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Slam that spam 2005: we compare five antispam apps
Robert Vamosi
Robert Vamosi
Senior editor

Although Microsoft Outlook 2003 includes robust junk mail filtering, spam continues to leak through. That's why you need another layer of defense. We asked our best spam reviewer, Dan Tynan, to look at five popular antispam solutions, including two past Editors' Choice recipients and two relative newcomers. Unfortunately, the latest version of our first Editors' Choice winner, McAfee SpamKiller 6.0 (2005), still uses a clunky third-party server to filter your mail and, frankly, hasn't kept up with the times. Norton AntiSpam 2005, the successor to last year's antispam award winner, works within Outlook but suffers from performance-robbing glitches. In fact, both McAfee and Norton kept Dan busy with technical-support calls, which can be expensive for you and me. We also heard a lot about Cloudmark's product, Cloudmark Desktop, but we were surprised to find it didn't perform as well as expected. That's why it's easy to declare a new Editors' Choice winner for best antispam app. Not only did MailFrontier Desktop 4.2 keep away the spam, it was also a cinch to set up and use. But hold on, Qurb 3.0 is a tight second. If anything, MailFrontier and Qurb both put Norton and McAfee to shame.

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Product name MailFrontier Desktop
MailFrontier Desktop  
Norton AntiSpam 2005
Norton AntiSpam 2005
McAfee SpamKiller 6.0
McAfee SpamKiller 6.0
Qurb
Qurb
Cloudmark Desktop
Cloudmark Desktop






Review date November 2, 2004 November 2, 2004 November 2, 2004 March 24, 2005 July 26, 2005






Editors' rating
(Editors' rating explained)
6.0 out of 10 6.0
Good
6.7 out of 10 6.7
Good






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Review summary Move over, Norton AntiSpam. MailFrontier Desktop is our pick for pain-free yet effective spam relief. While Norton's AntiSpam 2005 seamlessly integrates into Microsoft's e-mail clients, it has performance issues. And it's neither as easy to use nor as accurate as MailFrontier Desktop. SpamKiller's day has come and gone. Without a major overhaul, this filter just can't keep up with the competition. Qurb 3.0 is a very close second behind our favorite spam blocker, MailFrontier, and leagues ahead of Norton AntiSpam. Cloudmark Desktop is good at stopping spam, but it offers fewer features than either Qurb or MailFrontier.






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User comments 6.1 Good (from 15 users) 2.2 Terrible (from 11 users) 2.6 Terrible (from 10 users) 7.2 Very good (from 9 users) 6.4 Good (from 21 users)
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• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition , Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP1 , Microsoft Windows XP , Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition , Microsoft Windows 98
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• 6.0
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• 3.0
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