Spam

[tartarus]

Getting loads of spam at the moment. Which hardware soloutions would anyone recommend? Thanks AG

[Geoff]

Linux box running Exim or Postfix + SpamAssassin and all the modules.

[tartarus]

Thanks but im not that clued up on Linux. Any windows solutions you could sugest. Thx Adam

[Geoff]

What mail system are you using currently?

[tartarus]

exchange 2000 but are considering moving to 2007 as there are built in spam protection facilities.

[Geoff]

If you want an exchange addon based solution I'd suggest GFI Mail Essentials.

 

http://www.gfi.com/mes/

 

If you want to contract out your mail scanning, look at MessageLabs.

 

http://www.messagelabs.com/products/email/anti_spam.aspx

 

Their servers sit between your Exchange box and the internet and scan everything coming in/out. Much like a DIY Linux box would.

 

BTW, how many users do you have using Exchange? Because that'll affect the cost a lot.

[tartarus]

Thanks I have had a look at GFI before. is that what you use? We have about 1000 email users.

[Geoff]

In previous jobs I've used both MessageLabs and GFI's solutions.

 

I don't have an Exchange system here, we can't afford the licensing costs. Most things are Linux around here. As such, we use Zimbra instead of Exchange with another Linux box running Exim + Spamassassin.

 

All for the low low price of the hardware.

[djm968]

Other software alternatives include.

 

Microsoft Antigen and Sophos Email Security and Control

[Geoff]

Sophos don't have a version available for 2007 AFAIK. MS Antigen comes with 2007 doesn't it?

[tartarus]

would you say software solutions are better or would a hardware soloution be better? Like Symantec Mail Security which is a decided hardware solution.

[Geoff]

Personally, I like the Linux option and Message Labs best.

[tartarus]

*decicated :-p

[gmiller]

Use No Spam Today, which uses SpamAssasin. Cheap option - implemented it in the summer works very well.

Previously used Clearswifts Mailsweeper for Smtp when in business, too expensive when i looked at it here for the budget i had available.

[tartarus]

do you have to spend much time managing false positives? Thanks adam

[ZeroHour]

We use puremessage here as a smtp gateway so it stops spam coming in and does not need to integrate with anything. It plus 2003's built in spam protection are covering us here very well now.

[chaz6]

Here we use Exim, Spamassassin and Sophie (sophossavi) with a ruleset that is updated nightly. I get on average one spam a day now. Any false positives are usually due to badly configured servers. I had to admonish the EMA department of DFES because their system was sending out messages with the To: and Subject: headers replaced by "To :" and "Subject :" (not to mention the fact they were sending out passwords in plaintext!)

[tartarus]

Users eh! grrrr.. ;-)

[JamesC]

Its not going to eliminate all spam problems overnight but id like to recommend implementing SPF. With exchange 2003 SP2 this is simply a couple of check boxes (plus an extra dns txt record) and if everyone implemented it spam would greatly be reduced.

[john]

Sophos do a hardware unit as well as a Software solution.

[Oops_my_bad]

Its not going to eliminate all spam problems overnight but id like to recommend implementing SPF. With exchange 2003 SP2 this is simply a couple of check boxes (plus an extra dns txt record) and if everyone implemented it spam would greatly be reduced.

Ah but isn't that the problem with SPF.. it needs to be enabled everywhere? 8O

[JamesC]

Ah but isn't that the problem with SPF.. it needs to be enabled everywhere? 8O

 

Yea that's true Teddy, like I said if everyone implemented it spam would greatly be reduced. It doesn't take long to configure, I cant work out why more people haven't done it! I've enabled checking on my exchange 2003 box, it took all of 30 seconds. I've also created my own spf record to allow others (that have also enabled spf checking) to verify that only mail sent from my ip is legitimate email for my domain. If they have spf enabled and someone tries to spam using my domain name (but from another ip like their own or a hacked machine) then the mail should be rejected.