There are spam filters, and then there are spam filters. Before buying one find out how it works. All programs can be divided into two groups and there is one crucial difference between them.

Whether we like it or not, spam is ineradicable. It is axiomatic. Spammers guarantee prompt delivery of 50-100 unwanted letters on daily basis. Ideally we would like them to be automatically identified and bounced back. In reality there does not exist a program 100 per cent telling spam and not blocking right messages.

BUT there are spam filters, and then there are spam filters. And before buying one, find out how it works. All programs can be divided into two groups and there is one crucial difference between them. The first group works in the simplest way possible: it lets messages from senders you know into the inbox and quarantines all others. Every time expecting a letter from a person who is not in the white list, we have to look for it in a quarantined folder. Whatever convenient additional features such programs have, the fact IS that the programs are as intelligent as primitive people were.

The filters from the second group, along with the above mentioned, have an ability to analyze the content of the letters and learn to tell spam on the basis.

Outlook Spam Filter belongs to the second group of smart add-ons. It specifically supports and integrates with Microsoft Outlook, BUT not Outlook Express and works with Exchange, POP3 and IMAP accounts.

To start, Outlook Spam Filter populates the approved Friends list by scanning your address book and Inbox folder. Addresses to which you send mail are also automatically white listed. If some letters from your friends or other good emails have been filtered as spam, you can mark these letters as good. Selected messages will be moved to the Inbox folder and senders will be added to the Friends list. And vice versa: if Outlook Spam Filter has not caught some spam emails, we can mark these messages as spam.

Here we come to the main point of the program: to detach spam from good messages Outlook Spam Filter uses Bayesian algorithm of message filtration which is based on statistical analysis. The program has a built-in phrase filter: lists of spam and non-spam words. At the first start of Outlook Spam Filter, our correspondence is automatically analyzed and Bayesian filter is updated. And it happens every time we move a good letter into our Inbox or add a spam message into the Spam folder. In the future such messages will be treated correspondingly. This improves the accuracy of spam filtration. The more we teach it, the higher the accuracy.

We can edit the list of Spam and Non-Spam Recognition Keywords

or select how to treat messages that contain quite a little amount of known words (for example, if they contain words from unknown language or word garbage, or completely rebuild the mail base for Bayesian Filter using our current messages:

Frankly speaking, I have not edited the lists on my computer as the accuracy of spam recognition is already about 99 per cent.

One comment on the Bayesian Filter update. If you import a base of spam letters from you friend’s computer and then recognize the letters as spam, you will drastically quicken the process of the program learning.

If you wish to rebuild the mail base for Bayesian Filter, do not forget along with you Inbox folder to choose the Sent Items folder and any other folder containing specific messages to be analyzed.

We may also check how our own email will be recognized by other spam filters and to perform the legitimacy testing of outgoing letters. To do this before sending our mail we click SPAM TEST button and get the program’s verdict. About 75 per cent of mine are good letters. Maybe it is a sign that I should not send the rest?

We can enable/disable the usage of Bayesian filter in the program settings. (By default, it is turned on.) As a result we will get a program highly resembling that from the first group.

Perhaps, that’s it about the most important features of Outlook Spam Filter. It is a user-friendly program, as, on the whole, is every program by SoftLogica LLC. Wizards guide you whenever there are more than two steps to proceed. The program is highly intuitive, instructions and explanations are simple and clear. I set the "New spam tray notification" to appear. It does in the lower right corner of your desktop. Also I followed the tip to delete enemy contacts (by default this option is turned on) not used more than…30 days, as spammers do not often use the same addresses anyway. So, adjust the program to your needs and taste, and you will never want another one.

And just to entertain you. Once, while having some rest, I diagnosed several personal letters from my friends (before doing that, remove their addresses from your Friends list) and got funny results. The probability of letters being spam or good differs by 100%. Might it be that one of them is less sincere? Hem, doubtful, but the one obviously uses spam language. Nevertheless, I like them both.

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