Lee Monday, July 29, 2002 you wrote: V> 1) What has your ACTUAL experience been installing it. I'm always V> suspicious of companies that say their product takes "15 minutes or V> so" to install.
There's an EXE file and 2 configuration files. You have to edit the config file for your ID. You just copy the exe file to the imail directory and execute it. There are optional email template files for certain things. But even so 15 minutes is more than sufficient. V> How long did it take you to configure it, how good was the V> documentation, what did it take to subscribe to RBL/MAPS etc.? You can have it working with a default config file. When you first start trapping spam you will be very happy and surprised at how easy it was. The documentation is sufficient but somewhat terse. This is offset 1000 times by Scott's quick responses by e-mail and the helpful members of the list. The RBL/MAPS tests are well documented and consist of one line in the config file and one action in the junkmail file - very simple. V> What is the interface for the configuration? Text files? web V> pages? executable? Simple text files with a text editor. V> 2) It says it "allows you to manage spam control on a user by user basis". V> My question is - how? You set up a text file for each domain and each user you want to have different settings. V> Must I use the on-host management agent that comes with Imail? Or V> is there an executable that must be run on the server for Declude? V> Or can I manage it through the web interface, the same as most V> other server parameters? No - you don't do anything with IMAIL. Declude has its own exe file. There is no interface at all except for a text editor. And imho there is little need for one. Even if you have on you'd spend more time trying to explain to someone what the different things meant than anything else. V> I don't want to roll this out and then have to run around V> configuring hundreds of users individually - I want to either give V> them the ability to turn it on or off themselves or delegate the V> task to the individual email admin. Each user and each domain has to have a separate file. And to manage those files you'd have to teach every user and domain admin how to do it. I have pretty sophisticated users on my system and I don't think more than 2 or 3 could come anywhere close to even understanding the system much less managing it. I wouldn't do it if I were you. You can either answer questions about declude and spam or answer questions about spam. My belief is that the latter is easier, especially when declude causes there to be less of it, and takes less time than the former. V> 3) It says it doesn't really affect performance, and I believe V> that, but do the extra checks it does signficantly affect V> bandwidth, or message delivery or receipt times? It has improved performance on our system because of the dequeue feature. It is barely noticeable in delivery time differences. I haven't tested bandwidth but I don't think it is significant at all. V> 4) Can you see the declude service in the services list in imail, V> or is there some other way to monitor whether it has crashed/is V> still up? It isn't a service. Easiest way to test if you are uncertain is to send a message and then check the headers to see if you see your message there. It very rarely has a problem anyway and usually only when you upgrade or patch imail. V> 5) Any questions I'm not asking that I should? Lots, but none that impact whether you should buy it and use it. For instance you will need a 3rd party tool so you can monitor held messages and release them. And likely you'll want a log analysis program. There is a section on the web site that describes various offerings. In addition to that you will have to learn how to use the product. Most of use believe the weighting system is the most effective feature but how you set your weighting system will largely be determined by your users. However, you will get almost immediate results at any level of expertise. If you choose never to tweak it you will still view it as a good investment. It is one of the best investments you can make in my opinion. Terry Fritts Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. An Archive of this list is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
