anti-spam (transparent proxy?/ gateway) will summarize

Hi,

I would like to build an antispam gateway using open
source as much as possible. but i have some questions,
and i will summarize all answeres, and steps taken.

the plans was to use RedHat/Debian,Exim, and different
methods of spam filtering at the gateway, spamassain
looks like the alwaysSolution(tm) that is implemented.
also looking at commercial products they offer
transparent proxying, so i would like to have that
too.

1. choice of email server ?
I have seen howto documents for qmail,postfix,
sendmail, and there are probably some for exim too. if
i am new to all this, and the local reachable
knowledge(admin next door) uses exim, why would i
choose an mta other than exim for the mta, would they
offer me something extra i would not find in exim? or
would exim have some problems with some of the
antispam packages? I know a bit of each, but not
master of any :(


2.do i really need to implement this solution as a
transparent proxy?
protocols will be imap,pop3, and smtp, i was thinking
of intercepting these as some of the users in the
network could have settings for different servers,
will that be worth in a small environment(<50 pcs)?
what the cons, and pros if doing it that way?, and how
is easy is it to implement?

3. are there any web based interfaces to the
functionality of the spam filters so that users can
tune spamfilters individually to their own likening,
as i am the only sysadmin in that company, and you can
guess that i am already overloaded :), and still need
to learn, and fire chase lots of other things.

4. repackage the solution, i would like to implement
that solution in one server, and with the least of
changes implement it our warehouse, and showroom with
the least of disturbance and least effort of
administration, i was thinking doing it as a live-cd,
but then i do not know debian that well, so i am
thinking kickstart, is there any other ways you might
suggest for reinstalling the solution in other
locations?

5- testing : how can i test the soultion ? what do
people use.

and I would appreciate any links for the above,
case-studies for small LANS, or howtos, and any
gotcha's i have to be aware of.

TIA

Ibnmaja al'Andalusi




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