Disclaimer

This product review reflects my own views on this product and as such reflect my opinion.   While some GFI product documentation has been consulted for the sake of clarity, none of it has been reproduced for the sake of this review

Introduction

This document serves to document a review of GFI MailEssentials Version 12.   The product was reviewed specifically for the purposes of:

• SPAM handling capabilities
• SBS usability - including POP functionality
• Exchange and mail flow handling

Executive Summary

GFI MailEssentials is a solid product, which lives up to the marketing claims made by GFI.   Installation and use is straight forward and easy, and with correct planning may be deployed in Small Business Server (SBS 2000 and 2003) and other single server implementations, as well as multiple server enterprise sized environments.   SPAM handling and message handling is very solid, configurable and flexible.    SBS based POP retrieval functionality is better than the native Microsoft connector as well as offering a full range of SPAM filter integration.   The author would recommend the product for use in Exchange or generic SMTP mail based environments. 

Installation

I installed MailEssentials directly onto a internet facing SBS 2003 server which collects mail via a catch-all POP3 mailbox.   Not quite optimal for mail delivery, but quite a common configuration for a lot of small businesses.   Also quite common in this scenario, is the lack of SPAM protection available, since the MS POP3 connector delivers mail via CDO, thereby negating the potential benefits of Intelligent Message Filtering (IMF) available in Exchange.   If your ISP doesn't offer SPAM protection then you tend to know about this quite quickly!

A side note on the MS POP3 connector - if you're depending on this connector then sadly you're used to sometimes badly delivered (no support for BCC recipients), occasional duplicate mails (resolves multiple recipients on the address lines as duplicate mails) with inflexible scheduling options (no earlier than every 15 minutes).   As mentioned before, the connector also doesn't integrate with Microsoft's own spam features.   Mail Essentials manages to fill these holes quite nicely with lots more functionality to spare! MailEssentials delivers mail directly into the SMTP folders pickup directory.   This feature alone buys you TREMENDOUS scalability, since GFI will scale along with your largest SMTP implementation.   Why is this a big deal? Microsoft built an awesomely scalable SMTP stack which is capable of handling truly massive amounts of mail.   Leveraging the SMTP stack as opposed to CDO or other methods on your Exchange server allow for greater scalability - because you're using the SMTP stack designed for the correct purpose - and greater stability.   Using SMTP for routing and delivery makes a huge amount of sense. 

The installer works great.   It confirmed the incoming SMTP domains that I'm hosting on my Exchange server.   During installation all of the pre-requisites were covered and installed for me if they didn't exist on the server.   GFI still supports Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000 as well as newer versions.   Again this is great news if you're running and older version of SBS or Exchange and need a solid anti spam product with loads of options.   Installation options allow for installation directly onto the Exchange server or o a separate machine in a DMZ that will function as a smart host. 

Configuring the catch-all mailboxes was a doddle! In the MailEssentials Configuration, Highlight the POP2exchange node and bring up the properties of the "General" item.   For every catch-all mailbox or individual pop3 account - useful if you have a split mail infrastructure with some POP mailboxes not delivered to the server - several parameters may be configured including a collection interval down to 1 minute! If you're running SBS, this alone makes mail feel like it's running in real time with only a small delay between sending and receiving on your end.   Other scheduling options support dial-up networking if this is required. 

How do you know your POP Mail is retrieving, routing and delivering correctly? GFI includes a bundled GFI Monitor which monitors BOTH the SMTP stack and POP2Exchange.  

More about SPAM

A bit of background to SPAM.   If you've had the misfortune of receiving SPAM in the last few years you know you're dealing with a moving target.   Relay black Lists (RBL's), keyword searches, White and Black lists' and Bayesian filtering are all PART of the solution.   For example, blocking an email on the basis of a known SPAM keyword works great if it's legitimate SPAM, however this scenario breaks really quickly when the email is legitimate OR the word is made up of an image or obscured.   This is where teaming learning technology such as Bayesian analysis along with traditional measures works well. 

This is where GFI starts shining! MailEssentials combine no less than 11 anti SPAM measures which includes Bayesian analysis.   Weather you're receiving mail via SMTP and need RBL/DNS and zombie protection along with directory harvesting or you're a Server based POP mail recipient and need Bayesian Analysis, Custom blacklists, keyword checking or header checking this product has options to support both. 

All eleven options are individually configurable as well s allowing not to return mail (NDR's can often reveal if attacks are working or not to spammers sending them) and to integrate directly with Exchange and Outlook by adding tag-s in the X-headers of the message instead of the subject.   This allows Outlook to classify the mail and dump it into the Junk-mail folder as opposed to your inbox.   Actions are also configurable by filter, allowing some mail to be subject line tagged as a specific type of spam - useful if your Bayesian filters are still learning - moving mail to users folders, deleting it, etc. 

Bayesian What?

Bayesian analysis is a predictive learning technology, which allows the classification of SPAM on the basis of learning what is "normal" in a given environment.   This means that you don't see anything for a while, while the filter is busy learning.   As mail flows in and out of your server, the filter learns about valid recipients, people who send mail and receive mail, and the content of the mail.   If you're a pharmaceutical company selling Viagra, then this may well be a valid word contained in your emails, however your mail profile needs to reflect the correct sender and receiver profile for this type of mail.   This is where Bayesian technology helps an awful amount.   I've heard claims made of up to 98% accuracy on Bayesian based filters. 

While things are learning

Waiting for filters to start learning can be very frustrating, however MailEssential allows itself to be helped along a bit through a feature called Remote Commands.   Switching on the Remote commands feature allows the product to receive email from your users with commands and keywords in the mail, thereby instructing it to classify a mail as valid or SPAM mail.    Remote Commands based mail may update the Bayesian filter, blacklists for recipients and domains as well as updating the keyword filters. 

Commands are sent by forwarding spam emails to the Remote Command address (configurable) with the corresponding command to add the item to the learning filter or blacklist. 

How do I know.  .  .  .  .  .  ?

Simple - Reporting.   User statistics, Daily Spam, Mail Server Usage, Domain Usage Statistics and more are represented reasonable well, with my only bugbear being that they are MS Access based. 

How's the support?

In a word - Great.   I had a minor issue - my fault, not theirs, and GFI were helpful, accommodating and didn't laugh at an Exchange MVP who got something wrong.   It did give me an opportunity to test drive their support though, and they came out with top marks. 

In Summary

I give the product a 5 out of 5 rating.   Why full marks? GFI MailEssentials works and works well.   There are more features available in the product such as disclaimers and List Servers as well as some REALLY basic mail archiving, however message retrieval and SPAM handling is where this product really shines.   If you have an Exchange or SBS based environment and you're looking for a SPAM handling product or a REALLY good replacement to the MS POP retrieval connector in SBS then try MailEssentials.  

Reporting can be switched from Access to SQL, which allows reporting to scale along with message flow in small or large environments.   If you'd like to know more then browse to http://www.  gfi.  com/mes/ for more information or go to http://www.  gfi.  com/downloads/downloads.  aspx?pid=me&lid=EN to download the trial. 

About the Author

 Nicolas Blank is a Microsoft Infrastructure Architect and Operations Director for Credo Technical Services and specializes in Exchange, Active Directory, architecture, systems management, migration and scripting.   Nicolas is a Microsoft MVP for Exchange and spends what spare time he has writing, blogging and talking about Exchange and associated technologies.