What anti-spam measures to you use?
(Please do no answer unless your organization has at least 10 users, however we're more looking for admins that support environments of greater than 50 users.)
I'm conducting a survey for a client who's aggravated by spam issues. They used to host their own Exchange SBS solution, with ChoiceMail and Trend taking care of filtering garbage.
Now we've moved them to a hosted Exchange solution, and am looking for an effective anti-spam solution that offers global control as well as user level control. The hosting company offers Postini, but we're reluctant to turn absolute control of white listing over to users, for fear of false positives, and failure to check quarantines.
I'd greatly appreciate any and all answers you admins/users out there might share with me.
1. Is your mail In-House or Hosted?
a. Exchange or other?
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted, or a combination of the two?
b. What is the solution?
3. Are your users satisfied with the accuracy?
4. Number of users?
5. Global and user level white listing?
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month?
7. If you are the administrator, are you happy with the solution?
It would be helpful if you answer all questions -- please pay attention to details.
Thanks for looking and replying!
I'm conducting a survey for a client who's aggravated by spam issues. They used to host their own Exchange SBS solution, with ChoiceMail and Trend taking care of filtering garbage.
Now we've moved them to a hosted Exchange solution, and am looking for an effective anti-spam solution that offers global control as well as user level control. The hosting company offers Postini, but we're reluctant to turn absolute control of white listing over to users, for fear of false positives, and failure to check quarantines.
I'd greatly appreciate any and all answers you admins/users out there might share with me.
1. Is your mail In-House or Hosted?
a. Exchange or other?
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted, or a combination of the two?
b. What is the solution?
3. Are your users satisfied with the accuracy?
4. Number of users?
5. Global and user level white listing?
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month?
7. If you are the administrator, are you happy with the solution?
It would be helpful if you answer all questions -- please pay attention to details.
Thanks for looking and replying!
Answers to your questions:
1. Is your mail In-House or Hosted? In house for all customers
a. Exchange or other? Exchange for all customers
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted, or a combination of the two? In house for all customers
b. What is the solution? Vamsoft ORF
3. Are your users satisfied with the accuracy? Yes - extremely pleased.
4. Number of users? Maximum of 100 users - minimum of 5
5. Global and user level white listing? Global whitelisting permitted. Messages sent to external users get auto-added to sender whitelist
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month? None
7. If you are the administrator, are you happy with the solution? Totally.
1. Is your mail In-House or Hosted? In house for all customers
a. Exchange or other? Exchange for all customers
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted, or a combination of the two? In house for all customers
b. What is the solution? Vamsoft ORF
3. Are your users satisfied with the accuracy? Yes - extremely pleased.
4. Number of users? Maximum of 100 users - minimum of 5
5. Global and user level white listing? Global whitelisting permitted. Messages sent to external users get auto-added to sender whitelist
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month? None
7. If you are the administrator, are you happy with the solution? Totally.
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Good Morning,
1. Is your mail In-House or Hosted? In-House
- Exchange or other? Exchange
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted, or a combination of the two? In-House
- What is the solution? I'm a proponent for more security, so have a 3 tiered approach: Our solution is setup as follows: SMTP traffic is received and filtered by WatchGuard Firebox with SpamBlocker --> Barracuda Spam Firewall Appliance --> Trend Micros ScanMail for Exchange.
3. Are your users satisfied with the accuracy? Yes. I get no complaints in terms of Spam. And while most may not be able to implement this kind of approach, it has worked very well for us. When I first installed the Barracuda 5 years ago, staff immediately started calling and sending thank you cards and emails. The Spam that was inundating the Inbox was causing quite a bit of contention. However, today, Spam is at the very bottom of my list of worries.
4. Number of users? 600
5. Global and user level white listing? Both
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month? I'd say 1 hour for the entire month and that is set aside to review logs, update firmware or troubleshoot an end user problem.
7. If you are the administrator, are you happy with the solution? I am very happy with our current solution.
LJ
1. Is your mail In-House or Hosted? In-House
- Exchange or other? Exchange
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted, or a combination of the two? In-House
- What is the solution? I'm a proponent for more security, so have a 3 tiered approach: Our solution is setup as follows: SMTP traffic is received and filtered by WatchGuard Firebox with SpamBlocker --> Barracuda Spam Firewall Appliance --> Trend Micros ScanMail for Exchange.
3. Are your users satisfied with the accuracy? Yes. I get no complaints in terms of Spam. And while most may not be able to implement this kind of approach, it has worked very well for us. When I first installed the Barracuda 5 years ago, staff immediately started calling and sending thank you cards and emails. The Spam that was inundating the Inbox was causing quite a bit of contention. However, today, Spam is at the very bottom of my list of worries.
4. Number of users? 600
5. Global and user level white listing? Both
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month? I'd say 1 hour for the entire month and that is set aside to review logs, update firmware or troubleshoot an end user problem.
7. If you are the administrator, are you happy with the solution? I am very happy with our current solution.
LJ
1. Our mail is In-house using Exchange Server.
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted - We use a Hosted Solution Softscan
http://www.softscan.co.uk/
3. Yes, very satisfied and although hosted it can be configured to suit our means.
4. Number of users - 150
5. White listing - Global level
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month - Hardly ever, may be an addition to the white listing now & again.
7. Yes, no problems in 2 years.
1. Is your mail In-House or Hosted? In-House
a. Exchange or other? Exchange
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted, or a combination of the two? In-House
b. What is the solution? IronPort, Cloudmark
3. Are your users satisfied with the accuracy? Very satisfied
4. Number of users? 1,800
5. Global and user level white listing? Yes - both
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month? Under a few hours at the most
7. If you are the administrator, are you happy with the solution? Very much so
a. Exchange or other? Exchange
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted, or a combination of the two? In-House
b. What is the solution? IronPort, Cloudmark
3. Are your users satisfied with the accuracy? Very satisfied
4. Number of users? 1,800
5. Global and user level white listing? Yes - both
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month? Under a few hours at the most
7. If you are the administrator, are you happy with the solution? Very much so
Any feedback yet or are you waiting for more comments?
IronPort and Barracuda appliances do a good antispam job
I work for a Managed IT Services company, so I have the opportunity to work on several networks with different configurations.
1. Is your mail In-House or Hosted?
a. Exchange or other?
Most of the SBS networks (30+ mailboxes) have their in-house server, because they consider this a critical asset for the company. Small an Medium use Exchange. One uses Domino. Business with less than 30 generally use hosted services.
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted, or a combination of the two?
b. What is the solution?
We have In-House solutions. Currently using 3 types: GFI Mail Essentials, Symantec Mail Security and Linux Postfix
3. Are your users satisfied with the accuracy?
Very satisfied with GFI and Symantec Mail Security
Somehow satisfied with Postfix
4. Number of users?
2 Businesses with over 250 users uses Symantec Mail Security
1 Business with over 100 users use GFI
2 Business with less than 50 users uses Postfix
5. Global and user level white listing?
We use global white listing only. We prefer centralized control.
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month?
Very low with automated solutions such as Symantec Mail Security and GFI Mail Essentials. We need to dedicate as much as 4 hours / month.
7. If you are the administrator, are you happy with the solution?
I am very happy with GFI because of its simplicity and effectiveness. Symantec product is very effective but requires an additional Virtual Machine or dedicated appliance, with turns out to be more time consuming.
1. Is your mail In-House or Hosted?
a. Exchange or other?
Most of the SBS networks (30+ mailboxes) have their in-house server, because they consider this a critical asset for the company. Small an Medium use Exchange. One uses Domino. Business with less than 30 generally use hosted services.
2. Is your anti-spam solution In-House or Hosted, or a combination of the two?
b. What is the solution?
We have In-House solutions. Currently using 3 types: GFI Mail Essentials, Symantec Mail Security and Linux Postfix
3. Are your users satisfied with the accuracy?
Very satisfied with GFI and Symantec Mail Security
Somehow satisfied with Postfix
4. Number of users?
2 Businesses with over 250 users uses Symantec Mail Security
1 Business with over 100 users use GFI
2 Business with less than 50 users uses Postfix
5. Global and user level white listing?
We use global white listing only. We prefer centralized control.
6. Average hours of anti-spam administration time per month?
Very low with automated solutions such as Symantec Mail Security and GFI Mail Essentials. We need to dedicate as much as 4 hours / month.
7. If you are the administrator, are you happy with the solution?
I am very happy with GFI because of its simplicity and effectiveness. Symantec product is very effective but requires an additional Virtual Machine or dedicated appliance, with turns out to be more time consuming.
It is also very well priced at $239 per server - has a 4mb download - is simple to install / configure and simply works.
www.vamsoft.com