Eliminate Spam at the Server Level
GFI Software's GFI MailEssentials for Exchange/SMTP
GFI Software's GFI MailEssentials for Exchange/SMTP is server-based antispam software that eliminates spam at the server level and eliminates the need for you to install and update antispam software on each desktop. The software also adds email-management tools to your mail server such as disclaimers, mail archiving and monitoring, Internet mail reporting, list server, server-based autoreplies, and POP3 downloading.
Stephen Koning of Calgary, Canada, nominated GFI MailEssentials as a product that helps him do his job better. He says, "Recently, when I arrived at my desk after being away all weekend, I had received 865 email messages. GFI MailEssentials correctly identified 811 of the messages as spam and placed them in my spam folder rather than my Inbox. There wasn't one false positive in that group. Of the remaining 54 messages, 5 of them were valid messages and 49 were spam messages that had slipped through the GFI MailEssentials filters. The interesting thing about GFI MailEssentials is that it uses Bayesian analysis of messages so that it can learn the vocabulary of an organization by analyzing sent messages and using the knowledge gained from analysis to differentiate good messages from bad ones. GFI MailEssentials has already saved me enough time to justify the cost of purchase and installation. The software was extremely easy to install and configure. I highly recommend it for anyone using Microsoft Exchange Server."
Reader: Stephen Koning
Calgary, Canada
Product: GFI MailEssentials for Exchange/SMTP
Company: GFI Software
Contact:
www.gfi.com
919-379-3397, 888-243-4329
Create System State Backups
ERDisk from Quest Software
ERDisk from Quest Software can create system state backups for collections of Windows 2003/XP/2000/NT computers remotely and across the network. You can recover failed servers or workstations in minutes. The software stores system state backups in a central location, so you always know where they are.
Randy Samora of Houston, Texas, recommends ERDisk to Windows IT Pro readers. He says, "I am a network engineer responsible for more than 400 Windows servers. We purchased ERDisk to expedite server recovery in the event of a failure. Like every other tool we purchased, I had enough time to install it, load the defaults, then move onto the next project. I've had to rebuild the server running ERDisk twice because of the size of the backup files. I went from storing five previous backup files to only keeping the previous two due to disk space. I finally realized that there had to be a better way of running this process, so I contacted Quest Software. I learned that ERDisk has an option called Intelligent Backup that recognizes files that are identical on all backups with the same OS. Instead of backing up those same files to every image backup of each server, ERDisk only backs up files unique to each server. I'm now able to store the five previous backups for all servers. Not only can I save more copies of my backups, but the time ERDisk spends accessing a server's resources for a backup are greatly diminished. If you're not running ERDisk, get it. If you're running ERDisk, take a closer look at your configuration—there's more to the application than the default settings give you."
Reader: Randy Samora
Houston, Texas
Product: ERDisk
Company: Quest Software
Contact:
www.quest.com, 949-754-8000
Automate Generating Outlook Profiles
Imanami's Oprofile
Don Steiner of Cleveland uses Imanami's Oprofile and provides high praise for the product. He says, "Oprofile eliminates the need to manually configure Microsoft Outlook email client settings. You configure settings once, then the software is able to use the user logon credentials to configure Outlook on the fly. We use Oprofile on Citrix Systems servers in which a particular application is 'email-enabled' and the Citrix user needs access to Outlook. Often there are as many as hundreds of users hitting random servers in a Citrix farm. Oprofile keeps the mail profiles in order. I've also found the product useful in smaller firms in which a group of people use a machine or a small number of machines for email. Instead of me having to log on as each person and configure Outlook email settings, Oprofile automatically does the work. The latest version can even manage dial-up networking configurations."
Once installed, Oprofile is set in the registry to run every time someone logs on to a machine. The solution runs well on Terminal Servers or anywhere that multiple users log on to the same machine. Contact Imanami for pricing.
Reader: Don Steiner
Cleveland, Ohio
Product: Oprofile
Company: Imanami
Contact:
www.imanami.com, 925-371-3000, 800-684-8515
