[spambayes-dev] Microsoft Exchange Server integration / WebInterface Integration

[Ryan Malayter]

[Kevin Bruckert]
> On an Microsoft Exchange 2003 server, we receive
> plenty of spam. I've tried various solutions, but they
> all fall short in the UI arena. What I want to do is
> the following: Each user has a seperate database,
> although an initial global database never hurt anyone.
> >From there, users can either install a client module
> into their Outlook, giving them an easy-to-use
> feedback mechanism. Or, for many of the users,
> integration into the Exchange Server web interface.
> The integration into the web interface should be
> smooth and easy-to-use as well, instead of having to
> run between multiple places to report spam.
> 
> By running the filters on the server, mail is filtered
> on entry to the system, and allows quick access to
> import email while on-the-go.
> 
> I'm willing to put in as much effort as I can to do
> such work, but might want a little help at various
> stages to understand the existing architecture and
> prevent re-working areas which are already written.
 
The best server-side Exchange Server filter we evaluated in terms of UI
was Sunbelt Software's iHateSpam Server Edition. We ended up buying it
because it was the simplest to use and deploy, and works reasonably
well, even though it's not a Bayesian filter. The only UI is a set of
folders created in each users inbox that contain filtered spam as well
as a whitelist and blacklist. I suggest you check it out, they have a
free demo. We get capture rates of  88% with the current version and our
threshold set to 170.

None of the other commercial or open-source Bayesian filters - which
filter more accurately - came close to iHateSpam SE in terms of
deployment ease and ease of use. Those two factors overrode all of our
other criteria.

That said, if you want to use Spambayes in a sever-side scenario, you'll
have to customize the code a lot to make it work. You might be better
off trying to use something like DSPAM on a linux box as a gateway in
front of your Exchange server. It has per-user filtering.

Another option that worked well for us for a while was ASSP, avalable at
http://assp.sourceforge.net. However, it does not do per-user filtering.
It has one DB for all users on a server. We ended up abandoning it
because we couldn't get our test group to train it well, despite lots of
instruction. The performance was very good when it was only the IT
department using it, though ;-).

Regards,
	Ryan