Best spam & cache plug-ins?

[sssv]

I am getting a lot of comment spam on a new site and I'm looking for the best free spam blocker plug-in.

I was going to go with Spam Free Wordpress but heard they just changed to a data mining format. Any good alternatives?

Also, I had a cache plug-in on one of my sites built on Backcountry but it caused a couple of issues and I was advised to uninstall it.

Now I'd like to boost the speed of that site. Which cache plug-in could I use that might not cause a conflict?

Thanks!

[NicktheGeek]

I've used a lot of free antispam plugins and honestly the best one by and large is Akismet. It isn't totally free anymore but the price for use on personal sites is free to practically free. You can literally pay what you want for personal sites including nothing.

I use W3 Total Cache for caching. Though it needs a lot of setup to get right.