Antispam appliance
This site was created after making my own decision on which Antispamappliance that one of our customers bought. The result was taken after extensive tests etc. We hope that you will find the information that you need to make a good decision on which antispamappliance to buy.
Appliances
So what is an appliance machine.
An Appliance is a machine that is built to handle a specific task.
There are all sort of Appliances.
We have Mailserver, Antivirus, Firewall, VPN, Backup aswell as Antispam appliances. These are all machines (standard of customfitted) installed with one objective inmind, namely to help the administrator to handle either mail, antivirus, firewall, VPN, Backup or Antispam problems without forcing the administrator to install their own machines or programs
Behavior of Appliances
An appliance might act as a transparent server or in normal mode.
Antispamappliances
All antispam programs that is needed to run an almost spamfree environment should be included in the antispam-appliance.
There are a couple of items that should be taken into consideration when acquiring an antispam appliance.
We will give you information about different antispamappliances, which will help you in your tough decision.
An antispamappliance is a great way of getting rid of those pesky spam mails.
You wont need to make any installations, maintain any software. Everything is taken care of by the antispam appliance.
Here are some of the items that you should check before taking a decision.
* Price of appliance
* Support. If you have a appliance machine, then you would proberbly want support. S check to see to what extent the organisaton where you buy the antispam appliance can fullfill your need for support.
* Trackrecord for the company developing the antispamappliance. Financialstability, trustworthness.
* Performance. How much throughput do you need.
* What kind of redundancy or backup do you need.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Antispam appliances
We have made a couple of reviews and explained different appliances.
Some of the appliances we have reviewed are Symantecs Brightmail, Barracuda Spam Firewall, Borderware MxTreme, IronPort.
Some of the products like Borderware Mxtreme aswell as IronPort can use Brightmail technology as a part of the antispam technology.
Some of the appliances we have reviewed are Symantecs Brightmail, Barracuda Spam Firewall, Borderware MxTreme, IronPort.
Some of the products like Borderware Mxtreme aswell as IronPort can use Brightmail technology as a part of the antispam technology.
Borderware Mxtreme appliance
Borderware Mxtreme appliance
Borderware Mxtreme is one of the appliances that we found that was really good. We used both the Borderware antispam features aswell as the builtin module Brightmail antispam features. Besides beeing an antispam appliance, mxtreme is also an antivirus appliance aswell as it can deal with Anti-phishing issues.
The version which we tested was Mxtreme 5 we also took a look at the new version 6.0. 6.0 seems to be even better, even though we didn't really like the rotation of logfiles aswell. There were alot of other small items that we didn't quite like but overall this was proberbly the best product we tested.
Borderware
Borderware is also known for their firewall, and SIP firewall. The firewall is offently used by large companies, banks and the defense.
Borderware Mxtreme antispamappliance
Borderware antispamappliance uses features as Blacklist, Header rules, both strict and fuzzy body hash.
For us with an intrerest in security we can say that this antispamappliance is one of the few that has been qualified to get an EAL 4+ common criteria certification. It has an interesting feature for integrating with Exchange in order to have quarantine, sender lists etc.
I would say overall that this was the best antispamappliance that we tested and this was also the one that our customer bought.
The support that borderware offers is just outstanding.
Antivirusappliance
As we said before the Mxtreme can also be used as a antivirus appliance. Where mxtreme scans for viruses.
Besides using the zero day defense where they try to decide if the mail is a virus without scanning.
The antivirus engines that can be used is licensed seperatly and are Kaspersky and McAfee.
Different antispam appliances within Mxtreme
Borderware Mxtreme is one of the appliances that we found that was really good. We used both the Borderware antispam features aswell as the builtin module Brightmail antispam features. Besides beeing an antispam appliance, mxtreme is also an antivirus appliance aswell as it can deal with Anti-phishing issues.
The version which we tested was Mxtreme 5 we also took a look at the new version 6.0. 6.0 seems to be even better, even though we didn't really like the rotation of logfiles aswell. There were alot of other small items that we didn't quite like but overall this was proberbly the best product we tested.
Borderware
Borderware is also known for their firewall, and SIP firewall. The firewall is offently used by large companies, banks and the defense.
Borderware Mxtreme antispamappliance
Borderware antispamappliance uses features as Blacklist, Header rules, both strict and fuzzy body hash.
For us with an intrerest in security we can say that this antispamappliance is one of the few that has been qualified to get an EAL 4+ common criteria certification. It has an interesting feature for integrating with Exchange in order to have quarantine, sender lists etc.
I would say overall that this was the best antispamappliance that we tested and this was also the one that our customer bought.
The support that borderware offers is just outstanding.
Antivirusappliance
As we said before the Mxtreme can also be used as a antivirus appliance. Where mxtreme scans for viruses.
Besides using the zero day defense where they try to decide if the mail is a virus without scanning.
The antivirus engines that can be used is licensed seperatly and are Kaspersky and McAfee.
Different antispam appliances within Mxtreme
MX-1000 borderware antispam
MX-1000 borderware antispam
This borderware product is a antispam, antivirus, antiphishing appliance that is used by a few large companies. We must say that this is not a product that we have tested so we can't say anything about the maxmium mails / hour. So we will go with the standard from borderware.
This antispamappliance can take over 130.000 Messages per hour with all the filters, featured enabled.
All the borderware modules can be multiplied for redundancy and capacity reasons.
Specifications from borderware
Performance: 130,000 MPH (Messages per Hour recommended by Borderware, but this number is with all filters, programs activated).
Dimensions: 16.7" x 3.5" x25.7"
Memory: 2048 MB
LCD: Yes
Hard Drives: 4 x 73 GB SCSI
Form Factor: 2U Rackmount
Processor: 2 x Intel XEON 3Ghz
Power: 2 x 400 Watts
RAID: RAID 10
NIC: 4 x 10/100/1000bT
This borderware product is a antispam, antivirus, antiphishing appliance that is used by a few large companies. We must say that this is not a product that we have tested so we can't say anything about the maxmium mails / hour. So we will go with the standard from borderware.
This antispamappliance can take over 130.000 Messages per hour with all the filters, featured enabled.
All the borderware modules can be multiplied for redundancy and capacity reasons.
Specifications from borderware
Performance: 130,000 MPH (Messages per Hour recommended by Borderware, but this number is with all filters, programs activated).
Dimensions: 16.7" x 3.5" x25.7"
Memory: 2048 MB
LCD: Yes
Hard Drives: 4 x 73 GB SCSI
Form Factor: 2U Rackmount
Processor: 2 x Intel XEON 3Ghz
Power: 2 x 400 Watts
RAID: RAID 10
NIC: 4 x 10/100/1000bT
MX-800 borderware antispam
MX-800 borderware antispam
This borderware antispam, antivirus, antiphishing appliance is mostly used larger companies. Larger companies is when the maximum mails / hour is no more than 80.000.
All the borderware modules can be multiplied for redundancy and capacity reasons.
Specifications from borderware
Performance: 65,000 MPH (Messages per Hour recommended by Borderware, but this number is with all filters, programs activated).
Dimensions: 16.7" x 3.5" x25.7"
Memory: 2 GB
LCD: Yes
Hard Drives: 4 x 73GB SCSI
Form Factor: 2U Rackmount
Processor: Intel XEON 2.4Ghz
Power: 2 x 400 Watts
RAID: RAID 10
NIC: 4 x 10/100/1000bT
This borderware antispam, antivirus, antiphishing appliance is mostly used larger companies. Larger companies is when the maximum mails / hour is no more than 80.000.
All the borderware modules can be multiplied for redundancy and capacity reasons.
Specifications from borderware
Performance: 65,000 MPH (Messages per Hour recommended by Borderware, but this number is with all filters, programs activated).
Dimensions: 16.7" x 3.5" x25.7"
Memory: 2 GB
LCD: Yes
Hard Drives: 4 x 73GB SCSI
Form Factor: 2U Rackmount
Processor: Intel XEON 2.4Ghz
Power: 2 x 400 Watts
RAID: RAID 10
NIC: 4 x 10/100/1000bT
MX-400 antispamappliance
MX-400 antispamappliance
This is used for midsized organizations. This is measured by an organization where there is no more than 40.000 mails / hours. (This is all dependent on which filters are opened, but this should be taken as a max number).
All the borderware appliances can be clustered for performance aswell as redundancy issues.
Specifications
Performance: 32,500 MPH (Messages per hours. This numbers is taken from Borderware and is when all filters are activated.) Dimensions: 16.7" x 1.7" x25.7"
Memory: 1 GB
LCD: Yes
Hard Drives: 2 x 80GB ATA
Form Factor: 1U Rackmount
Processor: Intel XEON 2.4Ghz
Power: 400 Watts
RAID: RAID 1
NIC: 3 x 10/100/1000bT
This is used for midsized organizations. This is measured by an organization where there is no more than 40.000 mails / hours. (This is all dependent on which filters are opened, but this should be taken as a max number).
All the borderware appliances can be clustered for performance aswell as redundancy issues.
Specifications
Performance: 32,500 MPH (Messages per hours. This numbers is taken from Borderware and is when all filters are activated.) Dimensions: 16.7" x 1.7" x25.7"
Memory: 1 GB
LCD: Yes
Hard Drives: 2 x 80GB ATA
Form Factor: 1U Rackmount
Processor: Intel XEON 2.4Ghz
Power: 400 Watts
RAID: RAID 1
NIC: 3 x 10/100/1000bT
MX-200 borderware antispam
MX-200 borderware antispam
This borderware antispam, antivirus, antiphishing appliance is mostly used by small companies. When we talk about small companies we say companies that has less then 10.000 mails / hour and don't have a the need for redundant items within the appliance.
Specifications
Performance: 6.500 MPH (Messages per hour with all filters activated)
Dimensions: 11" x 1.75" x8"
Memory: 512 MB
Hard Drives: 40 GB
Form Factor: 1U Rackmount
Processor: Intel P4 2Ghz
Power: 150 Watts
RAID: No
NIC: 2 x 10/100/1000 bT
This borderware antispam, antivirus, antiphishing appliance is mostly used by small companies. When we talk about small companies we say companies that has less then 10.000 mails / hour and don't have a the need for redundant items within the appliance.
Specifications
Performance: 6.500 MPH (Messages per hour with all filters activated)
Dimensions: 11" x 1.75" x8"
Memory: 512 MB
Hard Drives: 40 GB
Form Factor: 1U Rackmount
Processor: Intel P4 2Ghz
Power: 150 Watts
RAID: No
NIC: 2 x 10/100/1000 bT
Barracuda antispamappliance
Barracuda antispamappliance
These are proberbly the company that bangs the loudest on the marketing drums. Atleast here in Europe they are the one company you can see everywhere. Barracuda also has features as an antispam, antivirus, antiphishing appliance. And can help your company filter e-mails based on the topics above.
The way the barracuda antispamappliance works is that you will have to train the barracuda appliance to find spam mails.
Antispam
The antispam part of the barracuda appliance was not the best antispam product that we tested. It might have been that we should have trained the appliance further to get an higher spam catching procentage.
But we followed the manual to the point in training but we still got the highest procentage of spam that went undetected through the antispamappliance and into our Exchange environment.
The good things about this antispam solutions was that it could perform filtering per users.
So we could lower the threshold of the accounts that just got spam.
Antivirus appliance
Barracuda antivirus part of the appliance uses 2 engines to perform the virus detection.
It also allowed you to block files.
Barracuda antispamappliance features
The larger models has connectors to Exchange/LDAP AD for getting information about users so that no e-mails has to be forwarded to the Exchange system if the users is not an valid user.
Every unit except the smallest has individual user settings aswell as quarantine.
Decision
We have to say that the Barracuda webinterface also had nothing special to offer. It's still a good product and it's at half the price of the rest of the products. So you can still buy the product and get a good product. But still......
Barracuda antispamappliance models
These are proberbly the company that bangs the loudest on the marketing drums. Atleast here in Europe they are the one company you can see everywhere. Barracuda also has features as an antispam, antivirus, antiphishing appliance. And can help your company filter e-mails based on the topics above.
The way the barracuda antispamappliance works is that you will have to train the barracuda appliance to find spam mails.
Antispam
The antispam part of the barracuda appliance was not the best antispam product that we tested. It might have been that we should have trained the appliance further to get an higher spam catching procentage.
But we followed the manual to the point in training but we still got the highest procentage of spam that went undetected through the antispamappliance and into our Exchange environment.
The good things about this antispam solutions was that it could perform filtering per users.
So we could lower the threshold of the accounts that just got spam.
Antivirus appliance
Barracuda antivirus part of the appliance uses 2 engines to perform the virus detection.
It also allowed you to block files.
Barracuda antispamappliance features
The larger models has connectors to Exchange/LDAP AD for getting information about users so that no e-mails has to be forwarded to the Exchange system if the users is not an valid user.
Every unit except the smallest has individual user settings aswell as quarantine.
Decision
We have to say that the Barracuda webinterface also had nothing special to offer. It's still a good product and it's at half the price of the rest of the products. So you can still buy the product and get a good product. But still......
Barracuda antispamappliance models
Model 400 Barracuda Networks antispamappliance
Model 400 Barracuda Networks antispamappliance
This Barracuda Networks antispam,antivirus,antiphishing appliance is not just for medium sized companies. It's told to handle approx 5.million messages per day. That's approx 200.000 messages per hour.
This model has the Exchange connector aswell as the individual user settings and quarantine.
Specifications
Capacity: 200.000 messages per hour.
Dimensions: 16.7x1.7x14 (1 U).
Ethernet: 1 x 10/100.
No raid or redundant power supplies.
This Barracuda Networks antispam,antivirus,antiphishing appliance is not just for medium sized companies. It's told to handle approx 5.million messages per day. That's approx 200.000 messages per hour.
This model has the Exchange connector aswell as the individual user settings and quarantine.
Specifications
Capacity: 200.000 messages per hour.
Dimensions: 16.7x1.7x14 (1 U).
Ethernet: 1 x 10/100.
No raid or redundant power supplies.
Model 600 and 800 Barracuda Networks antispamappliance
Model 600 and 800 Barracuda Networks antispamappliance
This Barracuda Networks antispam,antivirus,antiphishing appliance is for really large companies that want redundancy aswell as speed and alot of throughput. These models can take a throughput on atleast 10.000.000 to 15.000.000 mails per day. tings and quarantine.
Specifications for antispamappliance.
Capacity: 10-15 millions messages per hour.
These models has redundant disks aswell as the largest model also has hot swappable disks.
This Barracuda Networks antispam,antivirus,antiphishing appliance is for really large companies that want redundancy aswell as speed and alot of throughput. These models can take a throughput on atleast 10.000.000 to 15.000.000 mails per day. tings and quarantine.
Specifications for antispamappliance.
Capacity: 10-15 millions messages per hour.
These models has redundant disks aswell as the largest model also has hot swappable disks.
Ironport antispamappliance
Ironport antispamappliance
This was not the third machine that we made tests on but we hade made them before since one of our other customers uses Ironport. Ironport antispamappliance as we tested it used besides Ironports own Senderbase antispam features also used Symantecs Brightmail.
If you really want security and absolute NO FALSE POSITIVES then you should go with Ironport modules. Since we basically used DCC and checksums for all e-mails we couldn't get one single false positive. Our other systems did catch some false positives.´
The best part about Ironpart is proberbly the loginterface. This was proberbly the best one we tested, perhaps this was due to the fact that we have worked with Ironport before, but still it's really good.
The worst part about Ironport is/was the price. It's almost three times as expansive as the cheapest antispamappaliance that we tested.
Ironport antispamappliance models
The smallest model is called Ironport C10 and for max 1000 users.
The largest is IronPort X1000 and that's for really large networks and not just companies. You will need to have alot of users to use all the capacity that X1000 can provide you with.
This was not the third machine that we made tests on but we hade made them before since one of our other customers uses Ironport. Ironport antispamappliance as we tested it used besides Ironports own Senderbase antispam features also used Symantecs Brightmail.
If you really want security and absolute NO FALSE POSITIVES then you should go with Ironport modules. Since we basically used DCC and checksums for all e-mails we couldn't get one single false positive. Our other systems did catch some false positives.´
The best part about Ironpart is proberbly the loginterface. This was proberbly the best one we tested, perhaps this was due to the fact that we have worked with Ironport before, but still it's really good.
The worst part about Ironport is/was the price. It's almost three times as expansive as the cheapest antispamappaliance that we tested.
Ironport antispamappliance models
The smallest model is called Ironport C10 and for max 1000 users.
The largest is IronPort X1000 and that's for really large networks and not just companies. You will need to have alot of users to use all the capacity that X1000 can provide you with.
Symantec Brightmail antispam appliance
Symantec Brightmail antispam appliance
This antispam appliance software was aquired in June 2004 by Symantec. After that Brightmail became known as Symantec Brightmail. Symantec and most other antivirus producers all bought their own antispam engines/appliances.
Brightmail antispam appliance
Brightmail is one of the products that will proberbly not produce any false positive.
Brightmail is used by some of the top ISP's in Europe and the US.
Another thing Brightmail has going for them is that their engine can be included in both IronPort aswell as Mxtreme products.
And after Symantec bought Brightmail we can also say that buying Brightmail is not a bad choice if you want to use the same supportorganization for both antivirus aswell as anti-spam and other products that Symantec has to offer.
This antispam appliance software was aquired in June 2004 by Symantec. After that Brightmail became known as Symantec Brightmail. Symantec and most other antivirus producers all bought their own antispam engines/appliances.
Brightmail antispam appliance
Brightmail is one of the products that will proberbly not produce any false positive.
Brightmail is used by some of the top ISP's in Europe and the US.
Another thing Brightmail has going for them is that their engine can be included in both IronPort aswell as Mxtreme products.
And after Symantec bought Brightmail we can also say that buying Brightmail is not a bad choice if you want to use the same supportorganization for both antivirus aswell as anti-spam and other products that Symantec has to offer.
Anti-virus appliance
Anti-virus appliance
Keeping up with anti-virus signature files and making sure all computers are always updated with the latest and newest antivirus signature files is a real though job.
It's a painstaking job to make sure of a secure network.
And letting your guard down for just a couple of days might make your network infected.
Even though there are good management tools for keeping this operation running smoothly it's still to keep a secure network.
This is where antivirus appliances come in to the picture. This can act as your gatekeeper and make sure that only a small procentage of the viruses can enter your network.
Most viruses enters through e-mail so why not stop the viruses where they enter.
Layered Security with anti-virus appliance
With layered security we mean that in order to keep a more secure network then you should think of the idea of having one antivirus provider on the servers/workstation on the inside of the network.
And for the antivirus appliance you should choose atleast one of the other engines.
Antispam appliances
The market is filled with Antispam appliances aswell as with antivirus appliances. Most of the appliances is worked into eachother. The difference is if you want the antivirus protection then this can usually be included for an additional fee.
When you buy an antispam appliance then it's also good to include an antivirus protection.
Different anti-virus appliances
Keeping up with anti-virus signature files and making sure all computers are always updated with the latest and newest antivirus signature files is a real though job.
It's a painstaking job to make sure of a secure network.
And letting your guard down for just a couple of days might make your network infected.
Even though there are good management tools for keeping this operation running smoothly it's still to keep a secure network.
This is where antivirus appliances come in to the picture. This can act as your gatekeeper and make sure that only a small procentage of the viruses can enter your network.
Most viruses enters through e-mail so why not stop the viruses where they enter.
Layered Security with anti-virus appliance
With layered security we mean that in order to keep a more secure network then you should think of the idea of having one antivirus provider on the servers/workstation on the inside of the network.
And for the antivirus appliance you should choose atleast one of the other engines.
Antispam appliances
The market is filled with Antispam appliances aswell as with antivirus appliances. Most of the appliances is worked into eachother. The difference is if you want the antivirus protection then this can usually be included for an additional fee.
When you buy an antispam appliance then it's also good to include an antivirus protection.
Different anti-virus appliances
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