you're on your own. Still, this is power worth harnessing.