[TriLUG] Open source spam control & filtering?

Thu Dec 22 12:40:45 EST 2005

The "Someone else is accountable" argument doesn't hold water. Are you
really going to sue Symantec? Are you going to threaten to drop your
account with them? Unless you are a relatively substantial account,
they're not going to blink. Presumably you went with them because they
were the best solution in the first place, right? How much time do you
want to spend on the phone with Symantec support agents? Personally
I'd rather be doing the fixing myself (and/or writing to this list or
asking in the freenode #trilug channel if I get stuck).

I can think of several arguments in favor of a FOSS solution off the
bat: (1) Price/Performance, (2) Tweakability, (3) return on
investment--the larger the user pool, the better the solution when it
comes to FOSS, and all you put in was some time.

Going with a FOSS solution has many other benefits which others are
better at extolling. Just remember that David's argument presupposes a
flawless drop-in solution from the proprietary vendor and slow going
with the FOSS setup and maintenance. Those may turn out to be true,
but it sounds like you've done just fine with FOSS setup so far, and I
bet you'll be less confident in the proprietary vendors when you
actually read their disclaimers and warranty forms. Maybe I'm wrong. I
hate to see somebody give up before trying. Especially in an area
where Open Source projects are doing really well.

-CMP

On 12/22/05, Chad Thomsen <chad.thomsen at gmail.com> wrote:
> You make some excellent point David.  The more I think about it I might go
> with a comercial solution.  I am afraid of adding anything else complicated
> to the mix here as I am the only network guy here and if I leave I think my
> shoes would be hard to fill as I run so many different things between Cisco,
> Motorola, AS400, Citrix, Linux (snort)  Windows yadda yadda.  Why add the to
> the complexity.  " someone else is responsible/accountable if the product
> fails to deliver!!" is the major kicker here for me.  8-)
>
> I am mainly looking at Symantic Brightmail, Iron Port, Barracuda,
> Cypertrust, Trend Micro (since we have there desktop AV solution).
>
> Thanks!
>
> Chad
>
> On 12/22/05, David McDowell <turnpike420 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I'm stuck with Exchange as well.  I went with a purchased solution
> > from Symantec that includes the Brightmail plugin to their Mail
> > Security product for AntiSpam/AntiVirus.  I have to say it works quite
> > well.  The amount of spam in our inboxes has gone from 100 a day for
> > some people to less than 2 per week - for each employee.  The CEO was
> > getting over 300 per day... she now gets about less than 1 every other
> > week.  The results are mixed in that sense, but I'd say that's about
> > 98% give or take.
> >
> > Now if you want open source... I'm sure others in the thread will
> > suggest the popular postfix + spamassassin + clamAV + postgrey (new
> > greylisting stuff).  There have been various discussions on these mail
> > gateways over the last couple years on list so you may be able to
> > google search using "site:trilug.org" and find some of that
> > information.  The greylisting stuff is new.  People are apparently
> > raving about it... spamassassin simply isn't cutting it by itself
> > anymore it seems.  I know at home I'm getting 30 spams a day right now
> > that get through.  It totally sucks.  I have instructions for
> > implementing greylisting and will probably do so this weekend.
> >
> > good luck on your choice!  BTW, another reason I went for a paid
> > solution... someone else is responsible/accountable if the product
> > fails to deliver!!  :)  Yes I chose the product, but when you pay for
> > something (in the CEO's eyes) you have greater accountability for it
> > to work properly.  The SPAM issue was too huge here (b/c of their
> > previous admins never teaching them anything so they used their email
> > addresses EVERYWHERE on the Internet) ... so I had to make sure that
> > solution worked (and I didn't have extra hardware for the SMTP Gateway
> > either).
> >
> > David McD
> >
> >
> > On 12/21/05, Chad Thomsen <chad.thomsen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Am going to put an Exchange server in for email and I have no choice on
> > > that.  I do however have a choice in Spam/Virus/HTTP filtering for a
> > gateway
> > > solution.  Want to filter spam, viruses, spyware and possibley stop
> > users
> > > from visiting black listed web sites that are against company policy.
> > >
> > > I am looking at all types of products form Symantec, Barracuda, Iron
> > Port,
> > > Trend etc etc.  I thought I might even build myself an opensource one.
> > > Question for you all is there a good open source solution?
> > >
> > > I am open to any suggestions.  This is for a corporate environment with
> > > about 250 users.
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > >
> > > Chad
> > > --
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--

Cristobal M. Palmer
UNC-CH SILS Student
cristobalpalmer at gmail.com
cmpalmer at ils.unc.edu
ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer
"Television-free since 2003"