This product is different from others in the group test, as this system focuses on what to do with an email once it has been captured from an email server.
MailMeter is more a forensic tool to be used for compliance and investigation of email. The software filters email already in the organization for evidence and reporting. It can also help in email policy enforcement.
Installation requires journalling/ archiving to be enabled and an Exchange mailbox to be created. On Exchange 2000 this is fairly easy to perform. The hardware requirements are really quite low, so this can be installed on a low-end computer without much fuss.
The documentation that accompanies the product is comprehensive, but not daunting, and easy to understand. In fact, it's probably the best seen in this group test, and definitely the way that manuals should be written.
We ran the program in conjunction with our Exchange server. MailMeter gets a copy of every email that passes through Exchange. It then processes these emails, stores the details, and deletes the copy of the email from its mailbox. The data in the database can be accessed through a built-in web server.
Most of the work done by the administrator or compliance officer is done via a web browser, which is very well laid out. Compliance is one of the software's major strengths – the reporting functionality can give the user a very good indication of suspicious trends.
We could also see when a user was using their mailbox to store MP3 or JPEG files. Though the software does not enforce policy, it provides evidence for enforcement. Organizations could use this with email filtering products to fine-tune filters. Reporting functions here are great and will help ensure organizational compliance.
