GFI MailEssentials Complete Online

Overview:

Hosted email security made easy

GFI MailEssentials Complete Online™ is a comprehensive hosted email security and spam filtering service that is extremely easy to deploy and maintain.

As a cloud-based service, GFI MailEssentials Complete Online uses top-notch hosted spam filtering and multiple email security technologies to block 100% of viruses and over 99% of junk mail before they can enter your network. Its built-in continuity features allow you uninterrupted access to email even when your mail server is offline. In addition, an optional integrated archive service securely retains your important email messages for subsequent search and retrieval.

No single point of failure Leverage multiple systems at multiple data centers for maximum scalability and reliability.	Compatible with any mail server Get comprehensive email security, email continuity, and email archive – regardless of your email environment.
Filter inbound and outbound email Prevent inappropriate emails and malicious attachments from being sent either to or from your network.	Ensure email continuity Access, respond to and send emails even in the event of a network or on-premise mail server outage.
Save time and money now and later No capital expenditures, no start-up costs, and no hardware or software to install or maintain.	Archive email messages Choose this optional service to aid in regulatory compliance and storage management.

As a hosted email security solution, MailEssentials Complete Online not only blocks email-borne viruses and spam but also enables you to continue sending and receiving emails even if your network or on-premise mail server are down. Through its powerful spam filtering service, it helps you improve the productivity of your servers as well as your users, by reducing the volume of junk mail getting through your existing anti-spam solution. Its hosted anti-spam properties work both ways: MailEssentials Complete Online also assists you in preventing inappropriate or infected messages or attachments from being sent from your network or even from a specific user.

Because it is an email filtering service, it is compatible with any email environment while provides optimum scalability and reliability.

Features:

Screenshots:

 

GFI MailEssentials Complete Online™ - Screenshots

FAQs:

 

Implementation

What is involved in implementing the MailEssentials Complete Online service?

All that is required is a change in your DNS records so that the “MX” (mail exchanger) entries for your domain point to MailEssentials Complete Online’s system. After that change has been made, your email will be redirected through MailEssentials Complete Online’s filters before being automatically delivered to your mail server. Please refer to the Quick Start Guide for details.

What is an MX record?

A mail exchanger (MX) record identifies the location of a domain’s mail server. The record directs computers on the Internet where to send email for a specific domain. Unfortunately, the record also informs spammers of the location of a domain’s mail server. By changing the MX record, a company can re-route its inbound email to MailEssentials Complete Online, which filters messages for spam and viruses and then delivers the clean email to the company’s mail server.

Is there any downtime necessary to implement MailEssentials Complete Online’s service?

No, there is no downtime involved in implementing MailEssentials Complete Online. The set-up process is fast and does not affect or delay your inbound or outbound email.

How soon will we start seeing results?

Typically, MailEssentials Complete Online begins working within a few hours of the DNS change, and often within a few minutes for a significant percentage of your inbound mail. In order for all of your inbound messages to be filtered, the changes to your domain’s MX record must fully propagate through the Internet. The TTL setting within your domain’s DNS specifies how quickly these changes should take effect. TTL values generally range from one to 24 hours. There is no interruption to your mail flow during this time.

Reliability

How reliable is MailEssentials Complete Online?

MailEssentials Complete Online’s network and software architecture have been designed to handle both the rapidly growing volume of email and the heavy peak loads that are characteristic of SMTP traffic. MailEssentials Complete Online leverages multiple data centers and has no single point of failure. GFI also provides uptime guarantees via a service-level agreement that is part of all customer agreements.

Will we experience delays in receiving messages?

No. MailEssentials Complete Online typically processes a message in less than a second; users do not notice any delays in the delivery of email.

What happens if our mail server goes down?

In the event that a customer’s mail server is inaccessible, the MailEssentials Complete Online system acts as a message queue so that emails will be delivered once the mail server is back online. MailEssentials Complete Online uses a timing algorithm to gracefully deliver those queued messages This ensures that the customer’s email server is not overwhelmed with a sudden barrage of inbound mail.

Additionally, the service includes full email continuity, so that users can access and respond to any messages in the queue via the MailEssentials Complete Online Web interface. With this capability, users can continue using email even in the event of an emergency affecting their own email systems.

Security

How secure is my email?

The MailEssentials Complete Online service does not affect your email’s security. First, email itself is inherently unsecure. Email messages are sent in clear, unencrypted plain text format across many networks and often through multiple mail servers before arriving at their destination. MailEssentials Complete Online’s service represents only an additional “hop” on the Internet before email is delivered to a company’s email server.

MailEssentials Complete Online does not store or make copies of email messages other than for a short period of time (e.g. for the length that a message may be stored in quarantine or queue). Additionally, there are stringent security measures in place to prevent any unauthorized physical or electronic access to the MailEssentials Complete Online systems.

Spam detection

How does MailEssentials Complete Online determine which messages are spam?

MailEssentials Complete Online employs an extensive range of tests on incoming messages to detect spam. These include traditional, widely used approaches for spam detection such as message authenticity checks, header analysis, message signature analysis, databases of domain names and addresses used by spammers, and whitelists and blacklists. MailEssentials Complete Online also incorporates advanced, industry-leading proprietary techniques such as real-time message source analysis, graphics analysis and user-based message profiling.

What happens to messages that are detected as spam?

You have several options for handling spam messages detected by MailEssentials Complete Online. Junk messages can be:

• Redirected to a quarantine
• Redirected to an alternative email address such as spam@yourcompany.com
• Identified as spam in the subject link and delivered to intended recipient
• Deleted

These options can be configured company-wide or on a per-user basis and can be changed at any time.

What percentage of junk email does MailEssentials Complete Online catch?

The detection rate varies by customer and is based on the email traffic patterns for a given domain and on MailEssentials Complete Online’s aggressiveness for that domain (customers can configure how aggressive the filter should be). On average, MailEssentials Complete blocks over 98% of junk email and 100% of email-borne viruses.

How smart is attachment filtering in MailEssentials Complete Online?

Very smart. The attachment filter checks inbound and outbound attachments. For scanning of internal attachments, you need to run GFI MailSecurity as well. It’s a rules-based system that administrators can customize based on their needs and still ensure 100% detection and removal of possible malicious attachments, while allowing exceptions for specific attachment types.

I have no time to spend weeding through quarantine boxes to find false positives. How do you solve this?

MailEssentials Complete Online consistently blocks more than 98% of inbound and outbound spam attacks, with minimal false positives.Users can create their own allow and block lists to indicate who they want to receive mail from − and who they don’t. They can also be given access to check their own quarantined spam.

How easy is it to find a specific email in quarantine?

Very easy. Simply click on the quarantine tab to locate a quarantined email.

Virus detection

Is MailEssentials Complete Online a substitute for our current antivirus software?

We do not recommend that customers eliminate their current virus protection because viruses can be spread through means other than email. That said, 90% of viruses are transmitted through email. As viruses become increasingly prevalent and damaging, organizations are increasingly complementing their existing server- and workstation-based security with an additional layer of protection at the Internet gateway (such as MailEssentials Complete Online provides) as an additional defense.

How often are MailEssentials Complete Online’s antivirus definitions updated?

MailEssentials Complete Online’s antivirus definitions are updated in near real time. These frequent updates can protect an organization against fast-moving viruses that may not be caught with an internal antivirus solution. Additionally, MailEssentials Complete Online incorporates a virtualization-based malware detection engine and a zero-hour antivirus solution, both of which can detect email threats at the time of an initial outbreak.

I already have AV covered; can I run MailEssentials Complete without antivirus?

Yes; however, at no extra charge, we strongly recommend you keep it enabled as an additional layer of protection.

Other protection

Does MailEssentials Complete Online protect my users against phishing?

Yes. The spam filter has this as a built-in feature which is regularly updated to detect the latest spam trends including phishing attempts.

Does MailEssentials Complete Online handle dictionary mailbox DDOS by rejecting outright any email not matching a legitimate mailbox in the Exchange environment?

MailEssentials Complete Online has built-in DDOS protection and a multitude of other sophisticated security features, such as tarpitting (delay of incoming connections for as long as possible), to discourage spammers and hackers.

Capacity

What email volume does MailEssentials Complete Online support?

Mail Essentials Complete Online provides the scalability that organizations need, handing billions of messages per month while shielding customers from potential attacks that could overwhelm an in-house email infrastructure.

Administration and reporting

How easy is it to navigate the MailEssentials Complete Online interface?

Through its easy-to-use, Web-based interface, all gateway email security processes are easily viewed and controlled from any Web browser. Administrators benefit from rich real-time and historical reporting and easily created end-user controls, which allow end users to view and manage quarantine settings from a web-based console.

What kind of reporting capabilities does MailEssentials Complete Online provide?

MailEssentials Complete Online has built-in reporting capabilities, providing a wide-range of pre-defined reports that can be viewed within the interface or exported. From  the number of inbound mail messages scanned and deleted, to recent viruses intercepted, to the number of filters triggered, to the percentage of viruses by name, administrators can drill down by system, group, and/or user-level.

Integration

Do we need make any changes to our existing mail server?

No. MailEssentials Complete Online will work successfully without any changes to an organization’s existing mail infrastructure.

What options for integration does MailEssentials Complete Online provide?

MailEssentials Complete Online has been architected to integrate seamlessly with a wide array of infrastructures. This ensures that email addresses, aliases and authentication information can be automatically synchronized between MailEssentials Complete Online and an organization’s internal system(s). In addition to integration via standard protocols such as LDAP and LDAPS, MailEssentials Complete Online offers a Web service that allows for programmatic domain and user management from virtually any application.

Is there an extra charge for integration?

No. MailEssentials Complete Online views integration as a means to ensure ongoing ease of management for customers and all features related to integration are included in the standard pricing.

Compatibility

Does MailEssentials Complete Online work with Lotus Notes?

Yes. MailEssentials Complete Online works seamlessly with any mail server that you are using. As a managed service, MailEssentials Complete Online is compatible with widely used programs such as Microsoft Exchange, Novell Groupwise and Lotus Notes, as well as any other mail server software.

Does MailEssentials Complete Online support Macintosh, Linux, or Unix environments?

Yes. MailEssentials Complete Online is a service rather than a product, and no software needs to be installed on your mail server or workstations. Therefore, MailEssentials Complete Online supports any mail server, any email client, and any operating system(s) in use at an organization.

If my company hosts email at an external provider, will MailEssentials Complete Online work?

Yes. Many companies use an externally hosted email server in addition to or in lieu of an internal mail server. MailEssentials Complete Online works correctly regardless of where a company’s mail server or servers are located.

Pricing

How much does MailEssentials Complete Online cost?

GFI’s straightforward pricing model has flexible terms and is based on the number of users within an organization.

Do you offer educational discounts?

Check with your representative or reseller to determine what discount level applies for your organization.

Billing

Are there any set-up fees or implementation costs?

No. Since MailEssentials Complete Online is a managed service, there is no hardware or software to purchase and there are no one-time fees. There is simply a per-user price, based on the number of users who are enrolled for filtering.

How is my organization billed?

MailEssentials Complete Online is a subscription service. Customers are generally billed annually, with pricing based on the number of email accounts using the service.

Do I have to pay for aliases?

No. Alias accounts are filtered for spam and viruses, but they are not billed.

Documentation:

Download the GFI MailEssentials Complete Online Data Sheet (PDF).