Hendrickson Software Components ’ EmailCRX 1.6.2 is one of a number of junk e-mail utilities that seek to separate sound messages from detritus using a variety of junk e-mail - busting techniques . Once it ’s filtrate your e - mail ( and you ’ve adjust its mistakes ) , it removes the rubble from your tonic host and then allows you to download your now - sanitized einsteinium - mail .
I prefer spam usefulness that work within the confines of my due east - mail client . That way , all my e - postal service is in one location where it can be well managed . I ’m a little leery of working with disjoined utility , as I ’ve encounter such utility program delete the awry point from the server .
Unlike most other junk e-mail utility , EmailCRX does n’t use statistical encyclopedism filters – the most coarse of which are Bayesian filters that identify junk e-mail by the kind and frequency of certain wrangle in your subject matter . alternatively , it swear on shitlist and whitelist accounting entry ; these are establish on user - defined phrase , a whitelist of friends ( you may import your type O X Address Book inter-group communication ) , res publica filters that allow for you to pooh-pooh tocopherol - chain armor based on its land of origin , an optional challenge / answer system that require correspondents to verify their identity element , and a turnaround - DNS ( rDNS ) organisation that looks for valid submission in content header .
The computer program also include a Report Abuse feature that attempt to reach out to the spammer ’s ISP to report the spam being sent through the service . fulfill as it may be to rat out spammer , using this characteristic could net you several return content , either acknowledging the report or bounce back to you as undeliverable .
The program is n’t easy to gear up up without statement ; it ’s inhabit with scads of options . You must configure your POP account manually ( the political program does n’t support IMAP accounts ) as well as make a variety of filtering decisions . Because EmailCRX sends your good e - mail to you via a proxy server , you must also configure your e - ring armor client so that it downloads its mail via EmailCRX rather than straight from your ISP ’s POP server . The developer understands that configuration can be wily and provide a detailed and easy - to - trace initiation guide .
EmailCRX has the smell of a Windows embrasure . For deterrent example , when you spread out a window – the computer program ’s options or Messages windowpane , say – you must shut down that windowpane before you’re able to open another one . try out to open another windowpane and you pick up that all the items in the Database menu ( which holds all the program ’s important commands ) are grey out . And the main EmailCRX window holds two straightforward cobwebby buttons ; the tooltips that follow each tell you that clicking one puts the plan to sleep and the other engender a logarithm file cabinet . Very un - Mac - like .
The program ’s main Messages window could be ameliorate as well . For example , you ca n’t sort mail by date and time received . you’re able to only sort by message routine ( which sour badly , as EmailCRX put substance 57 between messages 569 and 570 ) , Status ( spam , learn , reliable , and country ) , Subject , and From . luckily , unlike some other junk e-mail utilities , it does admit a preview paneling , so you may see the contents of a take subject matter without opening a separate window .
One of the disadvantage of using a spam public utility company that rely on statistical learning filters is that you have to train it . The utility require to have a comely idea of what you consider spam and enough exemplar messages to accurately assess both dear and bad e - mail service . Given that EmailCRX does n’t use statistical encyclopedism filters – and therefore does n’t take to be taught , trust instead on spot legitimate data in content headers – it ’s a little surprising that it ’s not more exact when you first use it . Its Countries filter does quickly discover a fair amount of junk e-mail , and once I ’d identified a few hundred message ( and thus holler up its black- and whitelists ) , it caught much of my junk e-mail . And while challenge / response is for certain in force , many people do n’t care to utilize it because it places the burden of your spam problems on the people you agree with . I should recapitulate , however , that this featureisoptional .
Macworld’s buying advice
I favour junk e-mail utilities that knead within my atomic number 99 - mail node and EmailCRX does n’t do that . It does offer a variety of ways to trickle your e - mail but lack a statistical learning filter , which could help improve its issue . I ’m not slap-up on challenge / response systems but they do act upon and those who like them may welcome the accession . I wish the program was a little easier to set up and that it was more Mac - like . gratefully , there are option , like C - Command ’s SpamSieve 2.6 ( ) that are both prosperous to use and in force .
[ Christopher Breen is a aged editor program atMacworld . ]
