Spam is the scourge of modern computing, and software manufacturers are trying hard to come up with products to stop this, without stopping legitimate emails.

Aladdin's Spamcatcher 3 is the latest product claiming to scurf out the spam. Installation is quick, but once on the machine we had to look hard to find it.

There are two ways to install; one places the product transparently into Outlook 2000, 2002 or 2003; the other is more universal, offering protection to other mail clients. With the Outlook installation, the only indication that anything is different comes from the extra toolbar buttons.

Configuring Spamcatcher is pretty straightforward, although it starts work immediately and is configured straight out of the box. You can add and remove blocked senders and so on, but the majority of decisions on what is and isn't spam are taken by the Spamcatcher Network. Every user contributes to this database of spam email. When you add a sender to your block list, it is added to the list.

Aside from Spamcatcher Network, the application doesn't do much you couldn't do yourself, with well chosen shareware or with careful configuring of your mail client. Adding names to your approved list keeps the number of lost emails to a minimum and it does filter spam. If you're hoping this will result in an inbox clean of junk mail you will be disappointed. That said, it definitely reduces the amount of spam and, as the Spamcatcher Network grows, it should become more effective.

Contact: Aladdin Systems
www.aladdinsys.com

System requirements: