Too many spam email messages
Hi...
Many of our company staff are getting many email spam messages...one of them received 173 email spam messages in his MS Outlook 2003, and complains that he finds it too much hard to find those legitimate emails other than mistakenly deleting them...I blocked several by domain, but still....We have a leased line and I called the ISP to check and stop spammers but still the problem exists....is there a powerful free software in order to stop the spam problem? Thank U !
Many of our company staff are getting many email spam messages...one of them received 173 email spam messages in his MS Outlook 2003, and complains that he finds it too much hard to find those legitimate emails other than mistakenly deleting them...I blocked several by domain, but still....We have a leased line and I called the ISP to check and stop spammers but still the problem exists....is there a powerful free software in order to stop the spam problem? Thank U !
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Ehab Salem
Are you using Exchange Server? I see this question but see no reply at all.
Postini.
Many of the solutions above will require a decent chunk of your time. If you don't want to waste your time dealing with spam, outsource it to someone else. Unless you make minimum wage, your business will likely recoup its outsourced cost on the time you won't be wasting.
Many of the solutions above will require a decent chunk of your time. If you don't want to waste your time dealing with spam, outsource it to someone else. Unless you make minimum wage, your business will likely recoup its outsourced cost on the time you won't be wasting.
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Try Open Relay Filter...
http://www.vamsoft.com/
Not free but low cost. I've used it before with great results on exchange servers.
http://www.vamsoft.com/
Not free but low cost. I've used it before with great results on exchange servers.
ASKER
Yes ehabsalem...we r using Exchng Srvr 2003 Std Edition.
Exchange Server 2003 has built-in anti-spam technologies (all free):
1- ORDB (Open Relay Database) lists (this will stop more than 60% of the SPAM)
2- IMF (Intelligent Message Filter)
Please note that SPAM filtering in Exchange 2003 SP2 is much better than SP1, but if you have SP1 it is ok.
Using ORDB in Exchange:
I will explain first briefly then I will point to the link in Microsoft describing this feature:
1- Open Exchange System Manager
2- Go to: Global Settings/Message Delivery/Properties
3- Click Connection Filtering
4- In “Block List service configuration” click “Add”
5- In display name type: Spam House
6- In DNS Suffix or Provider type: sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org, then click OK
7- Repeat Steps 4-6 with the following entries: Display Name: ORDB, DNS Suffix: relays.ordb.org
8- If you want to block dynamic IPs also you can use the following entries as well:
Display Name: Dynamic List, DNS Suffix: dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net
Display Name: RH List, DNS Suffix: rhsbl.sorbs.net
9- Click OK. You might get a warning message that filtering must be enabled on the SMTP connection. This is the next step
10- Open Administrative Groups/Servers/Yourmailser
11- Restart All Exchange Services (Restarting the MS exchange System Attendant is usually enough).
Link describing all these settings:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/insider/Block_Lists.mspx
http://www.petri.co.il/block_spam_with_exchange_2003.htm
Note: by default the rejected mails by ORDB will not be logged to Event Viewer or to the exchange server log. If you want to see (recommended) the logs in Events Viewer follow these instructions:
http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/exchange2003/exchange2003_logs_diagnostic.htm
Using IMF:
I will not go into details, but I will point to the links. After you implement the ORDB we can go for further explanation.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/downloads/2003/imf/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/downloads/2003/imf/default.mspx
http://www.petri.co.il/block_spam_with_exchange2003_imf.htm
IMF Add-on Tool (very useful, and free) http://stoekenbroek.com/imfcompanion/default.htm
If you already have EX2003 SP2, it is included; there is no need to download.
1- ORDB (Open Relay Database) lists (this will stop more than 60% of the SPAM)
2- IMF (Intelligent Message Filter)
Please note that SPAM filtering in Exchange 2003 SP2 is much better than SP1, but if you have SP1 it is ok.
Using ORDB in Exchange:
I will explain first briefly then I will point to the link in Microsoft describing this feature:
1- Open Exchange System Manager
2- Go to: Global Settings/Message Delivery/Properties
3- Click Connection Filtering
4- In “Block List service configuration” click “Add”
5- In display name type: Spam House
6- In DNS Suffix or Provider type: sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org, then click OK
7- Repeat Steps 4-6 with the following entries: Display Name: ORDB, DNS Suffix: relays.ordb.org
8- If you want to block dynamic IPs also you can use the following entries as well:
Display Name: Dynamic List, DNS Suffix: dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net
Display Name: RH List, DNS Suffix: rhsbl.sorbs.net
9- Click OK. You might get a warning message that filtering must be enabled on the SMTP connection. This is the next step
10- Open Administrative Groups/Servers/Yourmailser
11- Restart All Exchange Services (Restarting the MS exchange System Attendant is usually enough).
Link describing all these settings:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/insider/Block_Lists.mspx
http://www.petri.co.il/block_spam_with_exchange_2003.htm
Note: by default the rejected mails by ORDB will not be logged to Event Viewer or to the exchange server log. If you want to see (recommended) the logs in Events Viewer follow these instructions:
http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/exchange2003/exchange2003_logs_diagnostic.htm
Using IMF:
I will not go into details, but I will point to the links. After you implement the ORDB we can go for further explanation.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/downloads/2003/imf/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/downloads/2003/imf/default.mspx
http://www.petri.co.il/block_spam_with_exchange2003_imf.htm
IMF Add-on Tool (very useful, and free) http://stoekenbroek.com/imfcompanion/default.htm
If you already have EX2003 SP2, it is included; there is no need to download.
I think the EASIEST way is to use Outlook 2003's Junk Mail filter, as I mentioned before. What are your thoughts on this?
http://www.microsoft.com/office/outlook/prodinfo/filter.mspx
This pulls in the filtering techniques used by Hotmail, and integrates it into OL 2003 without you having to do anything on your Exchange server. This is very accurate, as junk emails are manually screened by thousands of Hotmail users around the world.
I find ORDB is not something you can 'set and forget'. Am constantly having to go to the list and extract genuine emails as the ORDB isn't always up to date and accurate.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/outlook/prodinfo/filter.mspx
This pulls in the filtering techniques used by Hotmail, and integrates it into OL 2003 without you having to do anything on your Exchange server. This is very accurate, as junk emails are manually screened by thousands of Hotmail users around the world.
I find ORDB is not something you can 'set and forget'. Am constantly having to go to the list and extract genuine emails as the ORDB isn't always up to date and accurate.
Never had good experiences with the Outlook Junk Mail Filter myself, but then again I had quite a few users who had gotten themselves on thousands of spamlists. Even with the most recent updates on them, they appeared to have a LOT of false positives.
I use a combination of the Outlook Junk Mail Filter on the clients and TrendMicro IMSS with spam prevention at the gateway. http://www.trendmicro.com/en/products/gateway/spam/evaluate/overview.htm
This keeps 90% away from my users.
This keeps 90% away from my users.
Billy:
You got some good users there! I have the unreasonable expectation thrust upon me of 100% success rate with no false positives. One spam mail equals a phone call some days.
<shakes head>
You got some good users there! I have the unreasonable expectation thrust upon me of 100% success rate with no false positives. One spam mail equals a phone call some days.
<shakes head>
You can use the relay databases for spam lookup in Exchange. I have a client who had a problem, and we are using a Barracuda appliance. I set this up in the spring, and I think we've probably blocked around 3,000,000 messages. This is for a small business of about 50 employees!
http://www.barracudanetworks.com
It costs a G or two, but if you do the math, you can save the man hours of about one employee's time for a 30 person company or so by cutting out most of the spam. If an average e-mail using employee at this company makes $35k, than it is worth it!
It costs a G or two, but if you do the math, you can save the man hours of about one employee's time for a 30 person company or so by cutting out most of the spam. If an average e-mail using employee at this company makes $35k, than it is worth it!
The easiest and most effective solution I know if is ITA Secure Messaging. It doesn't put any .dll's on the system and doesn't share memory space with Exchange. It also has an end user interactive feature that doesn't install a client application. User's love it. Check out www.itanetworks.com for the download. You should get immediate spam relief without worrying about installing on the server or spending a fortune.
Pro-IT,
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Tolomir
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Tolomir
EE Cleanup Volunteer
Tolomir, how are you? Any reason that you did not use Administrator mode to post? Or is this a glitch in the system? I wish Asker would respond to our suggested solutions.
Hello Warren,
well I'm fine, right now we got a glitch in the system, I've used fast-cat to post these messages.
Let's cite Netminder: This is an "unintended consequence", and is NOT permanent. EE pushed some code Friday ... and when the problem was discovered, looked into what the problem was, and decided to wait until Monday to fix it.
Tolomit still PE ;-)
well I'm fine, right now we got a glitch in the system, I've used fast-cat to post these messages.
Let's cite Netminder: This is an "unintended consequence", and is NOT permanent. EE pushed some code Friday ... and when the problem was discovered, looked into what the problem was, and decided to wait until Monday to fix it.
Tolomit still PE ;-)
I have had VERY good luck with a program called SpamFighter. When you receive a spam, you click the <Block> button, and the program sends the info back to their servers, and blocks that spam from everyone who uses SpamFighter. I am only getting 1 or 2 a day, 4 or 5 at the most, and alot of days I don't get any spam. A great program. I am running Outlook Express, and when you look into the Spam folder, and see something you want to keep, you click on the <Unblock> button, and it will go back into your <Inbox> and not be blocked the next time around. The only glitch I have is when I use the Unblock button, my Outlook Express freezes up. I have to do an CTRL-ALT-DEL and stop Outlook Express which is not responding. Then I get back into Outlook Express, and if no other E-Mail is received the <Unblock> button works. So when I see something I want to keep, I just exit and reload Outlook Express, and if nothing new comes in I go to the Spam folder and unblock the one I want back. I have asked them about this problem and they told me what to try, and It didn't work. I haven't took the time to write them back since. But the fact that I only get a couple spams a day, is what makes the program really great. The more people that use the program the better it gets.
Check it out, and hope this helps.
Dennis
Check it out, and hope this helps.
Dennis