Stay Tuned for Version 4.0 of MXtreme Software

BorderWare Technologies Inc.s forthcoming update of its MXtreme software includes a number of enhancements that will make it easier for administrators to fight spam and manage MXtreme Mail Firewall MX appliances as part of a companys broad network infrastructure.

With this update, the MXtreme appliance family will more closely match CipherTrust Inc.s IronMail appliances in terms of policy-based filtering and the ability to remotely manage multiple appliances from a single box.

Version 4.0 of the MXtreme software was in beta when eWEEK Labs tested the MXtreme Mail Firewall MX 200, but it is slated for availability soon. We evaluated a late-beta version of the software by downloading it to the MXtreme appliance we tested and installing it via the appliances KVM (keyboard, video and mouse switch) console.

/zimages/1/28571.gifClick hereto read the review of the MXtreme appliance with Version 3.1 of the software.

BorderWare has made a number of significant improvements to the softwares spam-filtering and reporting capabilities. Version 4.0 will enhance the appliances performance in environments with heavy e-mail traffic, and the software includes a number of smaller updates that will ease administration tasks in general.

The MXtreme software lets administrators give users the ability to manage white lists and quarantine lists. During tests, we could search on a quarantine list and remove or forward messages in the search results. Administrators also can now tap into the MXtreme softwares IMAP server to view quarantine lists from MXtremes Web mail client or even from an IMAP client.

On the reporting side, the software lets users generate custom reports and filters for the reports. This will make it easier to manage critical information from the appliance. We also liked that we could transfer log files from the system via e-mail or FTP. In addition, the software supports SNMP, so companies can integrate the appliance with management platforms such as Hewlett-Packard Co.s OpenView.

This release will allow administrators to cluster multiple MXtreme appliances and replicate a mail queue so that mail traffic will not be delayed if a single appliance goes offline. Version 4.0 of the software also will let administrators integrate the MXtreme appliance family with F5 Networks Inc.s Big-IP load balancer to either block or throttle traffic from a particular IP address to keep high-volume spam attacks from slowing the appliance.

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