The spread of unsolicited e-mail, or spam, is insidious, with recent reports claiming that some people receive as many spam messages in a day as legitimate ones. McAfee's SpamKiller 4 aims to stop spam; if not at source, then at least on your ISP's server.

Rather than filtering your messages once you've downloaded them, this comprehensive utility takes over your normal e-mail client's Send and Receive function and checks for new e-mails at a frequency you set. If it finds dubious messages, which match its long list of filter words and phrases, it adds them to its Kill list, so only the bare text is downloaded and kept within SpamKiller, never reaching your inbox.

So far so good, but there are a few ease-of-use problems which detract from the program's generally accurate assessment of spam and its unobtrusive way of dealing with it. For a start there are some e-mail servers with which the program is incompatible, the most important being AOL and Yahoo. While you can see why it's difficult for a third party program to intercept e-mails from these services, it should at least be pointed out very clearly on the product's box.

Because SpamKiller checks your e-mail itself, you are advised to turn off any automatic Send and Receive function in your e-mail client and wait for the McAfee program to report new mail having arrived, which it does with an audible tone. Although you can set it up to then launch your client, there's no facility to automate the transfer of e-mail to the client's inbox. You have to perform a manual Send and Receive to download your incoming mail.

This may be OK on a permanently connected broadband link, but with a dial-up connection you have to make two separate calls, which is inconvenient. Apparently, the next version of the program will be able to script common e-mail clients to collect new mail automatically.

The filters themselves are good, with a broad range of exclusions based on words and phrases typical of unsolicited e-mail. Everything from 'accept credit card' to 'your email removed' and from '18 or older' to 'x-rated'. You can, of course, delete those filters you don't want and add your own, as spammers get more sophisticated. The product includes a year's subscription to an update site, which tries to keep ahead in the spammer versus spam-blocker arms race.

Verdict
McAfee SpamKiller is an effective spam filter, keeping unwanted e-mail out of your inbox. Better integration with common e-mail clients would help make this product a 'must have'; as it is, some popular e-mail services are not supported.

Company: McAfee

Contact: 01753 217500

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