Recommend a good freeware spam filter for Outlook 2007?

[superboyac]

Can someone please help me find a good free spam filter for Outlook 2007?  I'd really appreciate it.  Thanks.

[40hz]

I haven't found any I'm particularly impressed by.

I used to use Spamato ( www.spamato.net ), which had an impressive list of features, was open source and multi-platform. It did what it claimed it could, but it was also a fairly complex app to get your head around. After a while, I decided it was more trouble than it was worth and stopped using it.

One problem with Spamato is that development seems to have slowed down (big time!) over the last year, so it might not be worth investing the time in getting to know it.  Especially now that Windows 7 is looming and may not be supported.

Since I don't receive huge amounts of e-mail, I usually just use a simple mail notifier. I'm currently usingPoppy for Windows ( http://www.jsonline.nl/Content/Poppy/Poppy.htm ) which lets me preview and delete messages before they hit my mail client.


About.com has a list and mini-review of the top 14 antispam apps:

http://email.about.com/od/windowsspamfightingtools/tp/free_spam.htm

Gizmo's has some write-ups as well:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-spam-filter-for-experienced-users.htm

My GF likes POPFile ( http://getpopfile.org/wiki ) which got favorable comments at both the above links.

[superboyac]

Great!  Thanks 40hz!

[Darwin]

Hey Aram - I still love SpamBayes for killing spam in Outlook. However, I did wind up having to use the Outlook junk mail filter when (inexplicably) SpamBayes stopped working on my XP machine and found that it works quite well.

[superboyac]

That's funny, Darwin.  I was JUST trying out SpamBayes right now.  Hopefully, that will do the trick.  Excellent.

[Deozaan]

I used SpamBayes in the past but the best spam filter I've ever used is Gmail.

[Darwin]

Note - as PCMag.com recently noted (absolutely cannot find the link, offhand), SpamBayes does take a week or so to get set up - it has to be trained/train itself to filter your mail. Just a word to the wise 

[40hz]

Note - as PCMag.com recently noted (absolutely cannot find the link, offhand), SpamBayes does take a week or so to get set up - it has to be trained/train itself to filter your mail. Just a word to the wise 

Spambayes is at: http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/windows.html 

[Carol Haynes]

Vote 2 for Google Mail. Just make sure you check your spam folder regularly.

I used to recommend POPfile, and if you want to do all your email in Outlook and only in Outlook I would still recommend POPfile. It takes a short time to learn but once it does it is incredibly accurate and has the added benefit of allowing emails to be intelligently classified any way you want (not just Spam/not Spam but as many categories as you want).

I tried SpamBayes and it does a reasonable job but IMHO it doesn't learn as well or work as accurately as POPfile - it is also considerably less flexible.

[CWuestefeld]

+1 for SpamBayes; it's what I use on my work PC (where I don't have KIS installed).

On one hand, POPFile is more accurate, but on the other, it's difficult to train. Because SpamBayes integrates into Outlook, you can train it with a simple toolbar click for each message. POPFile requires you to go into a separate web page to locate the message that needs training.

[Carol Haynes]

Unfortunately there used to be a very good Outlook plugin (called Outclass) that managed POPfile within Outlook from a simple tool bar. It is a shame but Outclass hasn't been developed for years.

You can use POPfile within Outlook by setting up a folder that points to the POPfile interface - then a single click brings up the management page within Outlook. Details are listed on the POPfile FAQs page.

[superboyac]

I went with SpamBayes for the time being because it was simpler.  Also, on the website, its says that popfile doesn't work with Exchange.

[Carol Haynes]

May be true - I have never used exchange.

[CWuestefeld]

I went with SpamBayes for the time being because it was simpler.  Also, on the website, its says that popfile doesn't work with Exchange.

That is true. POPFile is a POP3 proxy (and, I think more recently, an IMAP and NNTP proxy). Exchange stuff doesn't come through those interfaces, so POPFile doesn't even know those messages exist. The 3rd party plugin, Outclass, used to hack around this by grabbing incoming messages and forcing POPFile to rank the stored message. But as was noted, it hasn't been developed in ages, and I wasn't able to make it work in Outlook 2007.

[yogi22]

> I used SpamBayes in the past but the best spam filter I've ever used
> is Gmail.

> Vote 2 for Google Mail. Just make sure you check your spam folder
> regularly.

Vote 3 for Gmail.

It is easy to configur Gmail to pick up mail from your regular account.
It is easy to configure your email client to pick up mail from Gmail.
If you specify "leave mail on server", you have an easily searchable, automatic backup to all your messages.
Gmail spam filter is excellent. Spam getting thru' is rare, and false positives even rarer.
Spam is kept for 30 days. Plenty of time for the sender of a false positive to harass you about your lack of action.
No training required!
Free!
kk

[dme]

I recommend spamihilator. Although I don't use Outlook I know that it works with it. See:

http://wiki.spamihilator.com/doku.php?id=en:configclient

Spamihilator is tested for years and is developed further permanently. In addition, there is a support which is competent and reacting fast:

http://www.spamihilator.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=22

The program can be trained easily and the recognition rate will reach a level of about 95% soon. This rate can be improved by many good filter plugins further. I am dependent on a good spam filter, because I get approximately 150 spam mails daily. I use the spamihilator for several years now and am very satisfied with it.

[GHammer]

Personally I use POP Peeker for my POP3 accounts. It will also check web based accounts, but I don't have any of those.
I prefer to delete spam before it gets to my email client.
Old fashioned, I know. I come from the old 1200 baud dial up BBS days. Fido anyone?

I used to run MailWasher and it did an excellent job of removing spam. I converted all my domains to GMail hosted, and rarely see spam, so just use POP Peeper to notify me of email as it arrives.

Speaking of Outlook utilities, I highly recommend Xobni. It doesn't look very powerful when you read the description, but just install it and use it for a week or so. See if you want to uninstall it. I'm 20 for 20 on this for people who use Outlook.
http://tinyurl.com/2o9k5l