SpamTitan Protects Networks from Unwanted Guests (Page 2 of 2)

Once SpamTitan is configured, it is easy to use. Day-to-day operations start with a look at the system dashboard, shown in Figure 3. The Scan Summary is a useful tool for justifying email security expenses to management. The System Overview provides performance data so you know when it might be time to add another SpamTitan appliance. Other information, useful for network vulnerability and source IP blocking tasks, includes:

• Top 10 Virus Relays
• Top Viruses
• Top 10 Spam Relays

The dashboard also provides at-a-glance status of the AV scanners. An additional management feature is a series of graphs, supplied out of the box, that depict daily statistics. See Figure 4.

Overall, monitoring system health and identifying email anomalies are easy tasks to perform.

Once any email filtering system is configured and running smoothly, the biggest potential time-waster can be supporting users who believe important email was incorrectly flagged and placed in the message quarantine area. SpamTitan minimizes this effort with easy-to-use reporting, search, and quick-check tools. Figure 5 shows the quarantine search/management utility. Messages can either be delivered, whitelisted, or deleted from this interface. Other quarantine features include:

• Assignment of administrators by domain, providing granular control that allows distributed management
• User or group whitelisting or blacklisting

Messages users claim are valid, but appear questionable, can be checked with SpamTitan's built-in spam test. Sample results are shown in Figure 6. Using these results, email administrators can decide whether a message presents significant risk or whether delivery is warranted.

Help is available for every panel under every tab. And this isn't just a half-hearted attempt so the vendor can claim it exits. Rather, the help provided is clear, limits technical jargon, and is actually helpful. If an administrator gets stuck, there's always the built-in remote support functionality.

When I first looked over the ratings I gave this product, I was concerned. They looked too high, slanting in favor of the vendor. However, after several passes to check my results, I believe they represent the actual value and functionality of this product.

I've looked at several email filtering products, and I actually use one (unfortunately, not SpamTitan). In my opinion, this is the best I've seen so far.

Would you like to read more reviews? Look around Bright Hub and you’ll find reviews of numerous other leading security solutions including GFI MailEssentials, GFI LANguard, Norton Internet Security, Kaspersky Internet Security, ESET Smart Security, McAfee Total Protection, Blink Professional and ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.