The Bottom Line
- MailFisher finds spam using a number of filtering techniques
- Integrating well with Outlook, MailFisher is simple to pick up and easy to use
- MailFisher lets you view suspicious emails with added security and privacy protection
- MailFisher is not all that accurate and effective out of the box
- Only filtering POP accounts automatically, MailFisher cannot watch arbitrary folders for spam
- MailFisher can slow down mail delivery
Description
- MailFisher filters junk mail in Outlook.
- Messages found to be spam by MailFisher are moved to a special folder or deleted automatically.
- MailFisher uses Bayesian statistics as well as black and white lists to detect junk mail.
- You can also employ keyword filters, DNS blacklists and block mail from certain countries.
- Correcting mistakes made by MailFisher (thus training the filter) is easy via two toolbar buttons.
- MailFisher lets you view suspicious messages in a "SafeView" mode in secure plain text.
- MailFisher supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/3/XP and Outlook 2000/2/3.
Guide Review - MailFisher 1.56 - Outlook Spam Filtering Add-On
MailFisher employs a combination of multiple techniques to make its net particularly close meshed: keyword filtering and local black and white lists of senders are used alongside DNS blacklists and adaptive Bayesian filtering.
Out of the box, MailFisher catches not only spam, though, and by far not all the spam. With training, the Bayesian filter gets better. As an initial precaution against false positives MailFisher scans folders known to contain good mail for your friends and can also look for notorious spammers in old junk. Correcting mistakes made by MailFisher is easy via "Mark as spam" and "Mark as not spam" toolbar buttons.
If you don't trust Outlook to protect your privacy and security (with the latest updates and in version 2002 or later, it fares pretty well), MailFisher provides a "SafeView" mode that displays all the message components in secure plain text so you can review spam, scams and strange messages without fear. MailFisher can also block certain countries, which is less smart and effective than blocking character sets.
All in all, MailFisher does a lot for a relatively standard result.
