Final Words
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Another distinguishing feature of these applications is that the companies involved in manufacturing and distributing them are very pro-active and hands on offering in several cases to even send pre-sales engineers onsite to demonstrate and run through the features and benefits of their particular application. Believe it or not, this is quite exceptional for us during a review, particularly when it comes to server software such as this.
Of particular note was a Clearswift technician who contacted us immediately when we e-mailed a request for help. We also received a follow up call from the local Mail Marshal distributor, following our download of their evaluation key from the Web site. These types of examples and experiences go to show that there are still some industry sectors that are devoted to customer service and support.
Clearly there are two distinct types of spam filtering available. Firstly, there are the small to medium enterprise (SME) level packages; then there are the larger scale applications more suited to a multinational, large educational institution, or SME that is planning to grow and wants to implement a strong foundation from the beginning so as to avoid the interruptions and possible hassles that changing in midstream can cause. The lighter packages more suited for SMEs would be the likes of MailEssentials and SpamKiller, whereas MailMarshal and Surfcontrol cater for the larger scale applications.
Whether you like it, hate it, or are indifferent to it, spam (unsolicited e-mail, junk e-mail, e-mail advertising, broadcast e-mail marketing, call it what you will) is a fact of our Internet experience. The packages that we tested here all go some way to reducing the pain for those of us who find it annoying or detrimental to the businesses resources. However none can effectively claim to remove 100 percent of the spam flowing through the mail server. Certainly the packages that involve up-dateable black and white lists go some way to help, but similar to anti-virus packages they would need to be regularly updated as the opposition is always finding new ways around the defences. n
Sample scenario
Company: Naqoyqatsi Import/Export - This company wants a spam filtering plug-in to use on its mail server.
Approximate budget: Open.
Requires: A spam filtering package that will run with Microsoft Exhange 2000 serving 50 users.
Concerns: Company management wants the package to remove as much spam as possible, but is also aware of the need to minimise false positives. The technical staff wants to make sure the package is easy to configure and tweak, and that it doesn't adversely affect mail server response times.
Best solutions: The winner for this scenario would have to be McAfee SpamKiller--its overall simplicity is a refreshing change to the usual complexity that some of these spam filtering applications and similar security/filtering software packages can sometimes involve.
We'll also award an Editor's Choice to the clear winner in the enterprise-level packages: NetIQ MailMarshal. Its thorough documentation and powerful feature set combined with its relative ease of installation, configuration, and administration make it a hard application to beat.
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RMIT IT Test Labs is an independent testing institution based in Melbourne, Victoria, performing IT product testing for clients such as IBM, Coles-Myer, and a wide variety of government bodies. In the Labs' testing for T&B, they are in direct contact with the clients supplying products and the magazine is responsible for the full cost of the testing. The findings are the Labs' ownâ€"only the specifications of the products to be tested are provided by the magazine. For more information on RMIT, please contact the Lab Manager, Steven Turvey.
