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Large ISP Deploys PineApp Mail-SeCure to Filter Spam for Thousands of Users

Spam Now Virtually Eliminated for About Half the Price of Competing Solutions

Jackson, Mississippi-based Telepak Networks, Inc. is a large Internet service provider (ISP) delivering Internet, telecommunications and network services to thousands of residential and business customers within the state.

	AT-A-GLANCE
	Challenge: To find an easy to manage, cost-effective spam filtering solution capable of handling the load of a high volume ISP with approximately four million daily incoming emails. Solution: Install a trio of PineApp Mail-SeCure 5080 anti-spam appliances to filter all incoming emails Benefits: Significantly less expensive than competing solutions Capable of handling e-mail traffic of a high-volume ISP Email spam filter based on 11 different spam detection engines (including IP Reputation technology) delivers a detection ratio of more than 98% and less than 0.01% false positives Easy management through an intuitive web GUI User-friendly logs and statistics No "per user" pricing and unlimited user licensing

Initially, Telepak relied on free software such as SpamAssassin to screen incoming emails for spam before pushing it out to users through their three Sun 220R servers (running Solaris). Though outwardly inexpensive, this solution required frequent updates that occupied significant amounts of administrative time. It also proved inadequate performance-wise, becoming quickly overwhelmed during spam surges and frequently mis-identifying "good" emails as spam. Explains systems administrator Joseph McNealy, "We really were in a no-win situation, spending a lot of admin time without accomplishing the goal."

As time went on and volume grew to a total of approximately four million emails a day, the servers became increasingly bogged down, and the situation reached a critical level. Says McNealy, "Some of our business customers were waiting days for important emails to get through the masses of spam. We were getting dangerously close to not being able to do business."

Desperate for a new solution to help control spam, McNealy searched for spam appliances on Google. Although most anti-spam solutions he found seemed more appropriate for smaller-sized businesses and incapable of handling the large email volume of an ISP, he was able to identify several potential options, including appliances from Barracuda and McAfee, and the PineApp Mail-SeCure antispam appliance from PineApp reseller RADirect.

While most of these solutions were comparable in functionality, the PineApp Mail-SeCure was priced significantly lower. Says McNealy, "One competitor wanted $90,000 for the same functionality, and that was before we factored in the additional $4,000 - $5,000 per year per unit for yearly updates. RADirect's solution came in at about half of that, and they were even able to provide a customer reference from another high volume ISP who had successfully deployed the Mail-SeCure."

RADirect's team of systems engineers quickly arranged for Telepak to receive a pair of PineApp Mail-SeCure 5080 units for evaluation. Installation required little more that an initial reconfiguration and it wasn't long until they were fully up and running, and producing immediate results. Especially impressive to McNealy was the ability to create spam policies, and the wide range of statistics visible to administrators. "We learned that over 97% of our incoming mail was spam, and have experienced only a few false positives in cases where newsletters our users had subscribed to didn't make it through."

When the evaluation period ended, Telepak purchased the units without hesitation. According to McNealy, the improvements have been nothing short of remarkable. The servers are no longer bogged down, and users, especially on the corporate level, couldn't be happier about the disappearance of spam from their inboxes. "We had some corporate users who previously received over 100 spam emails a day. Now, they get none. Our deployment of the PineApp Mail-SeCure appliances has definitely helped us retain customers that otherwise may have become fed up with the abundant spam."

Not long after Telepak's Mail-SeCure deployment, PineApp unveiled their new IP Reputation system that classifies mail from "grey" (neither a known spammer nor a known safe sender) IP addresses based on a variety of statistical analyses and flow control policies. This extra level of protection has resulted in a traffic reduction of more than 50% for Telepak.

Telepak is now rolling out a "fiber to the home" project that they project will significantly increase the number of users in the near future. If all goes as planned, they expect to purchase additional PineApp units from RADirect as volume increases.