The Bottom Line
Pros
- SpamChoke offers solid spam detection without configuration or training
- Configuring a number of email clients automatically, SpamChoke is easy to use
- Online filter updates can be downloaded automatically
Cons
- SpamChoke offers little configuration options, custom filters or personalization
- Marks emails in the message body, which is neither discreet nor ideal for filtering nor l
- Configuring unsupported email clients to work with SpamChoke can be a bit cumbersome
Description
- SpamChoke filters multiple POP email accounts for spam.
- Working as a proxy between mail server and client, SpamChoke is compatible with most email programs.
- SpamChoke can automatically configure accounts in Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora.
- Spam is detected by SpamChoke using a scoring set of heuristic filters.
- You can add to simple white and black lists or create custom rules to override SpamChoke's filters.
- SpamChoke can install filter updates automatically.
- Mail found to be junk is marked in the body, and SpamChoke lets you see a detailed filter analysis.
- SpamChoke keeps statistics about the number of good and bad mail.
- SpamChoke supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/3/XP.
Guide Review - SpamChoke 1.0 - Spam Filter
Using a set of heuristic filters (that can be updated automatically online), SpamChoke detects a good deal of spam while usually leaving good mail alone. You can adjust the sensitivity of the filtering if you find SpamChoke either too aggressive to too lenient. Still, the accuracy does not match that of a well-trained Bayesian filter.
If you spot a wrong decision (SpamChoke gives a nice analysis that lets you see why a message has been marked as spam), you can but create simple rules or add the sender to a black or white list. The method employed by SpamChoke to mark junk mail — adding a note to the message body — is not ideal either.
While SpamChoke configures the accounts in a number of email clients automatically, adding a mailbox manually can be a tad cumbersome. It's also a pity SpamChoke supports POP accounts only.
