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27 July 2007
What is the best thing to do about spam?
Desktop PC-based solutions allow each PC user to filter spam and
allow only desired email to reach your inbox. Individuals may use
these types of products effectively to achieve the desired result.
One such product I have used in the past and costs around $20 per
PC is "I Hate Spam" available from the following web site:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/iHateSpam
For businesses that run their own email servers, several solutions
come to mind. One is service-based where another host company filters
your email prior to sending it to your company's email server. For
example, http://www.exchangedefender.com
has that type of service available. That particular solution has
a 35 user minimum, costs $65/month and requires a third party to
receive and then forward all email.
For businesses with security concerns that want to directly receive
their email, the server-based solution where a separate server is
charged with the tasks of scrubbing all spam and viruses before
it even reaches the company's email server works best. Server-based
solutions may be the best yet also may carry price tags that range
from the cost of a separate PC for open source solutions to several
thousand dollars and up for commercial solutions.
From an accounting point of view, it makes sense to do something
about spam. Time is money. For the no budget individual, check your
email a few times per day instead of leaving it on all the time.
Then, select all the email you receive at those specific times.
Go back and un-select the few you actually want to read. You will
cut down drastically the amount of time it takes to process email
and spam.
For businesses with more than one employee, you can quickly calculate
the cost of not addressing the issue. One of our customers has 20
people and recently received 3060 emails in one day. On that day,
99% was spam and was caught by our server-based solution. Without
that solution, that spam would have cost the customer their wage
multiplied by the time is takes to manually delete each piece of
spam. For a $100,000/yr employee with fringe benefits, hourly costs
may be ($200,000/yr)(1 yr/12 mon)(1 mon/22 business days)(1 day/8
hours) or $95 per hour. For 3060 emails per day with 99% spam, it
may take a few seconds to recognize an email is spam and to delete
it. (3060 emails/day)(.99 spams/email)( 3 sec/spam)(1 hr/60 min)(1
min/60 sec) yields 2.5 hrs per day. Therefore, it costs that one
customer $238 per business day to manually process spam.
| Hour |
 |
Blocked: Rate Control |
|
Blocked: Bad Recipient |
|
Blocked: Spam |
|
Blocked: Virus |
|
Quarantined |
|
Allowed: Tagged |
|
Allowed |
|
Total Received |
|
| 00 |
|
0 |
|
7 |
|
1 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
8 |
| 01 |
|
0 |
|
108 |
|
44 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
152 |
| 02 |
|
0 |
|
132 |
|
56 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
189 |
| 03 |
|
0 |
|
88 |
|
7 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
95 |
| 04 |
|
0 |
|
87 |
|
40 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
128 |
| 05 |
|
0 |
|
104 |
|
7 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
2 |
|
113 |
| 06 |
|
0 |
|
90 |
|
14 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
3 |
|
107 |
| 07 |
|
0 |
|
107 |
|
37 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
6 |
|
150 |
| 08 |
|
0 |
|
95 |
|
40 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
5 |
|
141 |
| 09 |
|
0 |
|
100 |
|
48 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
3 |
|
151 |
| 10 |
|
0 |
|
93 |
|
24 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
118 |
| 11 |
|
0 |
|
61 |
|
13 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
4 |
|
78 |
| 12 |
|
0 |
|
75 |
|
18 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
7 |
|
101 |
| 13 |
|
0 |
|
115 |
|
63 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
178 |
| 14 |
|
0 |
|
111 |
|
31 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
142 |
| 15 |
|
0 |
|
66 |
|
34 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
100 |
| 16 |
|
0 |
|
85 |
|
17 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
103 |
| 17 |
|
0 |
|
107 |
|
61 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
168 |
| 18 |
|
0 |
|
99 |
|
51 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
151 |
| 19 |
|
0 |
|
120 |
|
60 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
181 |
| 20 |
|
0 |
|
112 |
|
44 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
3 |
|
159 |
| 21 |
|
0 |
|
117 |
|
50 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
0 |
|
168 |
| 22 |
|
0 |
|
73 |
|
14 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
88 |
| 23 |
|
0 |
|
72 |
|
18 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
91 |
|
| Total |
|
0 |
|
2224 |
|
792 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
3 |
|
41 |
|
3060 |
The server-based solution entails an investment in a $3000 stand-alone
spam firewall and $500/year subscription to an update service. A
$3500 investment eliminated a $238 per day business expense, and
the customer realized return on investment after merely 15 days.
Aside from cost, the server-based solution provides direct control
over email at the customer site without involving any third party
intervention or delay. Server-based solutions also give customers
the ability to send and receive email internally even when the Internet
connection goes down.
|
Server
