Hi All! Most of us on the list have been wrestling with deciding whether to stick with Imail, upgrade to ICS (HA!), or bail to Smartermail, Kerio, Merak, or Linux/open source solutions.
We recently migrated from Imail to Merak 7.6/8.0 (version 8 was released during roll-out), and I thought I would share my experiences in the context of a replacement for Imail. Hopefully others will do the same with Kerio, SmarterMail, etc., for the benefit of those here. Every situation is different and there is no single correct answer for everybody. Who knows, it may well become apparent that Imail 8.2 is worth sticking around for! Remember, the following are my observations and opinions--your mileage may vary. :-) Overall, I am very pleased with Merak, and while it has documentation rough spots, the stability, speed, and maturity of this product are in a completely different league than Imail 7,8, and 8.1. (The changes coming in IMail 8.2 are welcome but way overdue--I completely lost confidence in Ipswitch product development 18 months ago.) Here are my Pros and Cons: ***PRO*** 1. Average CPU Usage has gone from Imail's 30-75% to just 0-2%. This reduction amazed me. (It does spike to 100% for 3-4 seconds if opening webmail with 2000+ messages present in main inbox.) 2. Merak's tarpitting is a godsend in dealing with dictionary attacks (and the main reason for our previously high cpu usage with Imail). We have 20-100 IP's tarpitted at any given moment. We sometimes had 50K-200K attack connections/day. Because we do business all over Asia and Europe, using country IP netblocks to combat attacks is out of the question. With Merak, it's simply not a problem anymore. 3. Built-in antivirus engine (avast I believe) is fast, configurable, and solid. Probably not as flexible as Scott's Declude (which I've not used), but pretty good. It's catching everything SMSSMTP used to catch, plus more. Best feature: this scanning engine is FAST FAST FAST. Good logging, too. 4. DNSRBL can be used as a stand-alone block list, or you can have multiple RBL hits included as weighting factors in total scoring (like Declude) in integrated spam assassin. 5. No more IMail file-locking issues (mbox) during POP3/SMTP access of large mailboxes. Merak uses an individual text file for each message (maildir). (See CON section for downside.) 6. Webmail is world class, fully-featured, and very robust. Has it's own rock-solid PHP engine--IIS not required. Lots of skins to choose from--from a feature-rich multi-paned "Outlook 2003" style to Squirrel Mail-like single-pane type. We've found the fast, bandwidth-efficient single-pane interface is a blessing for mobile users--seemingly always on the other side of globe accessing from third-world countries with horrid connectivity. 7. The total feature list is staggering, and everything appears solidly implemented, including SPF, SURBL, Bayesian Filters, listserve, auto-archive, SSL ports for all protocols, etc,. And in contrast to Imail, practically every setting has a separate bypass file, making it very flexible. 8. It has a nice GUI implementation of what are truly awesome content filters. The name "content filters" doesn't do them justice. The power and flexibility of these filters and associated system variables will take any admins' breath away--you can accomplish practically ANYTHING with these. To me, this is probably Merak's greatest, but most unsung feature. 8. Log entry timestamps include GMT offset, a small point but appreciated when you deal with a variety of app and server logs generated on three continents. 9. IMAP is rock solid, and (so far) plays nice with all clients. (In all fairness, Imail's was very good, too.) The unique shared IMAP folders have also come in VERY handy! (An ISP won't, but most who support company users will realize the value.) 10. Groupware/global address book works well (once you get past the mediocre docs). I don't know how they compare to ICS. The Imail KWM GAB is a joke. 11. User management interface in all respects is at least equal--and in most cases far exceeds--that of Imail in ease and power. BTW, ALL Merak management, configuration, and reporting tasks can also be done via a single command line tool (appropriately called tool.exe). ***CON*** 1. Setup and tuning can be a challenge--or a piece a cake--depending on your config complexity. Configuration is done in several different places. (MUCH better organized in version 8 though.) Part of problem is that Icewarp WebMail is also offered as a standalone product, so sorting out advanced settings in the docs can be confusing when in "fully integrated" mode. 2. The docs/help file rating is mediocre-to-sucks. Fine as far as they go, but not enough depth and awkwardly translated in places. Some good examples in config files, but not enough. Version 8 is better, but still needs improvement. TIP: Viewing the html tutorial offered during Merak setup should NOT be skipped. Lots of valuable info not in the docs are here, and much better english. :-) 2. Webmail reporting is skimpy compared to Imail. SMTP/IMAP/POP3 logs are comparable to Imail, but SMTP log seems to omit writing a final local mailbox delivery success entry. 3. Webmail response opening huge mailboxes (1.5GB - 17000 messages) is glacial. Anything over 1200 messages requires a noticeable wait. Surprisingly, Imail webmail--while comically pathetic in most areas--WAS pretty good opening gargantuan mailboxes. 4. Because Merak uses maildir instead of mbox as the message storage format, keeping your disks defragged is even more critical to performance--especially webmail. I STRONGLY suggest using a defragger that monitors realtime, and automatically kicks in when frag reaches a certain level (like O&O). I sometimes find myself grinning at Merak's processing speed. In my opinion, Merak has the flexibility and throughput of the best of the UNIX-based mail servers. Once the initial configuration was ironed out (ours is necessarily complex), the little PE600SC P4/2.4Ghz box loafs like a qmail box. Users are much happier now, and when asked, not a single person wants to go back to Imail. Very telling. No memory leaks either, (55 days continuous service uptime and counting, over a hundred gigs of various mail protocols though it--memory usage has not budged in nearly two months.) For companies, I can recommend Merak. The docs ARE adequate for most standard configs--you just install and go. The more customizing you do, the more you wish the docs explained better all the myriad choices Merak is capable of. I've never had to administer hundreds or thousands of ISP domains, but the command line tool seems well suited for mass-user ISP scripting. I've not used them, but there is configuration for setting automatic domain expiration and notification, domain disk quota, and individual user limits on MB and outbound messages sent. My biggest complaint about Imail was not the features--it was the half-baked implementation of most of them. It was maddening--enough functionality to be ticked on a feature list, but often inflexible, untweakable and sometimes pathetically unusable. In contrast, Merak has the features, most completely customizable and bullet-proof, but with mediocre/poor documentation. :sigh: In my opinion, Merak's initial doc hurdle is well worth the truly staggering performance and stability improvement. Our cost for unlimited users/domains, with 100 account groupware and instant messaging, was $1500. Dev To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
