e-mail spam blocker filter for server?

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SkaarjMaster

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 31, 2002
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Our company has a Windows 2000 server that needs an e-mail spam blocker/filter. I've heard about free stuff like ASSP and HMailserver, but haven't had a chance to check out the details on these. We are not interested in 3rd party or ISP mail hosting right now, but just want something installed on the server that block/filters spam mail. What would you guys recommend? Here is the information about the server I know so far:

- Exchange server (Server A)

- 2 servers, let's call them Server A (main server) and Server B (citrix server). This second server can probably be turned off now, but we're using it as a backup just in case the 4 of us that moved to the main office can no longer access the server directly.

- Server A uses Win2000 Server v5.0(2195), SP4
- Server B uses WinNT v4.0
- The various workstations use Win98SE, XP or XP Pro

- Server A runs Exchange and I'm not sure about Server B (I still have to check that screen on the monitor).
- Server A does not run a proxy.

Also, NNTPSVC and DHCPServer appear in the Event Viewer/System as Sources as well as IMA Service from yesterday if this helps any. I also have printer out all the runnings processes from System Information/Services if this helps any.

Thank you.
 
I just noticed that GFI Mail Essentials is already installed on this server, so maybe buying a subscription now that the trial period has expired would be a good option. What do you guys think? :confused:
 
It's down to two possibilities now for the Exchange SMTP server.....either GFI Mail Essentials for $350 or No Spam Today for $249. Anyone know about either of these? GFI is already installed and just needs to be paid and updated. If we ordered No Spam Today, then GFI would have to be uninstalled and No Spam Today installed and configured. Hopefully, either one of these tasks is fairly simple. The Exchange version running is:

Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator
Version 5.5
(Build 2653.23: Service Pack 4)

Forget about Server B (Citrix) for now, we'll disconnect it if we have to. Thank you for any help. :)
 
The GFI product I had some issues with in the past. Cloudmark's software worked like a charm. The GFI product, if you have a lot of time, seems good. But if you just want to protect from spam and let it do it's thing, I'd go Cloudmark.

C
 
Cloudmark!
Time to upgrade Exchange too, and there's a freebee Microsoft mail filter plugin you can download and install once you service pack E2K3.
 
The company has no plan at all to upgrade Exchange from 5.5, so that's out of the picture for the immediate future. I have no control over this aspect. Even though Cloudmark looked promising, it can't run on Exchange 5.5 so it's not an option. Is No Spam Today easier to setup than GFI Mail Essentials?
 
i've never heard of that one before. you can try the sunbelt software i hate spam, or you can get a barracuda. we got the model 300 for like $1800, and i belioeve there's a model below that. it will do virus scanning and spam filtering so you're full covered, plus it does it on a seperate set of hardware to save exchange some power. lastly it will allow you to keep exchange on your internal lan, not accessible from any machine except the barracuda in a DMZ.

it costs more though.
 
SkaarjMaster said:
Just did and it says no e-mail filter support for Exchange 5.5.
Click to expand...

Since they're clinging onto prehistoric 5.5, you're not going to find many products that support legacy software...and what little there is out there now...not for much longer. Not to mention the lack of security on 5.5. Anyways...I'd look towards a hardware appliance to be your mail gateway, do the spam and virus removal on the hardware level, which won't care about how old and outdated your mail server is.

And my gosh...start jumping up and down and screaming at the higher ups to allow upgrading Exch.
 
GFI Mail Essentials Work great for our company. We've been using it for a bit over a year now and its blocking mostly everything it should. It takes a bit of time to get tweaked, but once its running smoothly, its great.

We're getting roughly 6000-7000 blocked messages per week and maybe 5 or less requests per week to retrieve legit messages that were blocked.

We have about 90 users and have had great success with it.
 
We were supposed to order GFI Mail Essentials on Friday, but did not. I think I'm going to slap someone around on Monday to give me a dang credit card and order the thing on Monday. :D
 
Almost ordered GFI Mail Essentials yesterday and then I decided to read the requirements one more time. Well, it only supports Exchange 5.5 on a different computer other than the server (obviously a sub-server of sorts). This isn't going to work either, so the one promising program is shot down. And, once again, I know the server needs upgrading but the owner is not willing to spend the money to do it at this point and I have no control over this. We'll probably just have to get something installed at about 3 or 4 of the people's stations that are getting the most spam. Anyone know a good one for each station/individual? Qurb? :confused:
 
If you are going to install on individual systems, spambayes works well. I cannot think of a more easy to use software. I use it where I work with great success. This is free opensource software also.
 
with ihatespam and symantec's product there is a version that you can just install on any old windows 2000 computer and it will act as a mail relay. if you have a spare box lying around or can buy one you could use either of these. or a free software called fluffy the smtp guard dog. do plenty of testing if you want to use fluffy though- it crashed on me from time to time when i was using it. finally gave it up and used ihatespam. then moved to the barracuda.
 
Ordered 5 copies of Qurb a couple weeks ago (or just after that last post of mine). Installed 3 versions already and seems to be working great on those 3 computers! Another co-worker and I are trying SpamBayes first before we switch to Qurb (if we ever do); we'll give it a couple or 3 months and see how well it gets trained. This way maybe a couple other co-workers can use the last 2 licenses instead if we don't need them. :)
 
Spambayes is amazing on the client side. I use it myself and love it. Very effective.
 
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