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MailWasher Pro: a super e-mail filter and excellent value!
by Robert Du Vernay
 Let me be right up front, MailWasher Pro v 6.1 is a bug-fixing release, for recently released v 6. It allows you to filter, ID bad stuff and read any e-mail before it is allowed onto your system. It has been around for sometime and definitely and continues to improve and is compatible with Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP and Vista.
MailWasher Pro purpose is much like HALNet’s Postini, but MailWasher Pro allows you to preview multiple accounts. MailWasher Pro is compatible with POP3, Hotmail, MSN, AOL, and IMAP. So if you want to grab the whole bunch of bananas, you got ‘um. I enjoyed doing this when I had a 6-month broadband contract and HAL-PC account last year. None of the Spam or other nasty items reaches your machine… they are filtered at the server level. You can allow the program to report items you identify as spam and they get sent to FireTrust database where the information is verified and then they go on the big black list.
MailWasher Pro can be trained! As you receive mail, you tell MailWasher to “mark” this particular e-mail for one of five, subsequent actions:
1. Friendly e-mail, so keep it
2. It is from a friendly service provider (“domain”), so keep it
3. Blacklist the individual e-mail source
4. Blacklist the service provider – domain
5. Check the e-mail for deletion – one time only
One caveat; when someone sends you an e-mail and that e-mail address is not in your current address book, that e-mail is surely going to be flagged as a possible Spam item. Now, on a bad day my e-mail quotient is in the 100 to 150+ area. Sometimes I miss an e-mail, because I have deleted it! You do have to inspect the junk pile before you press the Process button. Once you press this Process button, it will toss the entries you have checked as “no good”, brings up your e-mail program then download the good e-mail. Just could not be simpler. While I say this, let me also tell you…MailWasher now has it’s own, separate Recycle bin.
MailWasher comes with Wizards to assist you in setting up, but will allow you to install manually. (Be careful in setting “accounts” for it to check. Once you ID an e-mail account to check, it is very hard to remove it.) It will find your address book automatically; your inputs will involve setting the parameters and limits for the program and of course identifying your e-mail accounts on various service providers. MailWasher Pro is what is best described as an aggressive e-mail handler.
Support for MailWasher Pro is via e-mail forum, they offer telephone support but you will be ringing the UK during their business day - not a good match for our time zone. MailWasher Pro is an internet product, so you need a bankcard number. MailWasher Pro v6.1 is 7.69 MB, you get a 30-day free trial run before you pay up, the price is 37 USD, and it is a lifetime registration. www.FireTrust.com is the site name. MailWasher Pro is very nice program with a low learning curve.
Robert Du Vernay is a HAL-PC member who teaches the Basic 101 series on the 1st Saturday, check the HALNet home page for the next presentation. He can be contacted at rpd@hal-pc.org.
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