mail

MailScan can be installed on an existing mail server and is available in over twenty variants to support many third-party Windows-based mail servers. We tested the generic version aimed primarily at non-Windows mail server platforms, MailScan for SMTP Servers.

PineApp's Mail-SeCure is an appliance with models ranging from home user to enterprise network. We tested the 2040, a mid-range model aimed at SMEs that comes in a slim, rack-mountable case, includes a firewall and has three Ethernet ports (internal, external, and DMZ). Their unit is configured via a web interface.

Clearswift MAILsweeper analyzes incoming and outgoing email at the internet gateway so organizations can implement management and security policies to block spam, viruses, inappropriate content, and comply with legal requirements.

MailMarshal is installed as an email gateway and may be used in conjunction with any SMTP-compatible email server. However, MailMarshal SMTP also supports POP3 mail protocols, and can act as a POP3 mail server for up to 300 users. It can also collect emails via POP3 for situations where there is a dial-up connection to the Internet.

The OrangeBox Mail software is designed to provide a complete email filtering system implemented as an SMTP relay at the gateway to the Internet. It runs on Windows 2000 or XP Professional and requires Microsoft Office to be installed for the analysis of Office documents. Remote management is also supported.

This product provides a content-filtering SMTP gateway on the Windows 2000/2003 Server operating system. It can share a server with other applications, but a dedicated server is recommended. It is available as a plug-in for Microsoft Exchange 5.5 and 2000, which can then police internal emails. It has open relay protection.

Avecho.com is an outsourced email service, which also provides protection from spam and all forms of dangerous content, including viruses, scripts, embedded HTML, attachments, etc. It also has email repository. It is suitable for everyone from the home user to the largest corporate customer. And, even though it is based in the UK, it doesn't matter where you are in the World as it works over the Internet. It can also handle your outbound traffic to prevent anyone in your organisation sending out spam or viruses.

DynaComm i:mail acts as an SMTP gateway, running on a Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 machine, which does not have to be dedicated to the task – it can also host the existing mail server, for example. It is a member of a family of products that together form DynaComm's i:series Enterprise Content Security Suite, which offers other optional components including general Internet access filtering (HTTP and FTP) and controls, and a component called i:scan that monitors file access and downloads across the enterprise in a very wide-ranging way (not just across the Internet) to control confidentiality and misuse of data.

This product offers content-management for email and the web. It has anti-spam filtering, confidentiality controls, http and ftp scanning, URL blocking for web security, and it includes eTrust Antivirus.

Old hand BorderWare has decided to focus on one particular area of network security - email. Whereas most companies are happy enough to bundle email in with the rest of its internet traffic and allow the firewall to handle all of it, BorderWare's MXtreme MX-200 appliance specifically focuses on the problems of email traffic.

Although F-Secure may not be the first name in anti-virus that springs to mind, its products are among the heaviest hitters in the industry. Unlike some products which depend purely on their signature lists to be updated, F-Secure also comprises multiple scanning engines and heuristic detection techniques that make it one of the first products to detect new viruses. The company has now brought its expertise to bear in email security with F-Secure Anti-Virus for Internet Mail.

The product is available for Windows (NT and 2000). A Unix version would be nice, although there is a version for Unix which sits at the firewall level. Installation presented no headaches. However because of the way the product works, disk and memory requirements are quite high. It is also better to share the scanning across more than one scanner server to keep bandwidth usage lower.