Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Friday Favorite
Friday Favorite: SpamSieve 2.76
My Friday favorite is SpamSieve. We have mentioned it a few times previously, but since it has recently been updated to version 2.76 I wanted to sing its praises again. It's the best way I've found to deal with spam.Using Bayesian filtering, SpamSieve installs as a plug-in to your mail client and lets you mark messages as spam. As you do, it builds a a corpus file of rules telling determining what is spam and what isn't. The more messages you mark, or train, the more accurate SpamSieve gets. I've been using it since November of 2003 and after years of training, it's so accurate that it rarely fails to catch an errant spam encrusted message. When it does, using either a keystroke sequence or a pulldown menu from your Mail client you can train it as spam.
At the start, it's quite labor intensive since you have to mark a few hundred messages for it to really start working, but it pays dividends. After a while, you'll have a personalized set of inclusion/exclusion rules that gets better over time. To give you an idea, yesterday I received 307 emails. Out of those SpamSieve correctly marked and moved over 30 messages and missed only 2 that needed training.
This is a shot of my corpus screen showing how many messages have been filtered and how many words were read resulting in messages being regarded as spam or good. Yes, over 15,000 messages is a big number, but by being cumulative, SpamSieve gets more and more accurate over time. SpamSieve allows you to import or export the corpus file so if you get a new computer, or decide to use a different email client, you lose nothing.
A nice advantage for iPhone use is that if you use IMAP mailboxes and leave one computer on as a sort of mail server, SpamSieve will deal with your incoming messages, filter them, and the results will be delivered to your iPhone.
SpamSieve can display a Blocklist containing 'match styles' that alert it to spam and a Whitelist of good mail matches. These can be tweaked if needed but I've never had to change a thing. It just works.
The current version brings a few improvements, and works well with Mac OS X 10.4 right up to 10.6. Being a universal binary, it runs natively on both PPC and Intel-based computers. Supported clients are Apple Mail, Claris Emailer (that takes me back), Microsoft Entourage, Eudora, GyazMail, and Mailsmith. Single user licenses run $30 and two user family packs are $48. There is also a non-restricted 30 day free trial available.
The current version brings a few improvements, and works well with Mac OS X 10.4 right up to 10.6. Being a universal binary, it runs natively on both PPC and Intel-based computers. Supported clients are Apple Mail, Claris Emailer (that takes me back), Microsoft Entourage, Eudora, GyazMail, and Mailsmith. Single user licenses run $30 and two user family packs are $48. There is also a non-restricted 30 day free trial available.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris Brightwell said 5:19PM on 9-18-2009
The days of client-side spam filtering seem to be waning with things like Google Apps. Server-side is the way to go, IMO.
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DistortedLoop said 5:36PM on 9-18-2009
Not quite sure what the point is any more of these third party plugins. My Gmail and Yahoo accounts seem to catch thousands of SPAM per month on the server. Yahoo hasn't let a single SPAM to my inbox since I can remember, and Gmail only about 1 or 2 per month. My .MAC accounts don't seem to get SPAM either.
Even if you felt the need for client-side SPAM filtering, it seemed to me, when I had it turned on, that just letting Mail.app's own built-in junk filtering was pretty darned good.
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Stefan said 6:03PM on 9-18-2009
But you still need to check the filtered mail to make sure no non-spam mail have been moved...
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Hobbes said 7:36PM on 9-18-2009
I route all my different email accounts through GMail and I rarely get any spam. Works great for me.
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youcanttouch said 9:10PM on 9-18-2009
I've used SpamSieve since 2006 and as a web site administrator of multiple sites and having several personal email accounts as well with client access all over tarnation I would not be getting much peace of mind relying on the inconsistent and not in my control operation of server-based spam filtering. SpamSieve has been a life saver and it has at 99%+ accuracy rate with me now. Sure if you have a couple of email accounts through a major and competent mail hosting provider that may be enough but I need to know what's being filtered and with easy access to adding and subtracting filtered email.
No I don't think client-side filters are obsolete and if you are a BIG email user SpamSieve is the way to go.
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Peter Payne said 9:51PM on 9-18-2009
Instead of SpamSieve, I am a fan of SpamSweep, which is similar: a way to check all your email accounts regularly and remove spam, according to a single set of rules. Highly recommended:
http://www.bainsware.com/spamsweep/
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Matt said 3:10AM on 9-19-2009
I tend to agree with the view that programs like SpamSieve are much less relevant than they used to be. I have used SpamSieve for several years now and it is a great product that has filtered out a lot of garbage over that time, but when I look at my junk folder now there's virtually no spam in it as my email providers are now doing a much better job of filtering my mail than they did in the past. That said if you do still have an issue with spam, then I also recommend SpamSieve.
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Tofino said 12:52PM on 9-19-2009
"Supported clients are Apple Mail, Claris Emailer (that takes me back), ..."
you think THAT takes you back? how about that icon? It looks like the last survivor of eWorld...
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David Winograd said 7:54PM on 9-19-2009
What takes me back even further is that I beta tested eWorld.
Adam said 8:57PM on 9-19-2009
I still have my original eworld 3.5 disks.. shrink wrapped and all!
Tofino said 9:02PM on 9-19-2009
lol. so do i actually. also still shrinkwrapped! and after all this time, i'm still bitter that apple went with aol instead of compuserve... ;-)
Dave Barnes said 1:18PM on 9-19-2009
I don't use SpamSieve.
I find that the built-in filtering in Apple Mail does a decent job.
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David Winograd said 7:57PM on 9-19-2009
Me too, but decent isn't good enough for me and the volume of email that I receive.
Adam said 2:27PM on 9-19-2009
Spam seems to come in waves. I go months without much and then some new trick gets past the providers and I get loads. SpamSieve takes the work out of those times.
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fd said 3:30PM on 9-19-2009
Can you clarify if it did let two spams through as legitimate or were two legitimate messages filtered as SPAM?
I'd be tolerant of two SPAMs getting through once in a while, based on some new trick; but after using it since 2003 and countless trained messages missing two legitimate messages would frustrate me enormously. Trolling through SPAM to find legitimate messages is a waste time.
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David Winograd said 7:57PM on 9-19-2009
Yes, let me clarify this for you and the author of the next message.
Two spams got marked as good, not the other way around.
If I had to constantly check my spam folder for good emails, that would be unworkable.
reesmaxwell said 5:27PM on 9-19-2009
David, If I'm understanding you correctly, you've been using the product since 2003, and yet even yesterday you still had to go through your spam bin and recover two emails that were incorrectly identified as spam.
Spam filtering is great, and there have been important advances (especially Gmail and some others as mentioned previously), but if after creating rules for SIX YEARS you still are getting false positives every day and still have to search through your spam bin, that doesn't really speak well for the product. IMHO
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ronl12 said 11:02AM on 9-20-2009
Even though I don't see how it's possible, SpamSieve seems to have deleted my server-side JUNK mail folders. I am not sure what the side effect of that is, but I guess I will find out in the next few days.
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claycmg said 1:03PM on 9-21-2009
My biggest problem is my mobileMe/.mac account. I do a lot of business and have to give this email account out regularly. As you can imagine, I get an incredible amount of SPAM, and if FLOODS my iPhone's email notifier relentlessly.
I really need help. I can set up a client side solution on my Macbook, but that's not really a problem. MobileMe's server side spam blocking is practically non-existent!
I saw someone mention sending it through gmail, good idea?
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David Winograd said 10:13PM on 9-21-2009
The way I do it is to set up my .mac account as IMAP and leaving a home computer on all the time with SpamSieve on it.
Messages come in, get handled by SpamSieve and the resulting clean inbox gets updated to my iPhone.
To go a step further I use a ton of mailboxes and rules so that when things come in the first rule is the one used by SpamSieve and rules under it moves clean mail into a dozen or so IMAP mailboxes in the one .mac account. This also shows up nicely on the iPhone.
I was thinking of writing a how-to post on this but it seemed like I'd get lambasted by people who have been doing this all along.
Would a post on this be useful to you?