McAfee Internet Security Suite 2005: Upping the Ante for Security Suites Killing Spam Faster and More Effectively Joseph Moran
SpamKiller
McAfee's SpamKiller offers a very high level of customization for trying to weed out unwanted e-mails. The utility can accommodate multiple e-mail accounts per user and also supports multiple users on Windows 2000 and XP when user profiles are enabled. It will support any POP e-mail client but integrates with Outlook Express 6.0 or better and Outlook 98 or better, placing a toolbar in the application that can conveniently be used to block messages (but only one at a time) or add legitimate senders to your whitelist without launching the separate utility.
The utility's own interface provides a good degree of control over spam filters, allowed e-mail addresses, and the messages themselves. In addition to defining a whitelist of authorized e-mail addresses — you can't similarly define a blacklist, however — you can also expand the list to include mailing lists or entire domains, making it less likely that non-personal e-mail you want will be unintentionally filtered.
You can peruse blocked messages either from SpamKiller's interface or directly from Outlook or Outlook Express. If you're so inclined, you can easily report spam to McAfee or even send a predefined complaint e-mail to the originator of the spam. Of course, reporting spam to its authors is an excellent way to ensure the receipt of more spam, but in certain cases it may be useful.
On the other hand, reporting spam to McAfee would be useful as it presumably helps the company develop better e-mail filters, which are already extensive (although still far from perfect). In addition to letting you create your own, SpamKiller provides scores of global filters that scrutinize the header, subject, and body of incoming messages for telltale signs of spam like certain words, phrases, or combinations of each. These filters are editable so that in the unlikely event you're looking for someone to refinance your mortgage (or perform other, um, services), for example, you can allow those messages to pass through.
SpamKiller also offers special filters that will automatically block mail that contains other potential indications of spam, like invisible text, invalid formatting, or heavily image-laden messages. And if you're the curious sort, the SpamKiller summary page will display a graph indicating the percentage of spam of various types (adult, financial, etc.) received in the last month.
SpamKiller seemed to do a much better job than F-Secure Internet Security 2005 in correctly distinguishing spam from good e-mail, although our testers reported mixed results — for some it didn't misidentify a single message (out of almost a hundred received) while for others it occasionally misidentified spam as good e-mail and also falsely identified numerous important messages as spam.
Conclusion
All in all, McAfee Internet Security Suite 2005 is a comprehensive and competent product that will probably serve most users well. The cost is $69.99 when purchased online from McAfee.com (you'll unfortunately have to pay extra to get a CD or for the right to download it again during your subscription term), and a $20 mail-in competitive/upgrade rebate is also available. (We got our copies from Target, however, for a mere $46.99 each.)
Our final impression? It's unfortunate that McAfee lacks the confidence in its product, despite its merits, to allow users to sample the McAfee Internet Security Suite 2005 easily and in its entirety, a drawback that may be all that's needed to push users to alternative (and equally powerful) suites like Norton Internet Security or F-Secure Internet Security.
Pros: Easy to use; effective anti-virus technology, firewall security, and spam control; Security Center ties the various components together
Cons: No evaluation release of the complete Internet security suite available; firewall lacks advanced customization features; spam client could be easier to use, especially with Outlook Express; McAfee.com makes if difficult (or even impossible) to try all the components before buying
