Entered CNET Catalog: 05/21/2005
SKU:
Manufacturer: Cloudmark
Product summary
The good: Excellent accuracy with minimal false positives; works directly inside Outlook and Outlook Express; easy way to report fraudulent mail.
The bad: Average technical support; inconsistent filtering and server performance.
The bottom line: Cloudmark Desktop is good at stopping spam, but it offers fewer features than either Qurb or MailFrontier.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 07/26/2005
Like MailFrontier, Cloudmark Desktop (formerly known as Cloudmark Safetybar) installs directly inside Outlook and Outlook Express, sifts your mail as it downloads, and shuttles suspected junk into a folder where you can review it later. But while Cloudmark Desktop stops a ton of spam, it's not as flexible, functional, or inexpensive as either of its rivals, and Cloudmark's support leaves much to be desired. Cloudmark Desktop for Outlook has a few unique toolbar features, including a way to report fraudulent e-mail with a single click and a meter that tells you how much time and money using Desktop has saved you, which is just silly. In the antispam horse race, Cloudmark Desktop manages a only respectable third.
Overall, Cloudmark Desktop stopped an impressive 96 percent of spam e-mail in our tests, while trapping less than 4 percent of legitimate messages by mistake. Head-to-head, filtering the same e-mail messages, Qurb 3.0 stopped slightly more spam, though with a higher rate of false positives. However, Cloudmark Desktop's performance was marred by technical glitches. On several occasions Cloudmark's servers were inaccessible, rendering the product useless. (At press time the company issued a new release that appears to have fixed the problem.)
Unfortunately, Cloudmark Desktop provides far less information about its quarantined mail. Qurb displays both the sender's name and actual e-mail address so that you can see if they match, as well as the first few lines of each message. That means Cloudmark Desktop users will spend more time previewing or opening blocked messages to determine whether they're really spam. Cloudmark Desktop also lacks Qurb's built-in search capabilities and its unique Sender Domain Verification feature, which helps guard against phishing e-mail. And MailFrontier offers more blocking customization tools than Cloudmark Desktop.
Support options for Cloudmark Desktop are limited to FAQs, user forums, and Web-based e-mail. When we tried to send an e-mail for support, however, we got stuck in an endless loop, unable to reach the Web-mail form. It turns out our browser's cookie settings were too strict--a fact Cloudmark's site should have warned us about but didn't. After we contacted Cloudmark, the company changed the site so that it would work even when session cookies were blocked, but the site still requires users to enter their personal information twice. When we finally did send e-mail, we got a response in less than a day. Neither Qurb nor MailFrontier offer superb support, but they're still ahead of Cloudmark.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24out of 24 user reviews
Cloudmark censors
Pros: not much to say in favor
Cons: Cloudmark censors email content that is sometimes conservative or Christian. Repeatedly email from conservative or Christian sources is tagged as spam. Email from liberal sources is never tagged as spam.
Cludmark has refused to provide netaddress explanations as to why they marked email as spam on s specfic basis.
out of 24 user reviews
Slows down link in email to open browser page
Pros: Maybe it cleans out spam OK, but at a very high price in opening a linked browser page.
Cons: Clicking on a link in MS Outlook 2003 POP3 email took very long time to open a Firefox browser page (like 90 or more seconds). My experience is most decidedly different than those of other reviewers.
out of 24 user reviews
Best antispam software ever
Pros: Cloudmark Desktop has completely eliminated all of my spam from my inbox. And it doesn't delete them- it puts them in a separate folder.
Cons: Only once did an email go into spam folder that wasn't supposed to, but that's one out of thousands.
out of 24 user reviews
Big Brother Has a Name, and that Name is CLOUDMARK
Pros: None. This is a censorship tool.
Cons: Plenty. This is a censorship tool.
out of 24 user reviews
The very best spamblocker for MSOutlook users!
Pros: Catches and sorts out 500+ spam per day with no false positives. Low cost. Installs easily. Good customer support.
Cons: Can't say one bad thing about this great software!
out of 24 user reviews
Quite effective
Pros: Easy to use
Cons: Number of spam messages seemed to increase after downloading free trial
Also, immediately after downloading the free trial, I was surprised to see almost double the amount of my 'regular' spam come in - could of course be a pure coincidence, but I wondered if it might be a method of 'encouraging' sign ups.
out of 24 user reviews
Does not work well w/ Outlook
Pros: cute tool bar
Cons: Worthless to email power users
The do have fast email responses for user problems and a somewhat helpful support website. It does catch 100 % of spam that gets by my ISP and Mailwasher filters. But it also catches about 5% of valid email.
Cloudmark could someday be useful for Outlook. I wish them well in future versions.
out of 24 user reviews
"Free" trial cost me $116 in support from my PC consultant
Pros: The Cloudmark website says sorry for freezing Outlook permanently
Cons: Stopped Outlook 2003 working at all
Oliver 8*
. . .I was surprised, to say the least, given my experiences with oh, I don't know, say, hmmmmm, let me pick someone at random oh! OK MICROSOFT. I now up my rating to 7 (with a bullet, meaning I'll take it up higher if appropriate)
Cloudmark, it may not be true love, but I feel good towards you. .. .now.
out of 24 user reviews
Poor filtering, allowing 20-30 spam a day;very poor technical support
Pros: few...easily installed
Cons: Little interest in trying to correct VERY frustrating bugs in the program...I would NOT recommend anyone buying this.
out of 24 user reviews
Doesn't work like Cloudmark says it should. Just quit filtering spam for no explainable reason.
Pros: When it worked, it was nice.
Cons: Tech Support couldn't even tell me how to reset the filter so it would catch the spam. Instead it allowed it to go directly to my Inbox as if I didn't have a spam filter.
so-called Tech Support sent me some gobblygook which I didn't understand! Uninstalled the software since it did nothing anyway.
out of 24 user reviews
spam trebled
Pros: installed easily
Cons: slow to function
out of 24 user reviews
Same as always
Pros: Installs easy
Cons: Don't Work Causes more spam
and what i tell it to block i have to tell it EVERYTIME
i read reviews on this before i d/ld it
but now i know for myself i'll hafta to find something else
to make sure i'm not mistaken i used it on my private email and started getting spam ...the same spam on both email addresses
just seems to strange
out of 24 user reviews
I have tried Cloudmark for 1 day and I LOVE IT!
Pros: Thanks for a simple solution! Today I got 38 emails, 35 were correctly identified as spam!
Cons: would prefer to have one application for all Internet woes and get on with real work
out of 24 user reviews
Wonderful anti-spam program
Pros: 1 false positive out of my first 1000 spams
Cons: If you're one of the first to get a spam, it goes through till enough folks put it into the database.
out of 24 user reviews
Cloudmark Antispam retrieved me from the depths of insanity. The spam took half an hour to delete
Pros: Open outlook express or whatever you use and you get the e-mails you want.
Cons: It pays to check before deleting the filtered spam because rarely, one or two mails get sucked up in the vacuum
This has to be the best anti spam software there is available, I tried every filter available I'm sure of it and now that I have found Cloudmark I will never look back…Thank you.>>
out of 24 user reviews
Good Product, Lousy Policies
Pros: High detection rate, low overhead to use
Cons: Poor customer service policies; Outlook only; Pricey
Oh, and they also require a written notice of cancellation 45 days in advance. Sheeesh!
out of 24 user reviews
With this program (service) I no longer waste irretrievable hours wading through all that spam!
Pros: Easy to use, plugs itself into your email program and it really does work!
Cons: None found yet.
out of 24 user reviews
Cloudmark works well for me
Pros: Seems to work at least as well as Mail Frontier
Cons: Only used it 3 weeks, no Con's yet.
Cloudmark on the other hand has less user control and, in my experience, catches at least as much spam as Mail Frontier does.
One major reson I like Cloudmark is the very reson Cloudmark was rated down by CNET and that is the fact that Cloudmark has few user controls, I thought that was a plus, a spam filter that just blocked spam and didnt have a great deal of user input.
My Matador also has a problem with the Dell Axim X30 software (or the Dell software has a problem with Mail Frontier)
Whenever my Axim Synchronizes with my PC it opens an outlook process to synchronize files, after these files are syncronized the Outlook Process remains open to update the Axim as updates occur, when the windows task manager shows an open Outlook Process Mail Frontier wont run in Outlook, it is necessary to close outlook, open the task manager, click the Processes tab , find Outlook and end the process then log back into Outlook, Mail Frontier will then load and do it's job, I dont have this problem with Cloudmark, I will stop using the trial version of Cloudmark and purchase it today to replace My Mail Frontier. on a 1 to 10 I will give Cloudmark a 9+.
Although Mail Frontier has been an excelent spam filter for me, Cloudmarks lack of user settings and controls and the fact that it works with my Axim Software and seems to catch at least as much spam as Mail Frontier even without all the extra control makes it a good choice for me.
out of 24 user reviews
I love this product!
Pros: It does exactly what it advertises!
Cons: Nothing that I have seen so far
out of 24 user reviews
quick set, up, benifiet of huge user bases experience
Pros: quick set, up, benifiet of huge user bases experience
Cons: no problems with this easy to use software
out of 24 user reviews
Sometimes the best technology is the very simplest!
Pros: No false positives, so no need to review all your Spam to find "real" messages that are miscategorized
Cons: Monthly fees
Instead of requiring the user to "fiddle" to get some sort of software algorithm to work that tries to decide what's Spam and what isn't, the Cloudmark system works on a simple premise: If you and I and Joe all get the same exact email, and you and I mark it as Spam, it's Spam when Joe get's it - and not just our Joe, but all the other Joes and Janettes out there too. Since you and I are a lot smarter than a computer process about what email we asked for and what we didn't, no matter how tricksy the spammers get, as long as they send the same email to multiple recipients theres a real good chance that someone else has marked it as Spam before it gets to you - and you'll never see it.
But an email from someone else that is real - even if it has all the same words and phrases in it as a Spam message does - is never marked as Spam before it gets to you, because it only goes to you.
There is something truly beautiful about something so simplistic that works so well!
out of 24 user reviews
Great job of detecting and handling spam.
Pros: Does not generate false positives.
Cons: Not 100% perfect.
out of 24 user reviews
Excellent product
Pros: Stops nearly all spam with almost no falses
Cons: Occasional spam that it just refuses to stop no matter hjow many times you flag it
out of 24 user reviews
daverubindelray
Pros: Easy to use and does not miss spam
Cons: A little pricey
