Thoughts on Barracudas?

[Scott Silva]

Julian Field spake the following on 8/21/2006 5:51 AM:
> 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.
> 
If I were to purchase an "Appliance" I would most definitely go with a
DefenderMX. I have heard more negatives on the Barracuda's than positives.
Maybe if you added Steve Swaney's RulesDuJour setup to your easy to use
spamassassin and Clamav setup, it would make a more effective system "out of
the box". And when an admin gets more knowledge, you can tune MailScanner to
catch anything. With a Barracuda, i believe you have to submit samples, and
hope they decide to add something for it.
The only thing a Barracuda has on MailScanner, IMHO, is the autoupdate
functionality. That is a plus for all the non-technical people out there.
I think the people on this list are aces above their "Barracuda Central".
-- 

MailScanner is like deodorant...
You hope everybody uses it, and
you notice quickly if they don't!!!!