Overall score is based on the ability to recognize valid e-mail and spam. Delivers valid e-mail indicates how well a product correctly identified e-mail that wasn’t spam; excellent products correctly identified more than 95 percent. Poor ones misidentified at least 20 percent. Detects spam indicates how well each product correctly identified spam. A product that integrates with mailer blends its own controls with those of the e-mail program. One that learns identifies patterns in your e-mail, if you tell the software which messages are spam and which are not. With online collaboration, a product checks each message against a “live” online database of reported spam messages to improve accuracy. Rules-based filters detects known attributes, such as whether it contains a suspicious link. Also in suite means similar software is available in the mfr.’s security software suite. All products let you add “friendly” and “unfriendly” senders to the filter (either automatically or manually). Price is for the retail, boxed version. Some products are available via download, with a free trial period of at least 15 days. (Most will mail a CD for a few dollars.)