The Sophos Email Appliance is a specialized server that is used at the gateway to scan email for viruses and spam. Email is scanned before it enters your network, and any unwanted or suspicious items can be removed before messages reach your mail server.

You can also use the appliance to scan outgoing email for viruses and spam, prevent the accidental loss of sensitive information with Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and protect sensitive data with Secure PDF Exchange (SPX).

The appliance plugs directly into your network. It provides a management console that you access from another computer, using a web browser.

The Sophos scanning software is already installed and configured on the appliance when you buy it. You can either accept the default settings or customize the configuration if required.

Online help becomes available when you power on the Appliance.

Getting started

Read the knowledgebase article that describes requirements for getting started.

Software installed on the Appliance

The appliance comes with the following:

• Sophos Anti-Virus
• Sophos Anti-Spam
• Sophos IP Block Lists (for reputation filtering)
• Sophos web-based dashboard and management console
• Sophos Data Loss Prevention
• [Optional] Secure PDF Exchange (SPX) encryption
• System alerting and notification
• Postfix MTA (mail transfer agent)
• Hardened FreeBSD operating system

Setting up the Appliance

You must perform the following steps to start the appliance:

1. Mount the appliance in a rack in a suitable location. Full details are given in the printed Sophos Email Appliance Setup Guide, which comes with the appliance.
2. Connect it to your network, and plug in the computer that you are going to use to manage it. The Appliance will prompt you for information about your network, which you must provide, for example, IP addresses and hostnames.
3. Run the configuration wizard. You can configure your own settings or accept the Appliance defaults.

Keeping the appliance up to date

The Appliance is automatically updated whenever a new version of Sophos software is released. For example, the anti-virus or anti-spam engines, or virus detection files (IDEs). You can also install software upgrades manually.

Managing the appliance

The management of tasks, network and appliance monitoring, and reporting, is accessible via the web-based management console.

Appliance reporting

A variety of reports are available. Details are given in the online help.

What types of alert are sent to Sophos support?

The system alerts the administrator and Sophos Technical Support in the event of a software or hardware issue. No information about mail flow or message content is passed on to Sophos.

The Appliance supports Active Directory

With Active Directory support you can perform a number of tasks, including importing user lists from other systems, policy enforcement, and authentication.