This product resides between the network's Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) gateway and the Internet, serving as a type of e-mail firewall. It takes the place of what many refer to as a smart m ail host: a machine that doesn't actually contain user accounts or post offices, for example, but serves as a mail router and inspection module.

It Delivers I tested a beta version of WorldSecure Server between two sites on the Internet. After I installed it on a Windows NT server as a service, it was easy to specify which internal domains and hosts the mail server would be serving, what rules would be enforced, which sizes would be restricted, and which external mail servers it would enable connections to or from. The only complaint I had with the initial configuration was in setting up default policies--not an entirely intuitive process. The manual's suggestions did not work, but I attribute the problem as a prerelease flaw.

WorldSecure Server's strengths lie in its ability to combine many features into a single management point. Using various wizards, Windows mail ad ministrators now have the tools to easily append to or quarantine messages, and notify other administrators of violations via e-mail. Until now, this functionality had been available only for sendmail and Unix gurus.

Mail administrators also will welcome WorldSecure Server's ability to scan inbound and outbound mail for viruses. WorldSecure Server quarantines infected mail for further inspection or kills it on the spot. For large sites, this capability alone is worth the price of admission. WorldSecure Server intercepted the attempted transmission of a contaminated Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)-encoded executable that I sent. It also caught the same file in a zipped archive and flagged a contaminated Word document. The only thing I was able to sneak past WorldSecure Server was a MIME-encoded, contaminated Word document in a zipped archive. Virus image updates are a click away, thanks to an easy Get Update button from the server configuration utility.

Seldom found in modern-day messaging products, policy-based security at an e-mail level is WorldSecure Server's most innovative feature. It lets you set up se curity-related rules on a per-site or per-user basis.

WorldSecure Server efficiently addresses the issue of unsolicited junk mail, a problem that continues to plague organizations of all sizes. Often called spam, this unwanted parasite of companies' bandwidth is incredibly difficult to stop and only frustrates those who get caught in its net. Although nothing (yet) can completely block out junk e-mail, WorldSecure Server demonstrates that folks at Worldtalk are taking a stab at it.

Greg Shipley is a consultant for the Chicago branch of Ciber Network Services. He can be reached at gshipley@chi.ciber.com.