Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to an Alternative

[Joel M Snyder]

You get their filtering power for free and don't have to deal with the
hardware, if you don't particularly like it.

http://www.barracudacentral.org/


That's not completely true; the Barracuda appliance uses both 
block-lists and content-based filtering.  The block-list is free for 
anyone who wants it, but the content-based filtering is not.


However, the block-list *is* now one of the best ones out there.  They 
had a rocky start, but in the last year they have consistently 
outperformed most of the other no-charge block-lists both in terms of 
catch rate and false positive rate.


Spamhaus has long been one of my favorites for its performance, but I am 
now seeing Barracuda beat them each month in catch rate, sometimes by a 
nice margin.  (FP rate for both lists is about the same; VERY close to 
zero.)  If you like Spamhaus, you should try Barracuda block-list and 
see if it helps in your mail stream.   (Every stream is different, so my 
results may not match your results.)


jms

--
Joel M Snyder, 1404 East Lind Road, Tucson, AZ, 85719
Senior Partner, Opus One   Phone: +1 520 324 0494
j...@opus1.comhttp://www.opus1.com/jms

RE: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to an Alternative?

[Ray Corbin]

I also use postini and it works really well for my current needs.

I had experience with Barracuda as outbound anti-spam filters for a very 
large hosting provider and I won't use Barracuda again. Some of their methods 
for blocking spam are a tad extreme. At one point they decided to block both 
yahoo.com and google.com in their domain filters because neither company 
responded timely to their complaint emails and wanted their attention...not to 
mention their buggy 'spam engine' that died many times causing mail to error 
with 'failure to connect to 127.0.0.1'... I especially loved their tier 1's 
response of how the issue is on the recipients end because they couldn't telnet 
to mail.domain.com from their workstation...I had to first explain how 
mail.domain.com wasn’t the MX record for domain.com (it ironically was a 
postini MX record) and that it was obvious when thousands of messages sit in 
the inbound queue saying 'failure to connect to 127.0.0.1' meant their engine 
died and their 'watchdog' process failed to restart it. To me their Tier 1 
unable to do the basics was pretty unacceptable. 


-r

-Original Message-
From: pr...@cnsny.net [mailto:pr...@cnsny.net] 
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2011 11:56 AM
To: Andrew Kirch; John Palmer (NANOG Acct); nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to an 
Alternative?

Andrew,
We use and offer Postini - a front end service.  Postini is a anti virus and 
spam filter, and can spool mail if your circuits are  down.  Postini is a 
Google company and works like a charm.  If you need more information please 
contact me offline pr...@cnsny.net

Paul

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

- Reply message -
From: "Andrew Kirch" 
Date: Sat, Apr 9, 2011 10:39 am
Subject: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to   an  
Alternative?
To: "John Palmer (NANOG Acct)" , 

John,

My suggestion isn't _QUITE_ an appliance, but it works very well and
I've been exceptionally happy with it.  It's a distribution of linux
controlled via a web interface that does far more than just mail
filtering (at which it is both flexible and adept).  Take a look at
http://www.clearfoundation.com/Software/overview.html.  The hardware
requirements shouldn't be too insane, and the rules
updates/subscriptions for the various services are all month to month,
and not a bucket of insane.

Andrew


On 4/8/2011 11:51 PM, John Palmer (NANOG Acct) wrote:
> OK, its been a year since my Barracuda subscription expired. The unit
> still stops some spam. I figured that I would go and see what they
> would do if I tried to renew my subscription EXACTLY one year after it
> expired. Would their renewal website say "Oh, you are at your
> anniversary date", and renew me for a year?
>
> No such luck: They want me to PAY FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR for which I did
> NOT receive service and then for the current (upcoming year). Sorry -
> I don't allow myself to be ripped off like that. Sorry Barracuda - you
> get no money from me and I'll tell everyone I know about this policy
> of yours.
>
> I posted an article about this unscrupulous practice on my blog last
> year at http://www.john-palmer.net/wordpress/?p=46
>
> My question is - does anyone have any suggestions for another e-mail
> appliance like the Barracuda Spam Firewall that doesn't try to charge
> their customers for time not used. I should be able to shut off the
> unit for a year or whatever and simply renew from the point that I
> re-activate the unit instead of having to pay for back-years that I
> didn't use.
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
>
>

Re: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to an Alternative?

[Curtis Maurand]

A barracuda appliance uses postfix, amavisd-new, spamassassin with 
fuzzyOCR and clamav.  I've built a couple of these boxes for customers.  
I use their dnsbl as well as spamhaus.  It works pretty well, not much 
gets through.


--Curtis

On 4/10/2011 8:24 PM, William Warren wrote:

On 4/9/2011 12:46 PM, Marc Runkel wrote:
Ok, shameless plug here, but I invite you to check out our product @  
www.untangle.com.  Base product (including 
anti-spam) is free.   If you want support/web filtering/ or better 
spam rules they are available as premium add-ons.


Marc Runkel
Untangle, Inc.
Director, Technical Operations

(650) 425- direct
(650) 345-3788 fax

On Apr 8, 2011, at 8:51 PM, John Palmer (NANOG Acct) wrote:

OK, its been a year since my Barracuda subscription expired. The unit 
still stops some spam. I figured that I would go and see what
they would do if I tried to renew my subscription EXACTLY one year 
after it expired. Would their renewal website say "Oh, you are at

your anniversary date", and renew me for a year?

No such luck: They want me to PAY FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR for which I did 
NOT receive service and then for the current (upcoming year).
Sorry - I don't allow myself to be ripped off like that. Sorry 
Barracuda - you get no money from me and I'll tell everyone I know

about this policy of yours.

I posted an article about this unscrupulous practice on my blog last 
year at http://www.john-palmer.net/wordpress/?p=46


My question is - does anyone have any suggestions for another e-mail 
appliance like the Barracuda Spam Firewall that doesn't try to
charge their customers for time not used. I should be able to shut 
off the unit for a year or whatever and simply renew from the
point that I re-activate the unit instead of having to pay for 
back-years that I didn't use.


Thanks






Untangle's free version...isn't worth the bandwidth.  The paid version 
is ok..but it's a resource hog.

Re: GMail contact needed

[Jay Ashworth]

- Original Message -
> From: "George Bonser" 

> > I am having an ongoing operational issue with imap.gmail.com that began
> > at 1250 PDT
> >
> > It appears that connectivity has been blocked from certain of our
> > operational IPs and IMAPs returns "Service Forbidden" for all
> > connection attempts and we have some other issues on other protocols (pop3s,
> > imaps) that started at exactly that time .
> >
> > Offlist response appreciated.
> 
> Issue cleared at 1650 PDT, never did hear anything from Google.

"The trouble's leaving here fine!"

Cheers,
-- jra

RE: GMail contact needed

[George Bonser]

> 
> I am having an ongoing operational issue with imap.gmail.com that
began
> at 1250 PDT
> 
> It appears that connectivity has been blocked from certain of our
> operational IPs and IMAPs returns "Service Forbidden" for all
> connection
> attempts and we have some other issues on other protocols (pop3s,
> imaps)
> that started at exactly that time .
> 
> Offlist response appreciated.

Issue cleared at 1650 PDT, never did hear anything from Google.

Re: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to an Alternative?

[William Warren]

On 4/9/2011 12:46 PM, Marc Runkel wrote:

Ok, shameless plug here, but I invite you to check out our product @  
www.untangle.com.  Base product (including anti-spam) 
is free.   If you want support/web filtering/ or better spam rules they are available 
as premium add-ons.

Marc Runkel
Untangle, Inc.
Director, Technical Operations

(650) 425- direct
(650) 345-3788 fax

On Apr 8, 2011, at 8:51 PM, John Palmer (NANOG Acct) wrote:

OK, its been a year since my Barracuda subscription expired. The unit still 
stops some spam. I figured that I would go and see what
they would do if I tried to renew my subscription EXACTLY one year after it expired. 
Would their renewal website say "Oh, you are at
your anniversary date", and renew me for a year?

No such luck: They want me to PAY FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR for which I did NOT 
receive service and then for the current (upcoming year).
Sorry - I don't allow myself to be ripped off like that. Sorry Barracuda - you 
get no money from me and I'll tell everyone I know
about this policy of yours.

I posted an article about this unscrupulous practice on my blog last year at 
http://www.john-palmer.net/wordpress/?p=46

My question is - does anyone have any suggestions for another e-mail appliance 
like the Barracuda Spam Firewall that doesn't try to
charge their customers for time not used. I should be able to shut off the unit 
for a year or whatever and simply renew from the
point that I re-activate the unit instead of having to pay for back-years that 
I didn't use.

Thanks






Untangle's free version...isn't worth the bandwidth.  The paid version 
is ok..but it's a resource hog.

Re: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to an Alternative?

[TR Shaw]

I agree.  Simple clean perl proxy.  Lots of GUI config. Can use ClamAV and 
other AV systems. Easy to deploy. Is no brainer to manage.

Comes in single and multithreaded.  Your call. I get a lot of email through the 
single thread version. Handles TLS and more.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/assp/files/


On Apr 10, 2011, at 6:07 PM, Joshua Klubi wrote:

> The best of them is A.S.S.P. and it works wonder I have deployed a couple and 
> I love it
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Apr 10, 2011, at 12:46, Elijah Savage  wrote:
> 
>> FreeBSD, Postfix, Amavisd, Spamassassin, Clamav and TLS
>> 
>> I have seen and deployed this combination as a mail relay to exchange both 
>> in and out of large organizations 35,000 plus hosting multiple domains as 
>> well as small organizations. With a few scripts it is essentially self 
>> containing very little maintenance.
>> 
>> On Apr 8, 2011, at 11:51 PM, John Palmer (NANOG Acct) wrote:
>> 
>>> OK, its been a year since my Barracuda subscription expired. The unit still 
>>> stops some spam. I figured that I would go and see what they would do if I 
>>> tried to renew my subscription EXACTLY one year after it expired. Would 
>>> their renewal website say "Oh, you are at your anniversary date", and renew 
>>> me for a year?
>>> 
>>> No such luck: They want me to PAY FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR for which I did NOT 
>>> receive service and then for the current (upcoming year). Sorry - I don't 
>>> allow myself to be ripped off like that. Sorry Barracuda - you get no money 
>>> from me and I'll tell everyone I know about this policy of yours.
>>> 
>>> I posted an article about this unscrupulous practice on my blog last year 
>>> at http://www.john-palmer.net/wordpress/?p=46
>>> 
>>> My question is - does anyone have any suggestions for another e-mail 
>>> appliance like the Barracuda Spam Firewall that doesn't try to charge their 
>>> customers for time not used. I should be able to shut off the unit for a 
>>> year or whatever and simply renew from the point that I re-activate the 
>>> unit instead of having to pay for back-years that I didn't use.
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
> 

Re: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to an Alternative?

[Joshua Klubi]

The best of them is A.S.S.P. and it works wonder I have deployed a couple and I 
love it

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 10, 2011, at 12:46, Elijah Savage  wrote:

> FreeBSD, Postfix, Amavisd, Spamassassin, Clamav and TLS
> 
> I have seen and deployed this combination as a mail relay to exchange both in 
> and out of large organizations 35,000 plus hosting multiple domains as well 
> as small organizations. With a few scripts it is essentially self containing 
> very little maintenance.
> 
> On Apr 8, 2011, at 11:51 PM, John Palmer (NANOG Acct) wrote:
> 
>> OK, its been a year since my Barracuda subscription expired. The unit still 
>> stops some spam. I figured that I would go and see what they would do if I 
>> tried to renew my subscription EXACTLY one year after it expired. Would 
>> their renewal website say "Oh, you are at your anniversary date", and renew 
>> me for a year?
>> 
>> No such luck: They want me to PAY FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR for which I did NOT 
>> receive service and then for the current (upcoming year). Sorry - I don't 
>> allow myself to be ripped off like that. Sorry Barracuda - you get no money 
>> from me and I'll tell everyone I know about this policy of yours.
>> 
>> I posted an article about this unscrupulous practice on my blog last year at 
>> http://www.john-palmer.net/wordpress/?p=46
>> 
>> My question is - does anyone have any suggestions for another e-mail 
>> appliance like the Barracuda Spam Firewall that doesn't try to charge their 
>> customers for time not used. I should be able to shut off the unit for a 
>> year or whatever and simply renew from the point that I re-activate the unit 
>> instead of having to pay for back-years that I didn't use.
>> 
>> Thanks
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 

GMail contact needed

[George Bonser]

I am having an ongoing operational issue with imap.gmail.com that began
at 1250 PDT

It appears that connectivity has been blocked from certain of our
operational IPs and IMAPs returns "Service Forbidden" for all connection
attempts and we have some other issues on other protocols (pop3s, imaps)
that started at exactly that time .

Offlist response appreciated.

[NANOG-announce] NANOG 52 CFP Reminder: Slides due 4/11

[Tom Daly]

NANOG'ers,
On Thursday, 4/14, the NANOG Program Committee will meet to review submissions 
for NANOG 52. In an effort to get a topic list our the community as early as 
requested (tentative for 4/15), we do need to have all abstracts and slide 
submissions in as soon as possible. A quick review of the PC tool indicates 
that we don't have enough content for the meeting yet, so please submit your 
work ASAP!

You can submit your abstract, or upload your slides at https://pc.nanog.org.

Have a good weekend,

Tom Daly, for the NANOG PC


___
NANOG-announce mailing list
nanog-annou...@nanog.org
https://mailman.nanog.org/mailman/listinfo/nanog-announce

Re: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to an Alternative?

[Joel M Snyder]

It's quite easy to build your own [out of open-source components] that
easily outperforms any appliance on the market.  (Which isn't saying
much: none of them are very good, and all of them are way overpriced.
The bar is thus set quite low.)  It will not have all the superfluous
bells and whistles that marketing departments are so fond of hyping,
but it will work, it will be cheap, it will be scalable, and it will be
far more secure.


Is there any aspect of this screed that you can support with data, 
preferably data published this decade?  Of course, I understand that 
"overpriced" and "superfluous bells and whistles" and "far more secure" 
are fairly subjective criteria, but numbers such as efficacy and 
specificity are easy to compare.  I'd also be interested in hearing 
about any cases where someone compromised a production Barracuda, 
Ironport, or similar appliance--or does your definition of "far more 
secure" include other substantive components that matter more?



I've discussed this at some length on mailop and am in the process of
reducing it to near-cookbook form.  If you're interested, contact me
offlist and I'll outline it for you.


I'd be interested in seeing you put your money where your mouth is 
regarding catch rate and false positive rate.  Contact me off-list with 
a place where I can FTP a VM of one of your appliances.


jms

--
Joel M Snyder, 1404 East Lind Road, Tucson, AZ, 85719
Senior Partner, Opus One   Phone: +1 520 324 0494
j...@opus1.comhttp://www.opus1.com/jms

Re: Re: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to an Alternative?

[Fred Richards]

Because I don't need any of the cute and fluffy features like a
quarantine spambox, I just use the barracuda rbl along with a few
others.

You get their filtering power for free and don't have to deal with the
hardware, if you don't particularly like it.

http://www.barracudacentral.org/




-- 
                      Fred

Re: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to an Alternative?

[Elijah Savage]

FreeBSD, Postfix, Amavisd, Spamassassin, Clamav and TLS

I have seen and deployed this combination as a mail relay to exchange both in 
and out of large organizations 35,000 plus hosting multiple domains as well as 
small organizations. With a few scripts it is essentially self containing very 
little maintenance.

On Apr 8, 2011, at 11:51 PM, John Palmer (NANOG Acct) wrote:

> OK, its been a year since my Barracuda subscription expired. The unit still 
> stops some spam. I figured that I would go and see what they would do if I 
> tried to renew my subscription EXACTLY one year after it expired. Would their 
> renewal website say "Oh, you are at your anniversary date", and renew me for 
> a year?
> 
> No such luck: They want me to PAY FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR for which I did NOT 
> receive service and then for the current (upcoming year). Sorry - I don't 
> allow myself to be ripped off like that. Sorry Barracuda - you get no money 
> from me and I'll tell everyone I know about this policy of yours.
> 
> I posted an article about this unscrupulous practice on my blog last year at 
> http://www.john-palmer.net/wordpress/?p=46
> 
> My question is - does anyone have any suggestions for another e-mail 
> appliance like the Barracuda Spam Firewall that doesn't try to charge their 
> customers for time not used. I should be able to shut off the unit for a year 
> or whatever and simply renew from the point that I re-activate the unit 
> instead of having to pay for back-years that I didn't use.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> 
> 
> 
>