Client side spam filter suggestions?

[Appleby]

I've got a customer who has an att.net email address with Outlook Express and he's bombarded with spam. I'm talking hundreds of spam emails per day. He uses the email address for his business, so he doesn't want to ditch the email address for a new one. His pc skills are very limited to say the least, so I'm looking for a good spam filter to setup on his pc that will require little to no effort on his part after I set it up.

Any thoughts? Free is better, but paid is ok if it works and is simple.

 

[MrUnknown]

Kaspersky Internet Security has bayesian filtering for POP and IMAP, he can train it and should get good results.

Or suggest transfering your client to a real email address. He can probably forward the AT&T address or have GMail connect to it and pull the email. And I honestly haven't seen much better spam controls than GMail.

Get him a domain name, setup google apps for it, bingo, instant professionalism.

 

[angry_geek]

I agree with MrUnknown. Using an unmanaged att mail address for business is just ridiculous. That's almost as bad as hotmail or aol. Also tell him to make sure to uncheck the little box asking if it's ok to share his info with "our partners". And tell him to get a dump account for his porn.

 

[iisjman07]

I've seen the free Mailwasher and SpamFighter work with reasonable success

 

[Appleby]

Thanks guys. While I totally agree about his att address not being professional and being a pain in the rear to manage spam wise, he doesn't want to change. He owns a ton of rental property and uses this address for that business. I've already suggested multiple times that he should consider changing the address but he says no way. Not much I can do and he's willing to pay me to figure out a solution for the current address. While I don't think it's the best decision, I think this is a case of the "customer is right" and I'll do what he wants.

Thanks for the suggestions. I did some research and found Spamihilator, which is free and seems to be very highly rated on Snapfiles and Download.com. I'm considering giving it a whirl.

I considered Kaspersky IS but he's a Norton user and again, he doesn't want to change, at least until his current subscription is up. Sometimes it's frustrating working with customers who have their mind set on something, but I just try to go with the flow if they don't want to make "big" changes.

Thanks

 

[14049752]

Google mail with the pop3 settings for his ATT e-mail.

And I honestly haven't seen much better spam controls than GMail.

100% agree. I've never had anyone complain about Gmail's spam filters.

Client side spam filters should stay in the past where they belong.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Have him automatically forward all mail received in the compromised account to a new gmail account, which he should set up to forward to a secondary mail account he doesn't give out. That should be the only account he monitors for mail. He could set his secondary account "Reply to" to his primary (compromised) address, so nobody gets his protected address.

 

[Appleby]

Hmm, I might try the gmail option. I'm a little confused on how that would work though?

If he forwards the att.net address to the new Gmail address, when he replies to a message or sends a new message, it's going to show his Gmail address, no?

 

[14049752]

If he forwards the att.net address to the new Gmail address, when he replies to a message or sends a new message, it's going to show his Gmail address, no?

You can set it up so that the ATT e-mail is the default outgoing e-mail. Basically, when he composes mail, it will have an extra drop-down menu to choose the reply e-mail address.
The key is to not have ATT forward, but to let Gmail connect to the ATT pop servers. This allows better control of the two different accounts in g-mail's interface and you can actually apply labels and other neat things to show if it's from ATT or Gmail.


Additionally, if he doesn't want to log in to webmail, you can still use Gmail and have the e-mail client fetch it via imap. The spam folder would be there, but wouldn't download the headers or e-mail unless he looks at the folder. Of course, you could set the client to have the att e-mail as the default reply to, as well.

 

[Xander]

I'm 99% sure that gmail also has the option to respond with the same account. So, if it collects (via POP) the ATT email, he can hit Reply and he'll be writing back as if he's 'in' that account. And, for all intents and purposes, he is.

 

[B Trevathan]

Hmm, I might try the gmail option. I'm a little confused on how that would work though?

If he forwards the att.net address to the new Gmail address, when he replies to a message or sends a new message, it's going to show his Gmail address, no?

Here is a link to Gmail's step by step instructions:

Adding a custom 'From' address

Gmail's custom 'From:' feature lets you use Gmail to send messages with another of your email addresses listed as the sender in place of your Gmail address. This way, it's easier to manage multiple accounts from the Gmail interface.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=22370&cbid=-1j9sxlj3c1s3u&src=cb&lev=index