Smoothwall - moving away from the inbuilt Spam Filter on UTM

[_techie_]

Hi,

 

We have been given the notice that Smoothwall will be withdrawing their Anti-Spam product on UTM that we currently use.

I am now going through the process of moving away from the Smoothwall Spam filter to Exchange Online Protection, as part of our current O365 subscription.

I have come across an odd issue with getting mail flow to work outgoing via EOP from our on-premise Exchange 2013 CU 21 box.

 

I have used the Exchange 2013 Hybrid Wizard in full hybrid scenario. This has worked fine and has created the two send connectors on Exchange Online.

 

Mail flow is currently working fine in the following scenarios:

1) O365 mailbox to Public outgoing (e.g. to iCloud.com/gmail.com addresses)

2) O365 mailbox to On-Prem Exchange Mailbox

3) Validated send connector from O365 to On-Prem and mail is flowing as per step flow.

 

I have an outgoing firewall rule that allows SMTP/SMTP over SSL and SMTPS from On-prem exchange IP to MS O365 Exchange Online IP's.

I have port forward that allows SMTP/SMTP over SSL/SMTPS from MS Exchange Online Ips on Port 25 into On Prem Exchange.

 

I am now stuck at moving away from sending outgoing mail via Smoothwall UTM Mail relay. Even quick testing with an existing send connector to O365 from OnPrem does not work...

How are everyone's send connectors on their On-Prem servers configured to route outgoing mail? Using a Smart host config or via MX record.

 

I am nervous about this step, as I do not want to change my MX and SPF records until I am comfortable mail is flowing out via O365/Exchange Online, to O365 mailbox from OnPrem and all the way through from OnPrem to Public Mail services.

 

Obviously now incoming mail will flow from Public Mail servers until I change the MX record... :-)

 

Any help please.

[Gurtlush]

Hello,

 

Interesting post, who told you that Smoothwall will be withdrawing their Anti-Spam product on UTM??

as i've heard nothing??

[_techie_]

They did via an email... I'll try and dig it out and post the content...

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Important notice about your Anti-Spam

Dear customer,

We are emailing to inform you that Smoothwall intends to sunset the on-premise email Anti-Spam component on January 31st 2019. For customers who are currently using this product, we will offer a free of charge upgrade to our new cloud Anti-Spam solution, powered by Mailroute. This will cover the life of your current contract.

Smoothwall will continue to support an on-system mail relay for at least the entirety of 2019, however the Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam capabilities will be disabled.

Our partnership with Mailroute allows us to offer a much more complete product, which is easier to use, and offers significantly better levels of protection. We understand that our on-premise Anti-Spam is only just capable of keeping up with today’s most sophisticated spammers. So faced with a choice of diverting investment from our core mission: safeguarding young people, and a partnership with an exceptional organisation like Mailroute, this was a natural decision for us.

For customers identified as still using the Anti-Spam product, we will be in touch by the end of November. If you haven’t heard from us by then, please open a support ticket.

Yours sincerely,

The Smoothwall Team

[Gurtlush]

Thank you, i'll email them and ask when and if i was going to be told?!

[_techie_]

Could be the have an old email address on record for your school....

Just thinking out loud here.

[Gurtlush]

haven't changed it in 16 years, Plus the renewal always finds me!!

[_techie_]

I take it that your using the on-prem/UTM Spam filter built into Smoothwall UTM?

If so, that's a bit odd.

I take it from your avatar/screen name your from the Bristol/South Gloucs area?

[howartp]

In case anyone comes to this thread in future, Smoothwalls' inbuilt spam ceased to function on 31st March 2019.

 

No, they didn't contact us and warn us.