Hi,

Our firewall currently forwards port 25 to a spam filter server, which
then forwards it on to the gateway of our Mail server infrastructure
(Exchange).

We are in the process of replacing our spam filter with a new product
(changing from MailMarshal to SurfControl Email Filter).

The powers that be have decided that they would like to run both
systems in parallel for a while.  By this they mean that the mail will
flow through BOTH systems so that we can compare what spam the new
system identifies compared to the old system.  The old system would
still forward the mail on to our gateway, while the new system will
forward the mail to nowhere (we just need to see whether it identified
it as spam or not).

This could be achieved by placing another SMTP relay box in front of
our current MailMarshal box, and have that SMTP relay box forward all
SMTP messages to both servers.  We run a Windows 2003 shop so the
obvious question is: Can this be done with the SMTP server in IIS?  I
can't see a way.

If not, does anyone know of a product that can do it (preferrably
Windows based)?

I know I can put systems in place that will BCC all messages to a
special mailbox, but that isn't quite the same as allowing the mail to
flow through both systems "untouched".

Any ideas?

Thanks,
David

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Probably the easier way to do it would be to run the mail thru in serial and
have each SPAM engine filter.  Have the second one send a notification of
everything it filters.  After a week or two, switch the order of the SPAM
engines and have the 'new' second engine send notifications of everything it
filters.

That should give you a pretty good indication of which engine is
catching/filtering items that the other doesn't.

E

"David Chadwick" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Our firewall currently forwards port 25 to a spam filter server, which
> then forwards it on to the gateway of our Mail server infrastructure
> (Exchange).
>
> We are in the process of replacing our spam filter with a new product
> (changing from MailMarshal to SurfControl Email Filter).
>
> The powers that be have decided that they would like to run both
> systems in parallel for a while.  By this they mean that the mail will
> flow through BOTH systems so that we can compare what spam the new
> system identifies compared to the old system.  The old system would
> still forward the mail on to our gateway, while the new system will
> forward the mail to nowhere (we just need to see whether it identified
> it as spam or not).
>
> This could be achieved by placing another SMTP relay box in front of
> our current MailMarshal box, and have that SMTP relay box forward all
> SMTP messages to both servers.  We run a Windows 2003 shop so the
> obvious question is: Can this be done with the SMTP server in IIS?  I
> can't see a way.
>
> If not, does anyone know of a product that can do it (preferrably
> Windows based)?
>
> I know I can put systems in place that will BCC all messages to a
> special mailbox, but that isn't quite the same as allowing the mail to
> flow through both systems "untouched".
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
> David
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]