Anti-spam appliances are software or hardware devices integrated with on-board software that implement e-mail spam filtering and/or anti-spam for instant messaging (also called "spim") and are deployed at the gateway or in front of the

mail server Within the Internet email system, a message transfer agent (MTA), or mail transfer agent, or mail relay is software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another using SMTP. The terms mail server, mail exchanger, and MX host ...

. They are normally driven by an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

optimized for spam filtering. Anti-spam appliances have existed in

wide area networks A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits. Businesses, as well as schools and government entities, us ...

and

home networks A home network or home area network (HAN) is a type of computer network that facilitates communication among devices within the close vicinity of a home. Devices capable of participating in this network, for example, smart devices such as netw ...

since the early

2000s File:2000s decade montage3.png, From top left, clockwise: The World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty during the 9/11 attacks in 2001; the euro enters into European currency in 2002; a statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled during th ...

. The anti-spam appliances that are found in wide area networks are usually built from server hardware and are generally used by

companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...

, corporations,

ISPs An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

, and

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

, and anti-spam appliances that are found in home networks are usually built from embedded hardware and are generally used by

consumers A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

. Anti-spam technology companies that have produced anti-spam appliances for wide area networks and/or home networks include, but are not limited to Proofpoint,

IronPort IronPort Systems, Inc., headquartered in San Bruno, California, was a company that designed and sold products and services that were intended to protect enterprises against internet threats. IronPort was founded in December 2000 by Scott Banist ...

Barracuda Networks Barracuda Networks, Inc. is a company providing security, networking and storage products based on network appliances and cloud services. The company's security products include products for protection against email, web surfing, web hackers an ...

D-Link D-Link Corporation is a Taiwanese multinational networking equipment manufacturing corporation headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. It was founded in March 1986 in Taipei as ''Datex Systems Inc.'' History D-Link Corporation changed its name fr ...

, Spam Cube, Netgear and TrustEli. Some main reasons why hardware anti-spam appliances may be selected instead of

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

could include, the customer's preference to buy hardware rather than software due to its ease of installation, the appliance can manage itself after it is installed, and anti-spam appliances commonly provide other security features such as

anti-virus Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name. ...

protection.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Appliance, anti-spam Spam filtering Spamming Anti-spam