Thoughts on Barracudas?

[Stephen Swaney]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mailscanner-bounces at lists.mailscanner.info [mailto:mailscanner-
> bounces at lists.mailscanner.info] On Behalf Of Billy A. Pumphrey
> Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 10:02 AM
> To: MailScanner discussion
> Subject: RE: Thoughts on Barracudas?
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mailscanner-bounces at lists.mailscanner.info [mailto:mailscanner-
> > bounces at lists.mailscanner.info] On Behalf Of Julian Field
> > Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 8:51 AM
> > To: MailScanner discussion
> > Subject: Thoughts on Barracudas?
> >
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > 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
> > www.MailScanner.info
> > Buy the MailScanner book at www.MailScanner.info/store
> >
> > PGP footprint: EE81 D763 3DB0 0BFD E1DC 7222 11F6 5947 1415 B654
> >
> >
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> > Version: PGP Desktop 9.5.0 (Build 1112)
> > Comment: (pgp-secured)
> > Charset: ISO-8859-1
> >
> > wj8DBQFE6axCEfZZRxQVtlQRAiZ7AJ4oePxv84AnY5kWulLNvXbHDhCNxACgnwq9
> > aSJKg2X8ibML6k+ZA3hpPlQ=
> > =Ji1K
> > -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> >
> > --
> > This message has been scanned for viruses and
> > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> > believed to be clean.
> > For all your IT requirements visit www.transtec.co.uk
> >
> > --
> > MailScanner mailing list
> > mailscanner at lists.mailscanner.info
> > http://lists.mailscanner.info/mailman/listinfo/mailscanner
> >
> > Before posting, read http://wiki.mailscanner.info/posting
> >
> > Support MailScanner development - buy the book off the website!
> >
> > --
> > This message has been scanned for viruses and
> > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> > believed to be clean.
> 
> 
> I have thought about appliances in general just because they are set and
> forget it type machines.  I would like very much for MailScanner to have
> such an option.  I enjoy taking care of the MailScanner machine mainly
> because I learn from configuring and messing it up.  That is about the
> only reason.  I find that it is hard to learn what one needs to know to
> get the most spam blockage.  I believe that I can do an excellent job at
> blocking spam, but if you do not learn a bunch of things (if you were
> like me) and take multiple days to set it up it does not do a very good
> job.
> 
> It would be nice if there was a prepackage ( I guess fort systems covers
> this area) that had all of the common units installed and it was ready
> to go.  Had Rules installed, Pyzor, DCC, the SARE rules, trained Bayes
> datatbase, ClamAV, bitdefender, MailWatch, etc.
> 
> Then after that, automatic updates would be super.  Most of the updates
> are somewhat covered.  I guess the only ones missing from automatic
> updates in my knowledge are MailScanner, SpamAssassin, and ClamAV,
> MailWatch.
> 

DefenderMX packages all of the application as rpms which use install.sh or
upgrade.sh scripts to do all the work. Very easy to install or upgrade.
Version 2.0 (out this fall) will use `yum` to make this even less of a
challenge :)

> In essence all of that would turn MailScanner into a appliance type
> machine, which I would think it would appeal to even more people.

Steve

Stephen Swaney
Fort Systems Ltd.
stephen.swaney at fsl.com
www.fsl.com