MS Exchange 2003 - Problems with spam!

Prophet · 11 Aug 2006 at 09:17

Hi,

We've upgraded exchange to SP2 in the hope that the update IMF stops the spam we've been having. After 24 hours we are still receiving around 5-10 emails per user.

The IMF is set to a fairly tight level and I'm worried that setting it higher will stop important messages etc.

What's everyone else doing to stop this?

Any help/advice is appreciated.

bitslice · 11 Aug 2006 at 10:21

spam (mostly) comes from users/offspring using their email address on websites, ask them to stop doing that if possible.
With 5-10/user I reckon your domain is beyond help in that respect.

I think the only effective way is to use a gateway product like Surfcontrol or Mimesweeper. (used both, both good)
Or outsource your mail to a scanning service.

.

csmager · 11 Aug 2006 at 10:26

What SPF level is your IMF filter set at?

Prophet · 11 Aug 2006 at 10:39

csmager said:
What SPF level is your IMF filter set at?

I believe it was 5 but now at 4.

csmager · 11 Aug 2006 at 11:11

Orange Peel said:
I believe it was 5 but now at 4.

Mine's been on 6 since i started using it. It's still set to archive all messages it blocks, and I look through them with IMF Companion to see if there are any false positives. There have hardly been any.

Although just recently I've started getting more spam making it through to my inbox (although far less than the 60+/day I used to get!).

Freakish_05 · 11 Aug 2006 at 11:52

bitslice said:
spam (mostly) comes from users/offspring using their email address on websites, ask them to stop doing that if possible.
With 5-10/user I reckon your domain is beyond help in that respect.

I agree.

If you want to stop it completely I would get a new domain and enforce a strict policy against users using their business address for personal use. We've done the same thing at my place, worked a treat. Of course, there are people who break the rules, they get their proxy accounts disabled

bitslice · 11 Aug 2006 at 12:02

Freakish_05 said:
they get their proxy accounts disabled

I add a digit to their email name and say, that's your new address;
any email not in a whitelist(s) and sent to the old address gets deleted.

I apply that rule to me too - and have had to change my email address this morning, ...darn "cid:" spam

it works though, we get zero spam to the users mailboxes.

.

feenster99 · 11 Aug 2006 at 12:53

Mildly OT: does the SP2 apply to Windows Server 2003 Small Business edition too? The MS website says it does, but the actual installation file mentions only the standard/premium editions.

Matt

bitslice · 11 Aug 2006 at 13:20

feenster99 said:
Mildly OT: does the SP2 apply to Windows Server 2003 Small Business edition too?

apparently so:
http://www.vladville.com/articles/exchangesp2sbs2003.asp

don't take it as gospel, I know nothing about SBS

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Otacon · 11 Aug 2006 at 14:08

feenster99 said:
Mildly OT: does the SP2 apply to Windows Server 2003 Small Business edition too? The MS website says it does, but the actual installation file mentions only the standard/premium editions.

Matt

It's there on the SBS boxes I've seen