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Anti-spam Software Advice


Stevieb

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Hi all!

Just now my work e-mail accounts attract a silly amount of spam, I'm taking hundreds per day. I can't do anything server side as our hosts are living in the dark ages when it comes to hosting and the boss doesn't want to host ourselves here.

I have tried various ad-on filters, but none are that robust. The Outlook filters are great, they filter all the spam but they also filter most of my good mail to, so it's not very helpful. the nature of my work e-mails mean that no matter what I do a high number of good mails get filtered as junk or spam.

What I would ideally like to do, is have something sitting here in the office acting as a filter. For example, I have a spare application server sitting here, if I could install something there that would act as a mail client, download and filter mail, then on the office PCs I have them download the mail from the server instead of our actual mail server. I would just send direct from the mail server so that's no problem.

Any ideas or suggestions? Or is this all a bit of a pipe dream?

Thanks guys

Steve

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Hi, Steve!

...One simple way would be to use the SpamCop e-mail service. As I understand it (I don't use it, myself) it applies your choice of rules, blacklists and filters. If I understand correctly, you can "POP" your existing e-mail into a SpamCop e-mail account.

...Another (probably a good bit more complicated) way is to apply what is described in "SpamCop FAQ: How do I configure my mailserver to reject mail based on the blocklist?"

...Undoubtedly, there will be further suggestions here from other contributors in due course.

...Good luck!

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the boss doesn't want to host ourselves here.

What I would ideally like to do, is have something sitting here in the office acting as a filter. For example, I have a spare application server sitting here, if I could install something there that would act as a mail client, download and filter mail, then on the office PCs I have them download the mail from the server instead of our actual mail server. I would just send direct from the mail server so that's no problem.

although there are numerous possible solutions, some 'freeware' some $$, I'm loath to make suggestions, as the above dialog seems to contain some problems. If your boss doesn't want anything dealing with a "local host" which is basically what you're suggesting (even if you tried to split the send/receive functions) then I'd say you're not going to make it happen.

Even the phrase "spare application server" doesn't sound close enough to a "spare computer" to actually re-purpose the system, especially if looking at the most obvious and 'cheap' way to accomplish your goal (thinking of re-formating and tossing up a *NIX [e-mail] server.) Yes, there are Windows solutions, but ..... the end is still the fact that you'd be setting up an e-mail server, which is against your boss'e wishes.

I suppose there could be some bit of vagueness about the differences between "hosting" and "serving" but ....?????

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Hi, Steve!

...One simple way would be to use the SpamCop e-mail service. As I understand it (I don't use it, myself) it applies your choice of rules, blacklists and filters. If I understand correctly, you can "POP" your existing e-mail into a SpamCop e-mail account.

...Another (probably a good bit more complicated) way is to apply what is described in "SpamCop FAQ: How do I configure my mailserver to reject mail based on the blocklist?"

...Undoubtedly, there will be further suggestions here from other contributors in due course.

...Good luck!

I'd rather not have the companies e-mail being filtered through a 3rd party I'm afraid, thanks for the suggestion though!

although there are numerous possible solutions, some 'freeware' some $$, I'm loath to make suggestions, as the above dialog seems to contain some problems. If your boss doesn't want anything dealing with a "local host" which is basically what you're suggesting (even if you tried to split the send/receive functions) then I'd say you're not going to make it happen.

Even the phrase "spare application server" doesn't sound close enough to a "spare computer" to actually re-purpose the system, especially if looking at the most obvious and 'cheap' way to accomplish your goal (thinking of re-formating and tossing up a *NIX [e-mail] server.) Yes, there are Windows solutions, but ..... the end is still the fact that you'd be setting up an e-mail server, which is against your boss'e wishes.

I suppose there could be some bit of vagueness about the differences between "hosting" and "serving" but ....?????

It's not that the boss doesn't want anything on localhost, they are just too cheap to buy the hardware to make it happen. The application server here only holds a small database and could easily be split purpose if required.

Cheers for the responses so far.

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I'd rather not have the companies e-mail being filtered through a 3rd party I'm afraid, thanks for the suggestion though!

It's not that the boss doesn't want anything on localhost, they are just too cheap to buy the hardware to make it happen. The application server here only holds a small database and could easily be split purpose if required.

Cheers for the responses so far.

Well, I'm still a bit confused as to what you do want... there are services like Postini where you point your internet MX record to them and they filter and forward all other messages to your current mail server. They hold all of the trapped messages for a certain amount of time. I have used this company at my last 2 jobs, both small places with not a lot of money to throw around.

The first place was still paying for internet per bandwidth and the Postini service paid for itself the first year with the amount of junk mail that was not pushed down our pipe. In addition, it stopped the Notes server (what we were using at the time for mail) from crashing at least weekly.

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It's not that the boss doesn't want anything on localhost, they are just too cheap to buy the hardware to make it happen. The application server here only holds a small database and could easily be split purpose if required.

you haven't mentioned the size (number of users/accounts) involved, so perhaps the following may nnot be heavy-duty enough for you, but ....

I personally used the free (5-uer) bersion of the 602LANSUITE tool a few years back for the huse and some family members. I was fairly happy with the functions provided, which included an e-mail server. They did away with the free version a long time ago, and re-visiting their site just now shows that they've sold/tranferred the current toolset to IceWarp. This is probably overkill anyway for what you're aaking about.

So the next suggestion would be the free/paid Pegasys/Mercury Mail (transport) system. I've also used this in the past for my own purposes (again, family, etc.)

Either of the above would keep you running under Windows territory. However, although you didn't offer much of a description of "the small database" involved, eunning under *NIX would also allow several database toolsets to be run.

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