Tomorrow's World

The best e-mail filter I have found is POPFile. And that's not just because it's free :-

  • POPFile is a desktop filter and you install it on your computer.

  • Despite the fact that it is free, it uses very sophisticated Bayesian filtering to sort messages, based on their individual words, headers and e-mail addresses.

  • You have total control of what it does with messages. Messages will be placed in appropriate buckets or compartments, which are then automatically transferred to your E-Mail program. Some can be deleted immediately if that is what is required.

  • POPFile is not difficult to download, but it does need to be setup carefully to work well. You just need to read the instructions and you won't have any trouble linking it to Eudora, Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus Notes, Thunderbird and many more.

  • POPFile is controlled through a web based interface. This means that it is very easy to configure.

I have used POPFile for about two years now and it handles all of the spam problems on daisy.co.uk :-

  • A series of buckets have been setup for all of my major correspondents and clients, and of course spam. Each of the buckets is paired with a rule in Outlook which moves the message into the correct folder. Spam for instance, goes into Junk Mail.

  • I now find that I get very little spam into the Inbox of Outlook. If I do, I just go to the control page for POPFile and mark the message as spam. POPFile then knows that a similar message would go to spam next time.

  • With POPFile you can also define magnets which in effect attract messages to particular buckets. Thus, if any e-mails come from a particular person's e-mail address, you can drop them in the appropriate bucket. On the other hand, I know that certain addresses in daisy.co.uk only get spam, so they are immediately deleted.

  • I have also found POPFile extremely useful for looking at all the codes and headers in e-mail messages that I find particularly dangerous. This allows domain names to be checked and spam reports to be made without danger from viruses, thus further enhancing the security of my e-mail.

I would recommend POPFile to everybody who wants to have control of their e-mail messages as they arrive on their computer. To set it up properly can take a bit of time and a certain amount of care.

But it is a very safe and affordable approach to the problems of spam.

Try it!