7/30/2019 Pcw Review Dec 08

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UserscanbegivendirectaccessbothtomessagesquarantinedbySecurityGatewayandtotheirownquarantinesettings

EMAILSECURITYAlt-N SecurityGatewayProtect your email server with this easy-to-manage application

BUSINESS>REVIEWS

malware.It

puts

that

to

good

use

in

Securitygateway,

an

easytomanagestandalonetoolthatcanbeusedtoprotect

mailserversfromawidevarietyofthreats.

Designedforsmalltomediumsizedcompanies,itsits

betweentheInternetandtheemailserver,filteringboth

incomingandoutgoingmessages.Antivirusandantispam

protectionare,naturally,keyoptionswithaClamantivirus

engineasstandard,plusaKasperskyscannerifyoubuythe

ProtectionPlusplugin(from97.44exVatfor10users).

ProtectionPlusalsoaddssocalledOutbreakProtection,to

defendagainstnewandevolvingthreats.However,even

withoutit,thepackageofferscomprehensiveprotection

againstanarrayofmultilayeredthreatsfromspoofedemail

addressesto

the

latest

spyware

and

phishing

exploits.

Securitygatewayisaimedprimarilyatcompaniesrunning

ExchangebutcanbeusedtoprotectanySMTPbasedemail

systemonanyplatform.WetesteditusingExchangeServer

2007onaWindowsSmallBusinessServer2008system(see

reviewpage115)andfounditremarkablyeasytodeploy.

Weinstalleditontothemailserveritself,althoughfor

largerloadsyoumayneedaseparategatewaymachine,

eitherrealorvirtual.Duringsetupyou'repromptedformail

serveranddomainnamesandaskedhowyouwanttoverify

useraddresses. Choiceshereincludemanuallyentering

addresses,SMTP'callforward'verificationagainstthemail

serveror,

when

using

Exchange,

Active

Directory

synchronisation.

Awebbasedinterfaceisprovidedformonitoringand

management,whichwefoundveryeasytofollow.

Logonandyou'reconfrontedwithadashboarddisplay

showingthegateway'sstatuswithgraphssummarising

recentactivity.Comprehensivemonitoring,loggingand

reportingtools

are

also

included.

Thegatewaystartsworkingimmediatelywithdefault

settingsformostofthetools,althoughyoumaywanttogo

inandselectamoreaggressivesetupif,forexample,large

amountsofspamarestillgettingthrough.Youcanalsoadd

sitestotheblacklistsandwhitelistsheldonthegateway,

blockspecificattachmentsandbuildyourowncontent

filters.It'spossibletowritescriptsusingtheopensource

Sievelanguagethatdrivestheapplication.Asimpleeditor

makesthisrelativelyeasytodo,butafairamountof

technicalknowledgeisneeded.

Suspectmessagescanbeflagged,rejected,deletedor

quarantinedin

adatabase

held

on

the

gateway.

One

really

nicefeatureistheusers'abilitytomanagethisthemselves,

whichcanreallycutdownonsupportcalls.Regularemails

canbesentadvisingusersaboutwhat'sintheirquarantine

areasandtheycanbothaccessandmanagethose

messagesdirectlyaswellasbeallowedtochangetheir

quarantinesettingsandmaintaintheirownblacklists.

Otherusefulfeaturesincludeabuiltintooltobackupand

restoretheSecuritygatewaydatabaseandadddisclaimers

tooutgoingmail,althoughonlyinplaintextusingascript.

AdedicatedtooltoadddisclaimerstobothtextandHTML

messagesisscheduledforafuturerelease,asismessage

archiving. However,evenwithouttheseoptions

Securitygatewayis

acomprehensive

as

well

as

very

easy

tomanageemailsecurityprogramthatshoulddowellin

thesmallbusinessmarket.

AlanStevens

Pros CanbeusedwithExchangeorany

SMTPmailserver;simplewebbased

interface;multilayeredprotection:user

managedquarantine

Cons Technicalknowledgeneededtotakeadvantageofadvancedoptions;text

onlydisclaimers

Overall Animpressiveandaffordablenewemailsecuritytoolofferingahigh

levelofprotectioninaformatthat'seasy

tomanage

FeaturesEaseofuseValueformoney

Verdict

Price163.19(191.75exVat)for10usersContactZenSoftware01616605738

www.zensoftware.co.ukSystemrequirementsPentium4processororabove(multicore

recommended)512MBRam(2GB

recommended) WindowsXP,Vista,

WindowsServer2000or2003

NTFSvolumewithaminimum

500MBoffreespace

116 www.pcw.co.uk December2008

Overall

estknownforMDaemon,itspopular

Windowsbasedemailserver,AltNhasyears

ofexperienceindealingwithemailborne

B