Customer Reviews

McAfee SpamKiller 4.0

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

This software "gets rid" of spam by logging in to your POP3 account and looking for any spam-like messages. It then downloads the messages into the Spamkiller program so that you can review them. It also claims to send automatic complaints and error messages for every downloaded spam message that it loads. After you download your spam messages, you log in to your POP3 server again with your e-mail program, hopefully to find only real mail waiting for you there.

The software comes bundled inside the McAfee Security Center so that it is fully integrated with their other products. A huge problem with the security center is that it puts an automatic task into your task scheduler that tries to update the security center products automatically every 5 minutes, even waking the computer from power-off if necessary. Unfortunately, and unbelievably, these settings cannot be changed. If you try to change them or even delete the task, or even delete the task scheduler applet, when you restart the computer, the task appears again and continues to wake your computer every 5 minutes. This is not a good thing for laptops. I've fought with this for a week, and the technical support at McAfee was most unsympathetic. After having my battery drain down to zero yesterday following an important presentation in which error messages from the scheduler kept popping up every 5 minutes in my PowerPoint, I am totally fed up.

I've never been able to log-in to get updates anyway. Although I registered my software a week ago, McAfee hasn't added my customer name and password to their database to allow me to log in to their system. Again, their tech support services have not been any help with this. This leaves me quite dubious about any McAfee products.

After getting over 50 spam messages a day, I decided to purchase McAfee's Spam Killer - it was highly rated by PC Magazine. Unfortunately, after installing I have found that it is faster to remove the spam by hand.

First, SpamKiller is s-l-o-w. I have a 1GHz computer with 700MB of RAM. Yet, it still took SpamKiller a little more than a day (26 hours) to process 1000 email messages. Plus, SpamKiller takes another three to five minutes to filter every new message sent to me.

What's the end result, SpamKiller runs all the time. My CPU is peaked by running SpamKiller. Please don't waste your time with SpamKiller. There has to be a better solution.

SpamKiller installs the McAfee Security Center without user permission. It is nothing more than an intrusive marketing scheme by McAfee that tells the user which McAfee products are installed. It necessitated a reboot several times when it "hung" my computer. It cannot be uninstalled unless ALL McAfee products are also uninstalled. It is an excellent reason to avoid the purchase of this product and ANY McAfee product unless McAfee changes its aggressive marketing strategy. There is too much excellent competition to accept nonsense of this type.

First of all, it only blocked 60% of the junk emails. not a good batting average by any standards.

It's very hard to use. Takes forever to delete or block a message. Why? I'm using DSL, connection speed is pretty consistent. Tech support is no help what so ever.

For couple days I didn't have any message. at first I thought maybe it's the ISP. Then I remembered I can check my email online. Turn out Spam Killer is not working for some reason. Maybe too much junk mails. I cleaned up the mailbox and Spam killer worked again.

The last thing pushed me over the cliff is the program will delete everything in the accepted email folder when I simply asking it to delete or block one message. An error will come up and then everything is gone.

Deleted the thing from my computer, now everything is back to normal. I can live with the spam, can't stand this POS!

Not happy with this product. Works as a stand alone software. Does not reside within your email software. So you have to go into SpamKiller first, view your messages and then go to your email software and get your mail.

SpamKiller absolutely prevents my dialup connection from signing itself off, which makes it worthless to me since I have only one phone line. (This problem is not related to the "stay connected" option in SpamKiller.) I can hand-delete a day's spam probably thirty times as fast as this software, since it can't be allowed to start unattended. It can't be allowed to run at all unless I sign off the internet connection when it is through, and exit SpamKiller. McAfee's "online chat" tech support is, appallingly (though I suppose I was naive to expect better) some sort of sham wherein one gets told by a "tech" that he or she doesn't have the "tools" to assist and re-referred either, astonishingly, to the very same chat site again or else to an e-mail address that will also decline to assist. This truly reflects poorly on McAfee and any of their other products. Do not waste your money or more importantly your time on this sort of childish "business" practice.

problems:
1) only checks the inbox for hotmail accounts. (mail in the junk folders and bulk mail folders still show up in outlook express)
2) doesn't support ssl (check to see if your email requires)
3) doesn't support imap.
4) poor interface.

there are a ton of free spam programs out there stick with one of those.

If you have McAfee's Parental Controls, don't bother purchasing SpamKiller. Parental Controls prevents SpamKiller from operating properly. After many frustrating months of dealing with McAfee's technical support, they are no closer to a solution. Yet they continue to sell both products without warning.

McAfee Spamkiller 4.0 is so bad I am sorry I spent [the money] on it.

1. Very difficult to use.
2. Rescue option is dumb. They should just leave the email on the server then delete it when you confirm it is spam. This would save me from having to "rescue" (re-email myself) the message.
3. The exit option is greyed out and I can't find an "option" for load a bootup so I am going to have to uninstall it to make it not load.

I have just uninstalled this garbage so that I can actually download emails from my server!!! For some reason my main email account server kept asking me for my password even though I submitted it many times! It just so happens that the email accounts that are NOT affected by spam were logged in and out successfully!!!

DO NOT BUY!!!!!!