Spam Filter

[Darylrese]

What is the best SPAM filter to use?

 

We currently recieve over 1000 SPAM emails a day to the school and its becoming rediculious. I have a SPAM filter called VamSoft ORF on exchange which is a simple filter comprising of a whitelist, blacklist, greylisting etc however all it tends to do is redirect mail to a mailbox which i then have to manually look through everyday. Also it marks far to many genuine emails as SPAM which staff are not happy about.

 

Which filter do you use? We have a microsoft volume license so anything microsoft would be great as we are already licensed, however we can look at alternatives.

 

I did install Forefront 2010 for exchange, however our exchange grinded to a halt, probably because i need to increase the number of cores on the virtual machine (currently only set to 2). If this is the best product, i will look into upgrading the VM.

[CyberNerd]

What is the best SPAM filter to use?

 

Google mail.

 

Before that we used mailscanner/ which includes spamassassin

[Darylrese]

you got rid of your exchange all together then?

[glennda]

you got rid of your exchange all together then?

 

Cybernerd used Google Apps for Everything. Another vote for Mail Scanner here I use the community edition as a service platform its very good and can be clustered easily.

[Darylrese]

is that Linux based?

[CyberNerd]

is that Linux based?

 

No, its based on spamassassin, sendmail and clamav.

It runs on most unices including Linux.

[glennda]

No, its based on spamassassin, sendmail and clamav.

It runs on most unices including Linux.

 

 

This prebuilt Mailcleaner one runs on linux (debian) - and is the one I use start [Mailcleaner] I setup mine for 60 domains to multiple addresses in about an hour after install.

 

EDIT: I have assigned it 60gb disk and 1.5gb ram and runs happily.

 

it is also based on the same as MailScanner.

Edited December 12, 2012 by glennda

[Geoff]

I've put Linux boxes between Exchange and the outside world running postfix+SpamAssassin+Amavisd-new plenty of times. It helps cut out a lot of junk mail. However assuming you have a new(ish) version of Exchange doesn't it do a lot of antispam out of the box?

[Darylrese]

being a bit of a noob to this, do i need a linux box as I only have Server 2008 R2 at the moment and zero experience in linux to be honest.

 

Our exchange is running Server 2008 R2, Exchange 2010 SP2

[glennda]

being a bit of a noob to this, do i need a linux box as I only have Server 2008 R2 at the moment and zero experience in linux to be honest.

 

for mailcleaner you don't need to be able to use linux - its all done through a nice web interface just the underneath runs linux - during setup you give it an IP and a name.

[Darylrese]

OK so i can install it on a Server 2008 R2 VM?

[glennda]

OK so i can install it on a Server 2008 R2 VM?

 

you can install it on a VM yes - mine does fine.

[Darylrese]

you can install it on a VM yes - mine does fine.

 

On a windows OS?

[glennda]

On a windows OS?

 

The host running windows? Or the VM? What platform does your VM's sit on? ESXI/Xen/Hyper-V?

 

The ISO downloadable come pre-packaged. Create a new VM using the ISO as install media. it installs everything and during setup asks for IP, Name, Password. Then access the web interface to do everything else.

[Darylrese]

oh ok i already have a windows server 2008 r2 VM ready to go, i get what you mean now. We use VSphere for virtual machines

[glennda]

oh ok i already have a windows server 2008 r2 VM ready to go, i get what you mean now. We use VSphere for virtual machines

 

Ah ok - well I would just create a new VM with MailCleaner. I run mine on as said above 1.5gb ram 60gb drive - choose the ISO to install from and away you go.

 

saves you a windows license! Total install time is about 20 mins.

[Darylrese]

excellent will give it a go cheers! I just need to find out how to copy the ISO accross to our ISO store now haha first time i've had to do it, no idea where to find it, only had the system for a couple of months

[glennda]

excellent will give it a go cheers! I just need to find out how to copy the ISO accross to our ISO store now haha first time i've had to do it, no idea where to find it, only had the system for a couple of months

 

open up the vmware client - select a host - go to configuation - storage, select a datastore and browse hit upload.

[Darylrese]

Yey

 

[glennda]

Its that easy!

[Darylrese]

thanks mate, it was easy! I now need to find an IP for it. What else do i need to setup?

[glennda]

thanks mate, it was easy! I now need to find an IP for it. What else do i need to setup?

 

Password - then go to the web interface set the domain up and the destination and choose the RBLS to lookup agaisnt and point mail to it,

[Darylrese]

ive got the the mailcleaner login screen, do i need to give it an IP etc? Edited December 12, 2012 by Darylrese

[Geoff]

It's probably set to use DHCP, so you'll need to switch it over to whatever static IP you wanted to use.

[Darylrese]

ok thanks, think i might start again as none of the commands are working.

 

Does MailCleaner allow any kind of user access? The boss has just told me he's after a filter which the users can see a report of what they were sent and can approve / disallow themselves at the end of the day???