Inbound mail to invalid accounts

[pcleveland]

We are receiving thousands of inbound emails for accounts that are not valid. These accounts aren't old accounts, they are names that have never been in our company. I just recently started this job after having been out of IS Admin for 8 years and all this spam is new stuff to me. It is a huge task. We are running Trend SPS but still there is a lot of spam getting through (even though I have setup an extensive exception list). Any ideas about the inbound mail and tips on spam blocking would really help out. Thanks in advance.

 

[cmeagan656]

Probably the best way to go is to get a commercail spam filter. We have been using XWall (

http://www.dataenter.co.at/products/xwall.htm)

for 8 months and are very happy with it.

Its really easy to install and you don't need to stop any services except the Internet Mail Service to install it.

Configuring it is really easy as well and it has features like being able to block specific email attachments to respond to a virus attack (i.e we allow .zip files but in response to some of the recent viruses blocked document.zip, wendy.zip, etc.) and strip delivery receipt and read receipt flags.

Of course, no one solution works for everyone. Other Tek-Tips members probably have their favourites too.

Cheers.

 

[CaptainStorm]

I put in Xwall today and I also can do some of the same stuff on my Watchguard Firebox Firewall and it is working great. I am going to put the valid mailbox white list on my firewall just to offload the processing from my exchange server. Also XWall lets you strip all the HTML content from incoming e-mail which I really like.

Storm

 

[CaptainStorm]

Hey I wanted to create the valid e-mail address list on my firewall - Does anyone know how to export a full list of the valid e-mail addresses from my exchange server. I would rather not try to cut and paste them one by one from the exchange mmc

Storm

 

[zbnet]

You can export them from the Exchange Directory, but the addresses are split across 2 different field, and the SMTP addresses are mixed in with all the other address types. You'd need to process the export to get a full list of only SMTP addresses - either in Excel, or via a perl or vb script (or similar).

 

[CaptainStorm]

You can export them from the Exchange Directory

>>> Sorry: what is the "exchange directory" is that a tool that exports stuff? I never heard of it. How do I use it? I can handle the data that comes out of it no problem.

 

[CaptainStorm]

Nevermind I found the xwall tool that does this!

Thanks