Anti Spam with Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007

[Cary W. Shultz]

Good Morning!

Wanted to ask in this NG about how you guys are handling spam. I have my
own experiences (please see below) but - again - want to see what others are
doing.

What I usually do is as follows:

In Exchange Server 2003 SP2 implement the IMF v2. This - by itself - works
fairly well. I follow the article found here:

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Intelligent-Message-Filter-version-2-IMF-v2.html

I set things at: Gateway Blocking: 6
Junk E-mail: 5

This is not too aggressive. Remember, there is an error in the GUI. It
states '...SCL rating greater than or equal to...'. It should really read
'...greater than...'.

However, there is still a bit of spam that gets through. Much less than
were the IMF not used, but still enough for it to be a problem. So, in
those cases - depending on the number of e-mail boxes involved - I either
sign them up with a service like http://www.appriver.com or like
http://www.mailfoundry.com or suggest putting in an appliance from the
likes of http://www.barracudanetworks.com or http://www.mailfoundry.com.
For the record, I have nothing to do with any of these companies. Well,
other than using their services. I must also admit that I have yet to put
in an appliance (most balk at the initial cost).

Most of the environments that we manage are smaller (five to 50 users,
typically with one server.....). We do have a couple of larger clients
(+100 users). For these clients the appliance makes more sense than the
service. Anyone using either of the appliances that I mentioned (or any
other) with good/bad experiences?

We have yet to put in an Exchange Server 2007 - but will be in a couple of
months. I have seen from Bharat's web site how to enable the "IMF" for
Exchange Server 2007 (please see
http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2006/09/how-to-install-anti-spam-agents-on-hub.html).

Has anyone used the greylisting tool found at
http://www.grynx.com/projects/greylist?

Thanks,

Cary

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

No, but I am a big fan of MailFoundry's hosted service, and am starting to
set up a lot of my clients to use it.

You might also check out Vamsoft's ORF - www.vamsoft.com - inexpensive, and
very good. Helps a ton.

[Cary W. Shultz]

Lanwench,

As always, appreciate your input.

Regarding Mail Foundry - do you have a bunch of smaller clients (like 15
mailboxes)? If you have larger clients (like 100+) would you still use the
service or get the appliance? It seems to me to make more sense - in that
case - to get the appliance. What is your take on that?

Thanks,

Cary

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanw...@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmail.atyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:%23TQgJn7...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

[Rich Matheisen [MVP]]

"Cary W. Shultz" <csh...@nospam.m-c-c-inc.com> wrote:

>Wanted to ask in this NG about how you guys are handling spam. I have my
>own experiences (please see below) but - again - want to see what others are
>doing.

Two SecureComputing (CipherTrust) Edge servers and two SecureComputing
Ironmail servers.

[ snip ]

>However, there is still a bit of spam that gets through.

No spam filter (or service) will ever have a 100% spam strike rate
unless it also has a relatively large, and usually unacceptable, ham
strike rate.

>Has anyone used the greylisting tool found at
>http://www.grynx.com/projects/greylist?

No, but we do use greylisting in conjunction with a reputation server.

--
Rich Matheisen
MCSE+I, Exchange MVP
MS Exchange FAQ at http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm
Don't send mail to this address mailto:h.p...@getronics.com
Or to these, either: mailto:h.p...@pinkroccade.com mailto:melvin.mcp...@getronics.com mailto:melvin.mcp...@pinkroccade.com

[John Oliver, Jr. [MVP]]

If you are using Exchange 2007 look at Exchange Hosted Services filtering
which can be included with your Exchange CAL. There is 30 day trial
available at,

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/services/default.mspx

--
John Oliver, Jr
MCSE, MCT, CCNA
Exchange MVP 2007
Microsoft Certified Partner

"Cary W. Shultz" <csh...@nospam.m-c-c-inc.com> wrote in message
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