Exchange Compatible Spam Filters?

DamienMcKenna asks: "At work our license for Symantec Brightmail is coming up for renewal and I'm looking for alternatives that will cooperate with Microsoft Exchange 2003. Brightmail hasn't worked consistently since we installed it last year, has a low success rate, the client plugin has been very unstable, and it takes up far too much server resources for what it does. Given that many of the appropriate software is not available for trial (you have to base decisions off their marketing materials), does anyone have recommendations on what to use instead? It must be Windows-based (UNIX/Linux/BSD is out of the question right now), and should have an easy to use administrative interface since not all of the IT staff are very technically minded. A working plugin for Outlook for client-level configuration would also be appreciated."

MailMarshal

[nmb3000]

The company I used to work at used MailMarshal [marshal.com] for their spam/virus filtering. The interface was pretty good, but there was no Bayesian filters, nor client-side plugins (though I don't really thing they are that much of a bonus). It was pretty easy on resources; the Poweredge server we had never seemed to have much of a problem, and it was running IIS and MSSQL at the same time (it was a smaller business).

This was several years ago, and all those things, including a web interface and quarantines were supposed to be in the next version (and they've gone through some two or three versions since then).

Might be worth checking out anyway.

ASSP

[GrigorPDX]

ASSP [sourceforge.net] is an excellent, cross-platform, open source mail filter that is quite popular amongst my long-suffering Windows mail server admins. Perl-based and platform-agnostic it might be what you're looking for.

Re:McAfree GroupShould with SpamKiller add-on

[perlionex]

Since we're on the topic of commercial distributions of SpamAssassin:

http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/CommercialWind ows [apache.org]

...and I know you're looking for easy-to-click distributions, but on the off-chance you (or somebody else reading this article) is looking for information on simply running SpamAssassin on Windows:

http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/UsingOnWindows [apache.org]

Why not use Exchange IMF?

[YU Nicks NE Way]

The IMF which ships as a part of E2K3 SP1 and later works well, and has the advantage of being free with Exchange.

Exchange 2003 SP2

[slasher999]

Read up on Exchange 2003 SP2. MS made significant security and spam related enhancements to Exchange 2003 with the release of that SP. There is plenty of info on Microsoft's Exchange site about SP2.

I'd also recommend looking at GFI MailEssentials. It's cheap (free in it's "cheapest" version), simple to install and configure, and can do a good job when configured properly. Several methods for defining spam are available in the product - blacklists/whitelists, Bayesian, others.

Finally, consider outsourcing the entire spam identification process. Postini, which I've used for years at various employers, rocks. Adminitration and all user level functions (approve/delete quarantined messages, whitelist/blacklist addresses or domains, etc.) are performed via web browser (works great with Firefox or IE). Users are given their own id/password and are notified via email when they have quarantined items (once per day). Postini also does basic antivirus scanning (via McAfee) and while that isn't adequate in itself for protecting your email environment from viruses, it does offer an extra layer of protection. It's relatively cheap as well. If you are a small company (100 users), I believe McAfee offers Postini services bundled with some of their products geared for small business.

iHateSpam

[carnellm]

Sunbelt Software's [sunbelt-software.com] program called iHateSpam works very well on Exchange servers. It has an fairly easy administrative interface, and is very easy for users to understand. Also generates good look reports which are great for showing to execs and users how much spam is getting caught and who the worst offenders are. Demo version too. They have some other products for anti-virus and spyware and such, but I have only used the spam one.

IMF is the answer. Free, from MS, and effective

[malakai]

It's free, it's part of Exchange but shipped after the product.
See: here [microsoft.com].

I used to fool a dedicated linux box and SpamAssassin. I tested out the IMF when it came out and for the spam my users see, it beat out how our SpamAssassin was configured.

It also integrates with exchange very closely and uses the new Spam Confidence Level header stuff.

We use Sophos PureMessage

[ayden]

We installed Sophos PureMessage for UNIX about a month ago on our postfix SMTP gateways. The performance has been outstanding and provides web management user interfaces. Note that we specifically chose an AntiSpam/AntiVirus solution for our SMTP gateway servers different from our enterprise AntiVirus solution (we run McAfee GroupShield on Exchange and McAfee Enterprise 8i on our desktops and servers).

Since a UNIX server is not an option (though the web management interface may change that), you might want to take a look at PureMessage for Exchange:
http://www.sophos.com/products/es/gateway/pm-windo ws-exchange.html [sophos.com]

Sophos offers a 30 day evaluation:
http://www.sophos.com/products/eval/ [sophos.com]

BTW, prior to Sophos PMX, we were using SpamAssassin.

Re:"Not technically minded?"

[thegrassyknowl]

IT staff don't have to be technically minded anymore. I see it every day; dicks that say to themselves "I installed Windows once" (or worse, "I use Windows at home to write letters") apply for IT jobs. Their lack of real skill means they often ask for a salary figure that is... low. Of course they get the jobs.

Now, if you're after a client-side solution for Craplook, try SpamBayes. I have it at work (no thanks to senior management being invited to wine and dine with the Borg-team). It works OK if the user is willing to train it up a little. Seems in our outfit, most people are willing to use it and even happy to learn how to properly work it. It is also VERY accurate from what I have seen. I used to get thousands of spams, now I get one or two that doesn't get caught. It's also not very often that it mislassifies non-spam... probably one message a month that (I will admit) looks a bit spammy.

Mailwasher server

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice open source antispam which plugs in to Exchange. Simple to setup

Great UI for admins and users with quarantine features users can manage themselves.

We've had great results with it.

http://oss.firetrust.com/ [firetrust.com]