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Contents 
Introduction
BitDefender
Clearswift
CA eTrust
GFI
IronPort
MailGuard
McAfee
MessageLabs
NetIQ
Network Box
Symantec
Specifications
Editor's Choice
About RMIT
How we tested |
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MimeSweeper is another of the software applications that were submitted for this review.
The installation was potentially the most difficult of all the products reviewed here, possibly due to the level of complexity, features, and scalability built into the MimeSweeper product.
We say potentially the most difficult because the development team at Clearswift have certainly done their homework on this one and the installation routine virtually takes the installer step-by-step through the whole setup phase with a minimum of fuss.
And when you see how many third-party applications, plugins, and basic requirements this application requires to run you will be amazed.
Firstly the .NET framework from Microsoft needs to be installed, this is bundled with the MimeSweeper distribution, then the installer scans the system for missing components, on our machine it found that we had not installed MSMQ (Microsoft Mailer Queue) and that there was no ASPNET user in our Active Directory.
The first one was a no-brainer -- just install MSMQ from the 2000 Server disc, but the ASPNET user nearly stumped us as technically, it is supposed to be installed when ASP is installed with IIS, however Clearswift knew there would be people like us trying to bend the rules and install our Server O/S, Active Directory, Exchange, and anti-spam apps all on the same machine despite the security risks associated with having AD on a relatively publicly accessible machines -- all good security administrators and the fellows at Clearswift will tell you this is definitely a no-no.
Once we followed the Microsoft document through the steps to create a secure-as-possible ASPNET user on the machine and clicked refresh on the "required components" section of the MimeSweeper installer, the system was rechecked and we were able to continue with the install. No less than four more add-ins were required after this, thankfully all included with the distribution. These were MDAC v2.8, MSDE 2000 SP3, .NET v1.1 SP1, and Microsoft Visual J .NET 1.1.
Again the installation manager for each of these was nothing short of brilliant and after a required reboot the rest of the actual MimeSweeper installation could be completed, included in this was a wizard which set up most of the initial configuration of the system for us. Finally a last reboot and we were good to go.
Administration is via four centres, these are centrally managed via one main interface. Overall the administration is very well laid out, easy to use, and extremely well documented.
At the end of the day, one should only have to install an application of this caliber once or twice in the enterprise to cover most SMTP mail servers, therefore while we harped on a bit about the installation routine involved it was mostly an exercise in pointing out how if the installation routines and installer applications were not as well designed as they were it really could be a complete nightmare. It goes to prove that the engineers at Clearswift have really got a grasp on their art. Turning something that could be so potentially horrendous into a usable form really deserves some recognition.
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| Click to enlarge |
| Product | MIMEsweeper for SMTP 5.0 |
| Price | AU$3000 for 50 users |
| Vendor | Clearswift |
| Phone | 02 9424 1200 |
| Web | www.clearswift.com.au |
| Interoperability | 
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| Works with any mail server. | |
| Futureproofing | 
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| Very good range of features provided and good reporting. | |
| ROI |
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| Very well priced. | |
| Service | 
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| A little light on warranty (90 days/30 days) when compared with other anti-spam vendor warranties. | |
| Rating | 
½ |
Where can I buy Symantec Brightmail Anti-Spam v6.01? please