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MailMender 1.1 - Spam Filter

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MailMender - Spam Filter

MailMender - Spam Filter

Heinz Tschabitscher

The Bottom Line

MailMender combines keyword filters with challenging senders of suspicious mail to keep junk email out. The authorization process is simple yet inflexible, though, MailMender only supports POP accounts, and it could be easier to operate. MailMender is no longer available.

Pros

  • MailMender can fend off a good deal of spam by challenging unknown senders
  • Special, keyword, country and custom filters allow MailMender to challenge on suspicious mail only
  • MailMender works seamlessly with any email client

Cons

  • MailMender supports POP accounts only
  • The filters used by MailMender are not too precise
  • Configuring and operating MailMender is a bit more complex than it should have to be

Description

  • MailMender filters mail in multiple POP email accounts for spam.
  • Checking your accounts periodically, MailMender removes messages identified as spam.
  • To spot spam, MailMender uses smart keyword filters, language filters and some special rules.
  • You can also set up custom filters in MailMender.
  • MailMender can send a challenging reply back to new senders of suspicious messages.
  • Replying with the right keyword will put the sender on MailMender's list of friendly senders.
  • You can also manually challenge senders, bounce mail or complain about spam.
  • Recovering messages from MailMender's "Killed Mail" folder is easy, and senders can be authorized.
  • MailMender supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/3/XP.

Guide Review - MailMender 1.1 - Spam Filter

Challenge/response mail filters are a simple idea that works well to keep spam out. Only mail from known senders is allowed through while new sources are sent a challenge that allows them to proof their being legit senders. Unfortunately, such filters generate a lot of unnecessary traffic to spammers (or their nonexistent addresses, rather) while senders of legitimate newsletters can have a hard time authorizing with their subscribers.

To tackle the first point, MailMender, a simple implementation of a challenge/response filter, also includes relatively smart keyword filters and looks for other characteristics to identify possible spam. By default, only unknown senders of such messages are challenged to authorize by replying with a (customizable, but not unique per sender) keyword in the subject.

Unfortunately, MailMender does not release the original message once the sender has responded to the challenge. To get the message through, it has to be re-sent with the correct keyword. Of course, you can also review "killed" mail and restore it manually or authorize senders by hand.

While it's nice that MailMender allows you to send complaints easily (they could be better and more precise, though), it is a pity that it only supports POP accounts. This it does in a straight-forward way, though, simply removing all mail it objects with.

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