BarricadeMX experiences

[Richard Lynch]

Note: I am not affiliated with Fort Systems Ltd in any way -- only as a 
satisfied customer.

I spent this past weekend installing BarricadeMX on our MailScanner 
servers.  We process about 1.7 million messages per weekday (mon-fri).  
We currently run with 5 servers.  These are typical servers with dual 
cpus, scsi disks(raid), etc.  We run MailScanner, SpamAssassin, DCC, 
etc.  About 50% of the connections are dropped at the MTA using 
Spamhaus' xbl-sbl blacklists.  The 1.7 million msg count does not 
included those messages stopped by the blacklists at the MTA.

During the day on a weekend the processors run at near 40% utilization 
(using sar).  Once BarricadeMX was installed the utilization dropped 
immediately to 7-8%.  At first I thought something was wrong -- but it 
wasn't.  Today was a good test.  Four of the five systems ran fine all 
day.  The fifth one got a little behind (300-400 messages in mqueue.in) 
during the peak load period but no one complained.  The only complaint 
had to do with the spf policy which I ended up disabling.  That was it.  
I received no other complaints all day and I usually get pounded about 
mail delays. 

Originally I was looking at getting yet another server but decided to 
give BarricadeMX a try first.  My thinking now is to drop back to 2 or 3 
servers and use the two freed up ones for other projects.  My 
experiences so far with support is great as well.  I had some problems 
with the software installation on Saturday.  I posted a message to 
support at fsl.com and received an immediate solution within 10 minutes.  
I'm serious, it was 10 minutes and on a Saturday.

I can't say enough about this product.  I'm posting my experiences here 
because this list is where I first saw the product announcement and I 
believe any site running MailScanner can benefit from this package.  
It's reasonably priced, great support, and can actually save you money 
with the reduction in hardware alone.  It's also easy to install and 
easy to take in and out.  They'll also let you demo it. 

I know this comes off sounding like a sales pitch but it's hard to 
describe the experience without sounding like one.  It really is an 
amazing product.


Richard Lynch
WVNET

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