Less-than-perfect weapon in the fight against spam

By RICHARD WOOD

In the never-ending battle against spam, users can take some comfort from a growing range of weapons - desktop software, hosted services, corporate gateway products, services from internet service providers, and legislation targeted at the spammers.

The choice has developed from the needs of users tired of receiving unsolicited email marketing unwanted products to them and flooding their systems with all manner of junk from Nigerian scams to pornography.

The methods these products and services use to knock out spam are evolving - starting with blocking lists of email addresses, which any spammer worth their salt has worked around by now.

Then there's keyword analysis - weeding out spam by the words used.

Most vaunted is the "Beyesian" approach, which involves the system learning from the user what they do and don't like.

A clear sign that the battle has gone mainstream comes with retail antivirus software maestro Symantec's Norton AntiSpam 2004 - a stand-alone desktop package for $89.95. Great I thought - but then the problems began.

Norton AntiSpam uses a combination of methods that include blacklists for blocking, whitelists for allowing, and a learning system. But strangely, it learns from what you send out, not from what comes in. A Symantec executive explained the rationale - what you send out is indicative of what you will accept. There's a certain logic to that, but it didn't gain my immediate confidence.

But I installed the system and immediately began classifying my spam.

Which is where I ran into a problem.

Installing was a breeze. The software is invisible most of the time and blocks browser advertisements and pop-up windows.

Incoming spam was automatically diverted to a folder within my Outlook Express and I liked the tidiness of it all. It can also integrate into Outlook and Eudora email systems.

But impatient as I am, I went hunting for previous spam, aiming to speed up training the system's engine.

However, all attempts to classify my previous spams using the provided function available on my email toolbar resulted in the immediate crashing of my Outlook Express, which wouldn't start again until I restarted my PC or logged out of Windows and in again.

This also sometimes happened when dealing with incoming items, whether classifying them as spam, or reclassifying ones it had mistakenly taken for spam.

Support for the product on the internet was of little help, but I did get hold of a Symantec support person in Australia.

He suggested the complexity of Microsoft's storage of emails was the problem, and I might have corruption in my inbox. Perhaps I should try exporting and reimporting my messages.

Unfortunately as a user of the latest Microsoft Outlook Express, I can't export emails.

I am using a Windows XP system and subscribe to Microsoft's regular patches. I don't have any other difficulties with my email system which now holds more than 5000 messages.

Though this software may work fine for others, it does seem that if I have a damaged inbox others probably will too.

Symantec may be trying to integrate too tightly into the email system, if Microsoft's file formats are at all relevant. Other systems I have seen remain entirely outside the email program.

The bottom line is that this is a consumer-targeted product and needs to work every time "out of the box", whatever Microsoft's software does.

Because Symantec Antispam 2004 is only just being launched Downunder, the technical person I spoke to had not had to answer any prior support questions. My problems were passed on to the US where the message came back that it was a rare issue that had not been nailed down yet. Given Symantec's resources I expect the problem will be dealt with, and I have sent them more details of my configuration.

Meanwhile, I would suggest users try the free K9 desktop antispam system downloadable from the internet, contact their internet service provider to see what general antispam offering is available, or sign up for a free trial of the locally produced Death2Spam system also being picked up by a number of local internet providers.

Norton AntiSpam 2004

$89.95.

Symantec.

Pros: Easy to setup and use.

Cons: Caused email crash.

Rating: 4/10