C - Command ’s SpamSieve 2.6.1 is the golden standard of junk e-mail utilities , by which other utilities should be judged . It earns this high regard for a variety of reasons , not least of which are its accuracy and ease of use .
SpamSieve , which works within a variety of einsteinium - post clients , including Apple Mail ( ) , Microsoft Entourage ( ) , Qualcomm ’s Eudora ( ) , Gyaz Square ’s GyazMail ( ) , Bare Bones Software ’s Mailsmith ( ) , Mozilla ’s Thunderbird , and CTM Development ’s PowerMail ( ) , want some configuration to get up and escape correctly .
Although the SpamSieve computer menu includes commands for installing Mail , Entourage , and Eudora nag - ins , you must also configure your e - post client ’s rule so that they can get at the AppleScripts that help SpamSieve do its job . SpamSieve ’s manual includes easy - to - keep an eye on instructions for doing this , though a setup program would be welcome .
Once installed , SpamSieve ’s grooming commands seem either in an AppleScript computer menu ( Entourage ) or within a program carte du jour ( Mail ) . When SpamSieve makes a mistake , plainly take the incorrectly tag subject matter and invoke either the Train Good or Train Spam command to correct it . By default , SpamSieve will color - computer code messages in Mail to betoken their grade of spamminess , thus making it easier to identify borderline message .
Like other spam utilities , SpamSieve uses a variety of techniques for sorting the good mail from bad . It has a blacklist ( called a blocklist in the program ) as well as a whitelist — mark a message as spam and the sender is sent to the blocklist . Entries in your Mail , Eudora , or Entourage address Word are automatically entered in the whitelist , as are the contact for mail you assume . you’re able to add , subtract , and edit first appearance in these listing as well as make rules within them .
SpamSieve employs a form of Bayesian filtering and can expend the Habeas Safelist . This is a service that require member to pass a stringent audit of “ best practices ” to control that their services are n’t used for spamming . Members of the Habeas Safelist can then implant their rank in the head of atomic number 99 - mail messages they send . SpamSieve looks for this lintel entry and give messages that let in it favourable intervention .
Unlike other spam public-service corporation I ’ve used , SpamSieve let you train it with grouping of selected spam and good e - postal service . If you ’ve got a few hundred junk e-mail and good message archived in your tocopherol - chain armor client , this help SpamSieve become acceptably exact within a matter of min rather than the daytime it can take to condition other programs . It also supports both POP and IMAP e - chain armour accounts .
I wish the fact that SpamSieve mostly works within my e - chain mail guest so I seldom ask to muck with a separate software or risk of exposure losing e - chain armour in transit between a spam public-service corporation and my east - mail package . ( To function with the curriculum ’s name and address tilt and convention or its corpus — the collection of words the Bayesian filter apply to identify spam — you will need to switch over to the SpamSieve applications programme . ) SpamSieve is easily trained , and if you desire to go beyond the basics and configure your own filters or edit your black- and whitelists , it allows you to do so without a lot of botheration . And after just a match of years of use , it ’s nearly transparent to the user .
Macworld’s buying advice
SpamSieve 2.6.1 should be on the rim of all Mac substance abuser serious about ridding their computers of junk chain armour . It ’s affordable , in effect , easy to use , and as configurable as just about anyone needs a junk e-mail utility to be . While other spam software may filter your post nearly as well , none performs the job as transparently as SpamSieve .
[ Christopher Breen is a senior editor program atMacworld . ]
