Axigen direct connectors for third party scanners
Also known as Axigen direct connectors, these filters apply once the spam and malicious messages have already been thinned-out by the previous SMTP level filters. They provide the most performance-effective method of integration by closely communicating with the third party scanners installed on the system.
The scanners receive instructions from the Axigen messaging solution through these filters and once the scan is complete, provide the relevant results back to the server. Using these results, Axigen decides the fate of the messages, including dropping or accepting the message. These actions can be fully customized to fit the requirements of any email traffic regulations.
The Axigen messaging solution provides custom-built and tested connectors for the following list of scanners, reducing the configuration required for the integration process to a minimum:
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SpamAssassin
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Commtouch
Axigen Milter integration for third party scanners
The Milter integration method acts at the SMTP level and follows the same baseline functionalities as the direct integration method through the connectors. However, a few differences exist between the two approaches, such as lower performance results and a broader compatibility with third party scanners for the Milter, as opposed to the direct integration.
Milter is actually a protocol that was originally designed for open-source mail transfer agents, but is currently being adopted as the new standard in the industry by a large number of email-related software vendors. Through this standard approach, any scanner that supports the Milter can be integrated with the Axigen messaging solution. The result of this feature is an extensive list of scanners that can be integrated with it, thus expanding Axigen's ability to fit the needs and requirements of the environment it's being deployed in.
The complete list of scanners supported and tested through the Milter integration method follows:
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SpamAssassin
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Avira MailGate Suite (AV/AS)
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BitDefender Security for Mail Servers (AV/AS)
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Brightmail AntiSpam
AntiSpam filters are dynamic filters executed by external processes. These types of filters are based on a file defining the communication protocol between Axigen and the external process executing the filter.
AntiSpam filters can also interact with Message Rules, via headers appended to email messages. These headers contain a spam level value which actually indicates the likelihood of that particular email message being spam. Based on these levels, actions imposed by the message rules can be taken, for instance moving email messages above a certain level to a specified Quarantine folder.
Axigen supports creating a customized filter chain. This means you can define and use as many AntiVirus / AntiSpam Filters and Message Rules as required by your company's security policies.
In Axigen, anti-spam / anti-virus filters calls are multi-threaded. This means that filters can be applied on several emails at the same time, improving thus service availability and processing speed.
If one of the filters in the filtering chain does not respond, Axigen provides a failsafe mode, which allows pinging the filter regularly until the connection is re-established. At that moment, the email message filtering chain is resumed. This guarantees that every message goes through the entire filtering chain.
The Axigen messaging solution can easily integrate with other third party applications through a simple interface which is made available as part of SDK (Software Development Kit). For more details on SDK delivery, please contact the Axigen Sales Department.