Drive-by: Spam Cube or should I say Scam Cube?

It seems that all the rage this week is about a new consumer device called the Spam Cube (www.spamcube.com). These folks have a box (and it comes in 5 fancy colors) that uses a "proprietary AI (artificial intelligence)" algorithm to block spam before it hits your computer. They are charging $150 for the box, but that includes the anti-spam services. If you want anti-virus and/or anti-phishing, there is a $52/year annual charge.

On the positive side:

• They have a cool demo on their web site of their install process. It seems to be pretty idiot proof, which for a consumer box is critical. It's not clear to me weather you need to install on each of the protected devices (up to 4 are supported) or not. If so, then it must reconfigure you e-mail settings to proxy through the spam cube to get your mail. If not, then it must sniff the wire.
• The marketing is very consumer friendly. Clearly they are targeting the unsophisticated user by promising to make their spam problem go away.
  

One question I have is how does it support mobile/remote users? I spend a bunch of time on my laptop and expect to get mail wherever I am. Hmmm. Let me ask. They have a chat button on their web site. Someone is on the session within a minute, so that is pretty responsive. I got a response in less than 2 minutes and my questions were answered within 5. That is good. 

The answer to the question is that it won't support mobile use until the next release in August. That seems like a pretty big oversight, but what do I know? I've only been doing this for 15 years. I also found out you don't need to install software on each machine and it works by sniffing the wire. It also only supports 4 machines due to hardware limitiations. I'm sure they spared no expense on top quality components.

So, why the inflammatory title - scam cube? Basically, consumers don't need this. Now I was the guy that did the rant about Bill Gates being wrong and spam still being a problem. But since then, pretty much every ISP has stepped up and is offering anti-spam and anti-virus as part of their service. Many are taking AOL's lead.

If you are a consumer or SOHO and your ISP doesn't offer this stuff as part of the monthly service. Find a new ISP. It's that simple. 

It's also not like consumers need to be worried about the amount of spam crushing their inboxes. If your desktop anti-spam works fine, then you are covered. It's only if you have a significant amount of mail traffic would you need to get rid of the crap at the perimeter of the network. 

Secondly is the price. Sure people want to get rid of the spam once, and a box sitting on the perimeter is a good way to do that. But not for $150 bucks and another $52/year for anti-virus. That's on top of the desktop protection that you need anyway. Finally, anti-spam is a feature of all of the desktop suites. This is certainly not replacing your desktop security suite, so you'd be duplicating a lot of resources and spending money needlessly.

So I think these folks have some good marketing, but ultimately the product isn't something that you as a consumer or SOHO need. Remember we are trying to simplify, as opposed to adding more stuff and that goes for your home network as well. Unfortunately I suspect these guys will sell a bunch of boxes to unsuspecting technical neophytes, who don't even know they can get this stuff for free.

Nice try, but no cigar.