Program Review

by Donna Sword

FEBRUARY 2002

What is the number one problem with email? That is after you send and receive your first message -- junk Mail, also called spam, unsolicited messages and solicitations. You know the kind of messages, I mean. "Are Your Mortgage Rates Too High?" "Do You Want to Lose 30-40-50 Pounds and Nothing Works?" "Would you like to be secure in your financial future?" "Would A 5% Mortgage Interest You?" "Try A New Form of Internet Entertainment!" "Need A New Computer?" "Do You Have Bad Credit?" "Fix Your Windows Registry Once and for All!" "Congratulations! You have been selected as a finalist in the Getaway Travel Sweepstakes!"

The presenter for the February meeting is Rollin White from Sundial Systems, Inc. Junk Spy, v 2.0 is a program that supports virtually all POP3 mail client programs (subject to certain restrictions). You can also use Junk Spy with multiple mail accounts, as long as they are POP3 accounts. Now this program may not be something you need if you only get a few junk messages and have the time to remove them manually. However, most active users of the Internet and email just don't want to see some of the stuff that is generated by mass mailers.

Junk Spy also works with email programs that are very selective in how they filter and receive email. For those programs, Junk Spy supports alternate transmission techniques as well as alternate flagging techniques. Junk Spy is even compatible with other programs that might be monitoring your email such as Norton Antivirus's Email Protect feature. Note: Junk Spy does not currently work with AOL or other email services that use private email protocols. It also does not support strictly web-based email services.

What this means in English is you can use Outlook, Outlook Express (several versions), Lotus Notes, Eudora, Goldmine, Netscape Mail, Pegasus and many other mail programs that may not provide a way to filter out the junk mail you get. Outlook has a way to set up rules for email; some of the other mail programs do not provide an option for selections.

Even if you are not a candidate for this software program, Mr. White has some excellent information in how the various junk mail is identified; the Junk Spy program is updated; and the ways to customize your program and email programs. Junk Spy works with both dialup service and high speed connections. The wizards talk you through the setup so you do not need to be an expert.

Sundial Sytems also lets you enable another set of Internet spam (junk mail) resources, the MAPS (stands for Mail Abuse Prevention System) Realtime Blackhole List & Relay Spam Stopper List, along with ORBS (Open Relay Behaviour-modification System). These lists help sort out networks that spammers use to broadcast their slime, and automatically treat all mail that goes through any of the listed servers as junk mail. The sender gets a nice little message about the error of their ways and what to do about it. These messages are to the point and very hard core.

In doing this review, I checked their web page and support options. The documentation is excellent and the web page is easy to read and find information. This company even wants the Junk Mail that gets through the filters so they can determine how to identify the mail in the future. After you configure your program, there is a test option on the web page.

It also appears that Sundial Systems is a big supported of Computer User Groups in California. So come out to the Las Vegas PC Users Group General Meeting on February 6th, 2002 and bring your questions.