SPAMfighter PRO Review

Version 7.5.133

by Coenraad de Beer (Webmaster & Founder of Cyber Top Cops)
Posted on 21-06-2012

Test Machine
SPAMfighter Pro Version 7.5.133 was reviewed on an Intel Pentium 4, 2.8GHz with 2GB of RAM, running Windows 7 Professional.

Installation
Installing SPAMfighter Pro is really easy, the installer does all the work so you just click on the “Next” button each time and wait for the installation to complete. The installation did take quite some time to complete, especially for a setup file of only 2.4 MB, so it is clear that the rest of the files are downloaded from the Internet. But even after the download, it still takes a considerable amount of time to complete the setup.

No restart is required, except for allowing the SPAMfighter add-on in Thunderbird to be installed and restarting Thunderbird after the installation of the add-on. The add-on is automatically installed in Microsoft Outlook & Windows Live Mail though (apparently Windows Mail & Outlook Express is also supported, but since these are outdated e-mail clients, I did not test SPAMfighter Pro with them).

When you click the “Finish” button once the setup is finished, the SPAMfighter website will load in your default browser, providing a link to a very useful beginners guide, that will get you started with SPAMfighter Pro very quickly.

Automatic Updating
SPAMfighter Pro immediately updates itself after the installation. After that, SPAMfighter will prompt you as soon as the next update becomes available. However, SPAMfighter Pro can also be configured to update itself automatically, without prompting the user.

Resource Usage
SPAMfighter Pro is not heavy on your PC's resources at all. To be honest, out of a performance point of view, you won't even notice that SPAMfighter is installed on your machine. There is not even lag while downloading e-mails or while blocking spam manually (an action which reports the spam to the cloud as well). The resource usage is excellent if you take into account all the work being done in the background.

Interface
SPAMfighter Pro is never in the way, like I already mentioned, it works so silently in the background, that you won't even notice it is there. This means you rarely come into contact with the user interface and whenever you do, you won't have to tear out all your hair due to frustration, no, SPAMfighter Pro is very easy to use and configure.

The user interface is streamlined, very simplistic and practical. So you won't be bothered with complicated configuration screens and incomprehensible jargon. The overview screen has a lot of interesting and useful information and there is even a Quick Tips section on this screen, with some very useful and effective spam prevention tips. SPAMfighter Pro does therefore not only treat the problem of spam, it also contributes to the clever prevention of spam, by educating its users.

An easy to use toolbar is installed as an add-on in your e-mail client. This is the only thing that I found a bit confusing at first. I would have expected buttons labelled as “Spam” and “Not Spam”, but the developers of SPAMfighter Pro opted for the terms “Block” and “Unblock” respectively. So if you want to classify a specific e-mail as spam and move it to the SPAMfighter folder, you select the e-mail and click on “Block”. If a good e-mail was was accidentally flagged as spam, you select the e-mail and click on “Unblock” This will move the message back to the Inbox.

In addition to filtering the message to and from a folder, it also trains SPAMfighter each time you click on “Block” or “Unblock”. This also reports the choice of the user to the SPAMfighter server, allowing the SPAMfighter community to benefit from the spam identified on your computer.

Managing your spam with SPAMfighter Pro is therefore no rocket science, because the easy-to-use interface, makes spam filtering child's play.

Filtering & Effectiveness
The main strength of SPAMfighter Pro's filtering capabilities lies in the spam reported by the SPAMfighter community. As I already mentioned, every time you block a spam e-mail, the community benefits from this, because the same spam e-mail will automatically be filtered for the rest of the community in just a matter of seconds. So the more spam you report, the more damage you do to the spammers.

SPAMfighter Pro also has the common Whitelist and Blacklist functionality to filter spam or e-mails from specific e-mail addresses or domains. Whitelisting an e-mail address or domain, will off course prevent mail from that specific e-mail address or domain from ever being flagged as spam.

Another filtering method is the blocking of e-mails written in specific languages, so you won't be bothered by junk in a foreign language.

A very handy feature is the “Clean Folder” option from the SPAMfighter toolbar. This will allow SPAMfighter to scan e-mails that were downloaded before SPAMfighter was installed. This means you can apply the spam filter on any folder containing e-mails, which is extremely handy if you have a lot of good e-mails scattered between a bunch of junk e-mails.

The actual filtering process is extremely accurate, with zero positives encountered during the testing phase and very few spam that got through.

Uninstallation
The uninstaller does a complete uninstall, effectively removing all folders, registry keys and add-ons related to SPAMfighter Pro, without any side effects.

Conclusion
SPAMfighter Pro is a great community based effort for combating spam. It also feels great to know that you are not only filtering your own spam, but you are also part of a combined effort to battle the ever increasing problem of spam.

SPAMfighter Pro is also complemented by an online support forum, and extensive FAQ section on the SPAMfighter website and the Pro version includes Premium support via e-mail or phone.

I highly recommend SPAMfighter Pro, because it is easy to use and is more than just a spam filter, it is a weapon in the war against spam. So join the community and become a professional SPAMfighter.

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