In the wake of Congress’ uncertainty over how to hash out anti-spam
legislation, Triumvirate Technologies Inc. this week rolled out a new
spam-stopping solution.
But unlike most spam-stoppers, such as those offered by industry leader
Brightmail Inc., Triumvirate, with offices in Clearwater, Fla. and Los
Angeles, has taken a different approach to removing those digital pests from
your e-mail account: it promises the user 100 percent control over his or
her in-box.
The product is called, simply enough, Mailbox Filter and it purports to
not only end unwanted junk mail, but prevent attachments from unleashing
troublesome e-mail viruses, a la “Melissa” and “I Love You.”
But in stark contrast to e-mail filter programs that block unwanted mail
with sets of rejection rules, Mailbox Filter employs a “positive acceptance”
filter technology, whereby spam is kept out by giving users the ability to
determine what mail they desire to receive, as opposed to figuring out what
mail they don’t want.
How does it work? Like most spam filters, it’s pretty simple. The product
was designed for the average computer user; it checks incoming e-mail
against various user defined lists and messaging protocols to determine
whether the mail gets routed into one of four mailboxes — an authorized
mailbox, a junk mailbox, a keyword list mailbox, and an unknown mailbox —
or accepted at all. Once the mail is authenticated and routed, users can
choose to accept, reject, forward and store messages from the program’s
control center.
Mailbox Filter’s anti-virus protection allows users to scan all incoming
mail in a protected environment that neutralizes potentially harmful
messages and prevents attachments from self-opening. Once the user
determines that an attachment is safe,
it can be reactivated.
Other features of Mailbox Filter include:
- A navigational map that appears when a user moves from one screen to
the other - An authorized address list capacity of 10,000 e-mail addresses and Web
domains - A keyword List capacity of 500 words, including global category
selection - A banned address List capacity of 30,000 e-mail addresses and Web
domains - An attachment neutralizing capacity of 10,000 per e-mail collection
pass.
Mailbox Filter is compatible with all Windows POP/SMTP e-mail programs,
including Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora Lite, Eudora Pro, Netscape and
others. It is available as a free 30-day trial and is being sold at an
introductory rate of $44.95 (Download Version), or $49.95 (CD Version); the
offer includes 90 days of technical support.
Mailbox Filter and others of its ilk are being offered at a time when the
future of possible anti-spam legislation is clouded. Despite suggestions
tabled in front of the 107th Congress by ardent spam haters last month, no
one can agree in total over every stipulation of the bills: some think
certain provisions of the bills are too lax; others, too strict. The
disparity of opinion could add up to nothing being done, which would put the
people who have labored for resolutions back at square one.
