Ultimate anti-spam guide: 11 products tested



Ultimate anti-spam guide: 11 products tested

Contents
Introduction
 BitDefender
 Clearswift
 CA eTrust
 GFI
 IronPort
 MailGuard
 McAfee
 MessageLabs
 NetIQ
 Network Box
 Symantec
 Specifications
 Editor's Choice
 About RMIT
 How we tested
From server-level software, to appliances, to managed services, we find what solutions are available to help enterprises manage the onslaught of unsightly spam.

It has been over a year since we reviewed anti-spam offerings.

Back in those days there were few enterprise-level solutions available to deal with this issue. Since then the market has literally exploded -- from four or five popular applications on the market last year to a submission of no less than 11 for this review.

And even still there were some notable names missing like Sophos, Surfcontrol, and Trend Micro. Both Surfcontrol and Trend Micro are in the midst of changing their older applications over for newer/updated versions and were not currently in the position to submit. Sophos on the other hand, while we would have loved to have squeezed them in somewhere with the other 11 products, unfortunately responded too late to get included in the review. When evaluating anti-spam products don't forget to consider these three vendors also.

This review is more of a guide to the current state of play in the world of annoying spam e-mail. For this roundup, we looked at each vendors product based on common criteria such as installation, configuration, and administration. We did not perform any "official" accuracy and performance testing on the products.

We set the programs up in modes to test both controlled and live messages, however the results of these brief tests would just add more confusion to the mix than anything and certainly didn't show any unexpected results.

Editor's note: This report was first published in Technology and Business magazine. Due to space constraints, the section explaining how the products were tested was omitted. However, a full explanation on testing procedures has been posted online and can be found here.

Continued ...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Next >

Like this article? Click below to send it to your mobile for free!

Talkback 3 comments

  1. Where can I buy Symantec Brightmail Anti-Spam v6.01? please Anonymous -- 23/04/05

    Where can I buy Symantec Brightmail Anti-Spam v6.01? please

  2. We trialled both Mailguard & MessageLabs. MessageLabs is seemingly run out of the UK. To make a simple change required talking to someone in the UK, faxing a form to the UK, and waiting for them to be available. Not ideal. Anonymous -- 01/06/05

    We trialled both Mailguard & MessageLabs.

    MessageLabs is seemingly run out of the UK. To make a simple change required talking to someone in the UK, faxing a form to the UK, and waiting for them to be available.

    Not ideal.

    1. RE: MailGuard propaganda posts Anonymous -- 21/02/08

      Geez, i wonder which of the two firms the anonymous poster is aligned to?? MessageLabs have a sydney office, have far a greater number of and far larger australian client base than MailGuard, and have never experienced the service outages that plague MailGuards poorly conceived and architected systems. Ever heard of availability & capacity management?? How bout mis-leading and deceptive conduct, alla "100% uptime" as is claimed in your marketing. Sub 25 seats, where you dont rely that heavily on your email, use MailGuard as they are cheap. > 50 seats, use MessageLabs, or Postini or Microsoft (whom acquired Frontbridge in 2006). You get what you pay for afterall.

Add your opinion


Back to top

Featured