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The Bottom Line
- SpamSweep spots spam with high precision in POP and IMAP email accounts
- With one click needed to judge unclassified mail and automatic operation, SpamSweep is easy to use
- SpamSweep deletes spam on the server before it is downloaded to your email program
- SpamSweep does not integrate with email programs
- Filtering junk mail with SpamSweep is a bit slow
- SpamSweep does not work as a POP proxy server and only for the Inbox in IMAP accounts
Description
- SpamSweep is a junk mail filter for multiple POP and IMAP email accounts.
- Using Bayesian statistics and public blacklists, SpamSweep filters spam precisely.
- SpamSweep is easily trained using "Is Good" and "Is Spam" buttons.
- Downloading periodically, SpamSweep removes spam from the server before your email client sees it.
- SpamSweep can also act as a new mail announcer (with Growl support) for new good messages.
- Mail erroneously deleted by SpamSweep can be recovered easily.
- Custom rules let you preempt SpamSweep's filtering.
- SpamSweep supports Mac OS X 10.3+.
Guide Review - SpamSweep 1.6 - Spam Filter
Checking your POP and IMAP email accounts periodically, SpamSweep automatically removes the junk before you download it to your email program. Of course, recovering a erroneously classified message is easy, and thanks to its Bayesian analysis SpamSweep learns from every correction.
In addition to adaptive statistical filtering, SpamSweep looks for blocked senders and open relays (innocent third parties exploited by spammers). You can also create simple rules to preempt SpamSweep's filtering and, say, always allowing a certain sender.
Unfortunately, the sum total of SpamSweep's checks is not only a solid spam filtering performance but also a noticeable delay as SpamSweep processes mail. When new — good — mail comes in, SpamSweep can act as an email announcer using its own sounds and dialogs or Growl.
With its clear concept easily controlled and high accuracy, SpamSweep makes a great spam filter overall. A proxy mode that would make SpamSweep filter mail transparently as you check it in your email program would be nice (filtering would have to be a bit faster for that to work satisfactorily, though). Maybe SpamSweep could also integrate with email programs to allow marking mail right there.
