Thoughts on Barracudas?

DAve dave.list at pixelhammer.com
Mon Aug 21 14:30:36 IST 2006


Martin Hepworth wrote:
> Julian Field wrote:
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>>
>> Folks,
>>
>> I have had some comments from a few people leaving the mailing list as 
>> they are ditching their MailScanner setups and switching to Barracuda 
>> applicances instead. They claim that things worked fine when they 
>> first installed MailScanner, but gradually more and more spam is 
>> leaking through, to the point where they have decided to abandon it.
>>
>>
>> Here is what he said:
>>
>> "I've tried Mailscanner on FreeBSD for almost one year. It worked great
>> for about two months, then after every upgrade it began to let more and
>> more spam through. I've tried everything to fix it and just got tired of
>> my users complaining of increased spam.
>> "It wasn't worth the headache. Your forums indicate that there are
>> numerous people experienced the same problems I have encountered.
>> "I have since purchased a Barracuda SPAM 200 firewall. This device has
>> worked much better."
>>
>>
>>
>> What is your opinion on the Barracuda appliance?
>> How easy is it to use?
>> Does it actually work?
>> Can it survive the loads they say it can?
>>
>> And, of course, how does it compare with MailScanner?
>>
>> Please be open and honest, and as impartial as you can.
>>
>> All of your thoughts are most welcome.
>>
>> - -- Julian Field
> 
> Jules
> 
> You need to maintain the SA side of things, make sure you have 
> RulesDuJour etc installed and picking up the SARE and other rules.
> 
> Spam is an evolving thing and therefore you need to spend a little time 
> making sure you system can auto-update. It's not a install/forget system 
> - I think this way of thinking is another example of M$ skewing the 
> market, you don't need all  those expensive well trained/experienced 
> sys-admins!
> 
>  From what I've heard of Baracuda they are not very good (I've heard 
> expletives use here). Cobweb (who run a hosted MS-Exchange business in 
> the UK) used to use them but moved away about 6 months ago as the spam 
> trapping was v poor.
> 
> Upgrading MS won't increase the spam getting through, this is just an 
> excuse.....ya gotta setup SA correctly in the first place.
> 
> The thing how can we get people to setup SA better?
> 
> 

I was just involved in a long conversation on that very subject on the 
SA list. There are now SARE rules available from a sa-update channel. 
sa-update is a very nice setup and looks to provide a one stop shop to 
install and maintain rules in a single location with a single method.

Check the "Re: SARE sa-update channels available!" thread.

DAve


-- 
Three years now I've asked Google why they don't have a
logo change for Memorial Day. Why do they choose to do logos
for other non-international holidays, but nothing for
Veterans?

Maybe they forgot who made that choice possible.


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