GFi MailEssentials
Features
Server-based anti-spam and anti-phishing
GFI MailEssentials is server-based and installs on the mail server or at the Gateway, eliminating the deployment and administration hassle of desktop-based anti-spam and anti-phishing products. Desktop-based software involves training your users to create anti-spam rule sets, and subsequently users have to spend time updating these rules. Besides, this system does not prevent your server message stores from filling up with spam.
Bayesian filtering technology
Bayesian filtering is widely acknowledged by leading experts and publications as the best way to catch spam. A Bayesian filter uses a mathematical approach based on known spam and ham (valid email). This gives it a tremendous advantage over other spam solutions that just check for keywords or rely on downloading signatures of known spam. GFI’s Bayesian filter uses an advanced mathematical formula and a dataset which is ‘custom-created’ for your installation: The spam data is continuously updated by GFI and is automatically downloaded by GFI MailEssentials, whereas the ham data is automatically collected from your own outbound mail. This means that the Bayesian filter is constantly learning new spam tricks, and spammers cannot circumvent the dataset used. This results in a 98+% spam detection rate, after the required two-week learning period. In short, Bayesian filtering has the following advantages:
- Looks at the whole spam message, not just keywords or known spam signatures
- Learns from your outbound mail (ham) and therefore greatly reduces false positives
- Adapts itself over time by learning about new spam and new valid mail
- Dataset is unique to your company, making it impossible to bypass
- Multilingual and international.
Downloads updates to spam profile database
GFI MailEssentials can download updates to the Bayesian spam profile database from the GFI site, ensuring that it recognises the latest spam and spamming techniques. GFI maintains the spam profile database by working with a number of spam collection organisations that continually supply spam samples.
NEW! – Protect your users against the menace of phishing emails
GFI MailEssentials provides the ability to detect and block threats posed by phishing emails through it’s Phishing URI Realtime Blocklist (PURBL). The GFI MailEssentials PURBL detects phishing emails by comparing Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) present in the email to a database of URIs which are known to be used in phishing attacks, and also by looking for typical phishing keywords in the URIs.
Sort spam to users' junk mail folders
GFI MailEssentials gives you the flexibility to choose what to do with spam. You can delete it, move it to a folder, forward the spam mail to a public email address or folder, or send it to individual customisable folders (for example, a “junk mail” folder) in the end-users’ inboxes. This allows users to easily review mail that has been flagged as spam.
List server for newsletter lists and discussion lists
A list server is the best method for distributing company newsletters, since it automates the process of allowing users to subscribe and unsubscribe (required by anti-spam regulations). However, until now, list servers have been expensive and difficult to administer and they did not integrate with Exchange Server. GFI MailEssentials integrates with Exchange and can use Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server as the backend. Both newsletter lists and discussion lists are supported.
Easy tuning of the Bayesian engine via public folders
Administrators can easily tune the Bayesian engine by dragging and dropping spam or ham to the appropriate public folder. GFI MailEssentials learns from the spam and ham that it picks up from these folders and further improves its spam detection rate. Administrators can control access to this feature through the use of Public Folder security.
Allow users to whitelist or blacklist via public folders
GFI MailEssentials allows users to whitelist or blacklist senders simply by dragging and dropping the appropriate mail to a public folder. This gives users more control and reduces administration. Administrators can control access to this feature through the use of Public Folder security.
Email header analysis & keyword checking
GFI MailEssentials intelligently analyses the email header and identifies spam based on message field information. It detects forged headers, encoded IPs, spam mutation, spam sent from invalid domains, and more. It also enables you to configure keywords to check for spam using keyword checking.
3rd party DNS blacklists (DNSBL) checking
GFI MailEssentials supports third party DNS blacklists (real time black hole lists), which are databases of known spammers. If the sending mail server is on one of those lists, GFI MailEssentials marks the email as spam. GFI MailEssentials supports popular third party blacklists such as ORDB, SpamHaus, Spamcop or RBL. GFI also supports custom blacklists.
Support for multiple 3rd party SURBL servers
GFI MailEssentials checks email content against SURBL servers. Administrators can configure multiple SURBL servers, add their own and also define the priority of which server should be checked first. More information on SURBL can be found at www.surbl.org.
Automatic whitelist management reduces false positives
Whitelists enable you to ensure that mail from particular senders or domains are never flagged as spam, permitting more stringent anti-spam rules. GFI MailEssentials includes a patent-pending automatic whitelist management tool, which automatically adds mail recipients to your whitelist. This greatly reduces false positives, without any need for additional administration. Whitelists can also be built based on domain names, email addresses and based on keywords.
Instant view of emails from new senders
The New Senders feature provides users with an instant view of emails sent from people they never had previous contact with, thereby helping users to better organise emails in their email client. If an email is not found to be spam by the GFI MailEssentials anti-spam modules and is also not on the whitelist, then the New Senders module has the ability to move the email to a user's subfolder, for example, Inbox\NewSenders.
Eliminates directory harvesting
Spammers often try to guess recipient addresses by generating multiple random email addresses at a domain; they then send their spam mail to all those addresses. GFI MailEssentials checks the validity of ALL the email addresses included in the mail sent, either via a query to Active Directory or through support for LDAP, and if they are not all valid, marks the mail as spam.
Reports on spam filtering and mail usage
The new database-driven reporting engine allows you to create advanced reports on your inbound and outbound email. You can report on the amount of spam filtered and which rules caught most spam. You can generate reports on user, domain and mail server usage.
Support for SPF - the Sender Policy Framework
As most of today’s spammers spoof email addresses, it is important to be able to check whether an email is genuine or if it has been sent from a forged sending address. This can be done via the Sender Policy Framework (SPF), which allows users to test whether a particular email originates from its claimed source. GFI MailEssentials is one of the first commercial anti-spam solutions to support this framework. Its new SPF module automatically checks whether the mail from a particular company was actually sent by its registered mail servers. For more on SPF, visit www.openspf.org
Set priorities for each anti-spam module
You can configure which method of capturing spam is to be given priority, and create your own hierarchical list. For example, the administrator can select that the whitelisting anti-spam feature must be applied first to all incoming mail, then Bayesian scanning, and so on.
Company-wide disclaimer/footer/header text
GFI MailEssentials enables you to add disclaimers to the top or bottom of an email. Text and HTML formats are supported. You can include fields/variables to personalise the disclaimer. You can also create multiple disclaimers and associate them with a user, group or domain.
Email monitoring
The mail monitoring feature enables you to keep a central store of the email communications of a particular person or department. Because you can configure the mail to be copied to an email address, all email can be stored in an Exchange or Outlook store, so that you can easily search for email or content.
l archiving to a SQL database
MailEssentials can archive all inbound and outbound mail to a Microsoft SQL Server database. You can search for a particular email or an entire email thread via the included web interface. Mail archiving is essential for back-up and search reasons.
Seamless integration with Exchange Server 2000/2003 & 5.5
GFI MailEssentials integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003: It installs on the Exchange SMTP service and does not require gateway configuration. Via the SMTP protocol, it also works with Exchange 5.5, Lotus Notes and other popular SMTP/POP3 servers.
Content checking, anti-virus & anti-Trojan
Get anti-virus, email content checking and anti-Trojan protection for your mail server with the GFI MailSecurity/GFI MailEssentials bundle. GFI MailSecurity for Exchange/SMTP is an email content checking, exploit detection, threats analysis and anti-virus solution that removes all types of email-borne threats before they can affect your email users.
Other features:
- Whitelisting of emails by keyword
- Blocking foreign language spam based on character set
- Mail monitoring of particular user or department email communications
- Fake non-delivery reports (NDRs)
- Personalised server-based auto replies with tracking number
- POP3 downloader
- Web interface for searching mail archive.
Screenshots
Requirements
- Windows 2000/2003 - Pro, Server or Advanced Server or Windows XP Professional.
- IIS5 SMTP service installed and running as an SMTP relay to your mail server.
- Microsoft Exchange server 2000, 2003, 4, 5 or 5.5, Lotus Notes 4.5 and up, or an SMTP/POP3 mail server.
- For the list server feature, Microsoft Message Queueing Services is required.
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