Clearswift MailSweeper v4 for Exchange and MailSweeper v4.3 SMTP with Spamactive
Clearswift has two products available that we looked at and may be of some use in the filtering of e-mail messages and the removal/flagging of spam messages.
The first that we look at is the MailSweeper v4 for Exchange. Once we had downloaded the MailSweeper software and unzipped it, we first needed to install the Mimesweeper Technology software before proceeding onto the MailSweeper installation. Part of the Mimesweeper installation requires a server restart.
Once the server has restarted, you can then open the actual MailSweeper installation program giving you a choice of four modes for installation, one-to-one, standalone, distributed, and remote management. We chose standalone although the recommended installation in this case would be one-to-one having separate mail and anti-spam servers.
An interesting note: our installation wouldn't proceed until we installed Microsoft Outlook XP on the server, which seems a bit odd.
Configuration and administration is via the Mailsweeper for Exchange 2000 console. This console allows you Windows Explorer-like control of the application via similar windows and tasks. You can also start and stop the receive services and check the status via command prompt instructions.
Mailsweeper operates its initial rule set from a policy-based application, including several default policies designed to get you up and running and teach you the basics to policy creation.
The second application that we had a look at from Clearswift was the Mailsweeper v4.3 for SMTP with the Spamactive option. Spamactive, as its name suggests, is targeted directly at the prevention of spam, whereas the MailSweeper v4.0 for Exchange had a spam definitions policy file but was not as targeted as Spamactive itself.
Installation of Mailsweeper v4.3 for SMTP was similar to that of v4.0 for Exchange differing mainly with a part of the install/config routine allowing you to specify which type of scanning you would like to implement on mail messages being processed by the application.
Spamactive (being a separate application) then needed to be installed. This was a straightforward exercise. Once that is installed you can then create a new policy classification for spam under MailSweeper and also add a new incoming mail scenario and add the Spamactive Anti-spam filter configured to your needs.
Overall the Mailsweeper application's installation and configuration routines while readily performed were somehow clunky and not very smooth, particularly requiring the installation of multiple applications and associated server reboots. Something to note, however, is the availability on the Clearswift Web site of downloads such as power tools which provide utilities and tools for administrators to create black lists and filter Web and mail content, and also a utility to allow remote Web monitoring of the application.
While most of these features are built into some of the other applications in the review, they are not as individualised as the power tools download. This application seemed to us to be a programmers' application and not as refined as most. This is not to say it was not functional, just more complex to set up and configure than it really needed to be. Clearswift's support was very good and responsive to our requests.
| Product: | Clearswift MAILsweeper for SMTP v4.3 with SpamActive |
| Price: | AU$2423 |
| Vendor: | Clearswift |
| Phone: | 02 9424 1200 |
| Web: | www.clearswift.com |
| Interoperability: |
Windows 2000 only with any SMTP server. |
| Futureproofing: |
½
Fully configurable with full support for future updates. |
| ROI: |
½Provides comparatively good return on investment. |
| Service: |
½Additional contract available. |
| Rating: |
½ |
6%
1%
