best email filter
We are currently using GFI Mail Essentials as an SMTP server alone with Checkpoint firewall anti-spam.
GFI checks for, spam, viruses and attachment. They do a decent job in general but still use old 15+ year logic.
we do host a couple of exchange servers with 200+ users. What would be a good Anti Spam with antivirus and attachment checking email filter possibly with email encryption to replace GFI ME. Google use resale Postini to non google apps users before. Very important this question is posted for a real expert with 10+ years of experience.
thank you.
GFI checks for, spam, viruses and attachment. They do a decent job in general but still use old 15+ year logic.
we do host a couple of exchange servers with 200+ users. What would be a good Anti Spam with antivirus and attachment checking email filter possibly with email encryption to replace GFI ME. Google use resale Postini to non google apps users before. Very important this question is posted for a real expert with 10+ years of experience.
thank you.
I am having 15+ years of experience. Handling major clients, my smallest customer is having 30K mailboxes. Large is above 200k mailboxes.
Now let me answer your query. For 200+ users GFI is enough. If you are looking for high end solution, you can look for Brightmail or SMG, Trend Micro or EOP from Microsoft. You can also have two layers, one layer on premises and another cloud. Like you have any AV/AS server on premises and then you can forward it cloud vendor like Messagelabs. This will add extra layer for scanning.
Also note, regularly updating spam definition patterns, helps to keep spam mails under control. You also need to restrict anonymous relay from your Exchange server. If you have Exchange 2010, enable restrict DL checkbox. That way external users won't be able to send emails to DL's.
Finally, as per my experience, spam can be controlled by creating custom spam rules regularly. It is a continuous process. As for each company spam definition is different. For some a X email is spam, however for some it is a valid mail.
Let me know, if I can help more.
Now let me answer your query. For 200+ users GFI is enough. If you are looking for high end solution, you can look for Brightmail or SMG, Trend Micro or EOP from Microsoft. You can also have two layers, one layer on premises and another cloud. Like you have any AV/AS server on premises and then you can forward it cloud vendor like Messagelabs. This will add extra layer for scanning.
Also note, regularly updating spam definition patterns, helps to keep spam mails under control. You also need to restrict anonymous relay from your Exchange server. If you have Exchange 2010, enable restrict DL checkbox. That way external users won't be able to send emails to DL's.
Finally, as per my experience, spam can be controlled by creating custom spam rules regularly. It is a continuous process. As for each company spam definition is different. For some a X email is spam, however for some it is a valid mail.
Let me know, if I can help more.
Cisco IronPort, ProofPoint are leaders both have on-prem and cloud offerings. MimeCast also has a good reputation but they are a pure cloud offering.
GFI ME is not bad, and most mailfilters use the same technology. Adding greylisting to the mix may help, that needs to be done on point of entry of mail.
ASKER
GFI is not bad compare to what is was 15 years ago however many old problems (all or nothing approach with auto white list)
1. auto white list never worked properly as even with "out of office" combinations added to the GFI registry key to exclude autoreply its still doesn't work properly and have bogus while list enters.
2. Gray list doesn't work very well with emails coming from GMail or similar servers and we can't afford to loose customer emails
3. Quarantine collects a lot of garbage as you can't place Antivirus check before attachment?????? and the only what do clean it up is to create search folders
4. there is no way to make any logical combination of rules . Say white list + another rule etc.
5. Directory harvesting is very hard to fine tune as if you set it by default with 1 wrong address you will through away perfect customer email with a single address error. when you star to make it 3 or 4 you skip a lot of spam and again you can not use any combination of directory harvesting and any other rule.
and I can list you at least 5 more problems which were there for the last 15 years.
1. auto white list never worked properly as even with "out of office" combinations added to the GFI registry key to exclude autoreply its still doesn't work properly and have bogus while list enters.
2. Gray list doesn't work very well with emails coming from GMail or similar servers and we can't afford to loose customer emails
3. Quarantine collects a lot of garbage as you can't place Antivirus check before attachment?????? and the only what do clean it up is to create search folders
4. there is no way to make any logical combination of rules . Say white list + another rule etc.
5. Directory harvesting is very hard to fine tune as if you set it by default with 1 wrong address you will through away perfect customer email with a single address error. when you star to make it 3 or 4 you skip a lot of spam and again you can not use any combination of directory harvesting and any other rule.
and I can list you at least 5 more problems which were there for the last 15 years.
ASKER
can someone comment on www.PineApp.com software?
I have not heard of that one. My clients use Hosted Exchange and Microsoft Exchange but this one has not come up in my travels.
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We currently use MimeCast. Currently we have on-premise Exchange and MC works wonderfully with this. This year we will be moving to Exchange in the cloud with Office 365, but unless the MS offering can meet or beat what we get with MC, we'll stay with them.
Plus you get a lot of great extras with MC beyond what you're looking for - some are included some cost.
Plus you get a lot of great extras with MC beyond what you're looking for - some are included some cost.
We use (and offer) Mimecast, as it has proven not only incredibly accurate with respect to spam/virus protection, but easy to use for archiving/ediscovery and offers continuity services as well.
For roll your own, look at Barracuda spam filtering and consider the use of grey list hardware.