Sorry about this, i'm a bit of a newbie ...my question:
Products such as Mail Essentials boast "content Checking" capabilities, what exactly does this do and is it a useful feature which every Exchange site should have installed?
We will soon have a white paper which tackles Email Content Checking, which should make an interesting read and i suggest you go through it one it is released. Watch the "White Papers" page http://www.msexchange.org/misc/whitepapers.htm . Our next white paper release tackles Email Encryption, i will upload that tomorrow or the day after, then next week the Email Content Checking white paper should be ready.
Content checking is exactly what it implies. I use software that can and will check for .exe files, abusive language, prohibit mail from a sender or domain, reject attachments over a certain size, etc. These types of software are normally expensive, but the overall result is more than worth it. I stop any VBS scripts with this as well. Most will do more than this even. Check out Mimesweeper from Content Technologies.
Another good product is mailsweeper, it has loads of customizable features. blocking mail with suspect content. redirection of incoming mails, multiple domain management.....and more very good product and the support is quite good also. *if you subscribe to it