Encryption Software Review

QuantaMail Silver

By Ascent Solutions, Inc.
http://www.quantamail.com/download/cnet/?LID=20

Features:

• Symmetric key encryption.
• The free version has weak 54-bit Blowfish encryption; strong 2040-bit Blowfish encryption is available for a monthly fee.
• Automatically compresses every email message for faster uploading and downloading.
• QuantaMail for Outlook works with Outlook 97/98/2000/XP. QuantaMail for Windows works with AOL, MSN Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Netscape Web Mail, Outlook Express, IBM Lotus Notes, Netscape Communicator, Qualcomm Eudora and other MIME-compliant email programs.
• Automatically deletes email messages after a specified date or amount of time, or after the message has been read a predetermined number of times.
• The sender can be notified every time the recipient reads the message.

Impressions:

• QuantaMail is extremely easy to use. You can use it with many of the Windows mail programs, or you can use it as a stand-alone email program. (You will still need an email address through an Internet service provider; QuantaMail does not provide you with an email account.) I didn't once feel compelled to consult the Help files.

• If personal privacy is a concern, QuantaMail might not be an option since users must submit their full name, email address and zip code in order to register the software. The 54-bit Blowfish encryption offered in the free version is not sufficient to prevent a determined cracker. For stronger encryption, QuantaMail Gold is available for $3.95 per month. A chart comparing QuantaMail Silver to Gold is available at http://www.quantamail.com/subscribe/.

How It Works:

Installation

• After I decided where to install QuantaMail, I was prompted to register, which is necessary in order to use the program.

• The program gives you a choice of sending mail directly through QuantaMail's servers, or using the default settings from your email program. Both options were easy to use: I had success with both "Try to use my default email client" and "Use this SMTP server" without further configuration.

Sending Mail

• The word processing interface is similar to Microsoft Word, making it easy to use. When I chose to send email, QuantaMail opened a window prompting me for an optional password to encrypt the message. I entered a password and hit OK. The program determined that Eudora was my default email program, but gave me an option to send messages through QuantaMail's server. This seemed to work well, too. The program turns your email message into an "Encrypted.qml" attachment and places the following text in the message body:

  Upon request of the Sender, this email was encrypted by QuantaMail.

  A FREE QuantaMail Viewer is required to access the encrypted portion of this message.

  To download the viewer, please visit: http://www.quantamail.com/download.

  If you have questions concerning this email message or need further instruction, please visit: http://www.quantamail.com/message.

  The QuantaMail message reference number is: xxxxxxx.

Receiving Mail

• When I received an encrypted message I simply double-clicked the .qml attachment and quantaMail prompted me for the mail's password. I entered my password and the QuantaMail Viewer opened the message for me.

Back to Reviews | Back to Guide