Add-ons, extensions and expansions to Microsoft Exchange Server's Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) seem to be popping up all over the place. Some are free products that don't do much more than elaborate on the reporting provided by IMF. Others are full-fledged commercial products that significantly expand IMF functionality.
A new commercial IMF tool that's recently crossed my path is SecurExchange IMF Edition, which is available as a standalone product or as part of the larger SecurExchange family of products.
SecurExchange IMF runs on Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 (SP2 is recommended), and allows an Exchange Server administrator to add the following functionality to Intelligent Message Filter:
- Whitelisting: SecurExchange IMF Edition provides Exchange IMF with the ability to automatically whitelist email. Designated email is not filtered at all, but simply passed directly along to recipients. The whitelisting can be done by email address, domain, country TLDs (such as .ie or .ch), or IP address (although not by content).
- Multiple SCL thresholds: Exchange IMF normally only has one threshold for spam confidence levels (SCL). SecurExchange lets you add multiple thresholds; an email could be branded as "good," "suspect," or "spam," depending on its SCL levels. Customized threshold settings can also be configured for different user groups.
- More mail actions: Email can be moved to new folders, rerouted, CCed to a given user, or auto-replied based on its assessment.
A few key functions are not available in SecurExchange IMF:
- Control over blacklists
- Phishing protection
- Custom content rules
In other words, SecurExchange IMF Edition does not offer detailed control over spam detection. For that, you would need to obtain one of the other full versions of SecurExchange, such as the Corporate, Perimeter, or SBS editions.
SecurExchange IMF is available in a 30-day trial evaluation version. The purchase price is based on the number of SMTP connectors used by your Exchange Server: $249 for one connector, $199 for five or more connectors, with bulk discounts available.
About the author: Serdar Yegulalp is editor of Windows Insight, a newsletter devoted to hints, tips, tricks, news and goodies for all flavors of Windows users.
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Related information from SearchExchange.com:
Tip: Understanding Exchange Server IMF's 3 MB message limit
Tip: Simplified IMF Spam Confidence Level rankings for Outlook
Crash Course: Exchange Intelligent Message Filter
Learning Guide: How to fight spam on Exchange Server
Reference Center: Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server administration tools
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