Frequently Asked Questions
about MayFlower Software SpamSentinel Server Install

Which version of Domino do you support?
SpamSentinel supports versions 6, 6.5, 7, 8, 8.5 and 9 of the IBM Lotus Domino server, both 32 and 64 bits versions.

What platforms do you support?
Currently, we support Windows versions of Domino, Linux and AS/400 (versions V5 R1 R2 & R3), Solaris and RS Unix. Non-windows versions require a PC set-up as a 'checking machine'.

How long does a server install take?
It takes about 10-15 minutes to install the IBM Lotus Domino server version.

Do I have to reboot my server after installation?
You will need to restart your Domino server. You do not need to reboot your server. You can do all of the install completely before doing a quick "restart server" command to at the Domino server console.

What is the server performance hit with this product?
Our trials have found the server performance actually improves slightly with our product, mostly because of the option to delete confirmed spam as it arrives, meaning it never gets written to the mail.box. Performance can also be increased due to the fact that when we block the spam to ex-employees, your SMTP server spends a lot less time replying to false addresses.

What Ports do you use to access your database of known spam?
Port 80 needs to be open for outbound traffic for your server to access our catalog of known spam and to communicate with our servers.

Do you download the spam catalog to my server?
We do not download the catalog due to its size and the real-time nature. Approximately 1,000,000 new messages are being reported every hour. We check each mail against this real-time database.

Can I Whitelist domains myself?
You can whitelist names and domains by making an entry in our administrator database, all in real-time. The entry takes effect immediately, and supersedes all other entries.

Can I blacklist other domains myself?
Absolutely. We allow you to blacklist any user or domain in real time. We create one Notes document per domain, so you can mange it. As soon as you save the document, that domain is blacklisted.

Is there a limit to the number of domains that we can blacklist?
There is no limit. You could easily list 10,000 domains (although our service handles most of your spam problems without blacklisting a single domain).

Do I have to restart my server after entering a blacklist name like when I modify the NAB?
No, our list is read by SpamSentinel in real-time, so no server restart is necessary.

What is the order of evaluation of Whitelist, blacklists and your catalog of known spam?
Your whitelists are examined first, then the blacklists, and then we check the message for known spam.





What percentage of Spam messages do you block?
We block approximately 99.4% of spam messages.

Do you get many false positives?
The biggest problem with most spam filtering and blocking for Domino is false positives. Keyword filters create them. Domain rules create them. Subject filtering creates them.

For starters, we do not look at Notes mail generated internally, only mail from the SMTP gateway. So, there is 0% chance of false positives from internal Notes mail.

We have almost no false positives on the remaining SMTP mail because of our approach of listing all known spam signatures in a database just like virus signatures are stored. A message would have to be sent to thousands of external email addresses, and blocked by many of our users before it makes it to our real-time database.

Can users check the quarantine database for false positives?
Yes, we put reader names on all caught messages, so only the intended recipient can see them in the quarantine database (and the Notes administrator, or course).

Do you have a daily report of caught Spam?
SpamSentinel ships with a server-based tool called Manage By Example - this allows users to self manage the grey area of 'suspect' (Spam-B) messages via a simple drag/drop action in the mail file.

We also have a reporting tool that can send each user a summary report of all spam caught, we recommend using this with the 'confirmed' or 'Spam-C' messages. Read more about the reporting tool.

Is SpamSentinel compatible with our anti-virus product?
Our testing has shown excellent compatibility with all the major anti-virus packages.


We use multiple mail.box files. Do you work with that?
When installed on a Windows server, SpamSentinel uses intermediate 'scan.box' files to process the mail before sending on to the mail.box(s), so the number of mail.box files is immaterial. On a checking PC installation (Linux, AS400 etc.) we support up to the maximum Domino limit of 10 mail.box files.

What DNS lists do you use for blocking?
SpamSentinel ships with the Spamhaus DNS RBL as the default, as we find this to be the most accurate. You are able to add any others that you wish.





Good Reviews


"The install was a piece of cake, and yes I'm very impressed with it so far."
Joe B, System Engineer

"We are satisfied with the product, and would like to place an initial order for two licenses"
Jim S

"Can I get the full version? I HATE having that spam still in my mail box, yuck :-(D
-Wayne


"This client is great. It is just what some of us have been looking for. I am the IS guy within an engineering department and as such have influence with the engineering group. I have mentioned the product to our larger IS group"
David T., System Coordinator

"So far so good I have to say. It works well"
Jim M.,

"I'm now blocking about 75% of spam - which is already a great relief"
John P.

"I like this product very much and would like to see how it runs on the server."
Jon S.

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