To operate Praetor you will need the following:
A 2004-era off-the-shelf PC with at least a Pentium IV processor operating at 2 GHz or faster, with a minimum of 512 MB RAM preferably 1GB, and 10 GB of free hard disk space. Click here to see our recommendations.
Color display & adapter set with a minimum resolution of 1024x768 pixels and at least 64K colors
Network interface card
One of the following operating systems with the latest service pack applied and the Microsoft virtual SMTP server already installed:
Windows 2000 Professional Edition
Windows XP Professional Edition
Windows 2000 Server
Windows 2003 .NET Server
Note:
Keep in mind that Microsoft has placed limitations on the number of simultaneous IP sessions for their non-server editions of the Windows OS. Both Windows 2000 and XP Professional is limited to 10 concurrent IP sessions. Thus if yours is a site that receives a lot of email, you may need to use a Windows server edition. Exceeding 10 connections is not catastrophic; the sending server will simply have to retry sending the email to you. CMS estimates that the non-server editions will suffice for sites receiving less than 500 messages per hour or 5000 messages per day. |
Installed and operational Microsoft virtual SMTP server (Windows 2000/XP) or Exchange 200x SMTP server (a component of Microsoft's Internet Information Services).
Installed and operational Microsoft IIS web server for use with the optional browser-based log viewer called PLGV.
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 or later which Praetor's installer will download and install for you. Alternatively you can download from Microsoft's website. Information is also provided on how you can if .NET Framework has already been installed.
Note:
While Windows 2003 may have this framework already installed and known as ASP.NET, you will need to verify it. Also, even if installed, you need to verify that ASP.NET is allowed to run as a web service extension under IIS. See how this is done by clicking here. |
Installed
Microsoft SQL Server or
the Microsoft SQL Desktop Engine (MSDE) (SQLSERVER.EXE version should
be 2000.80.760.0 or later). Praetor's
installer will download and install this for you if you don't already
have it installed. Alternatively
you can download it from Microsoft's
website. Be
sure to get the SP3 version or later.
Even if you want to use a remote SQL Server, just have MSDE installed
so that the database can be attached. You
can later detach and move the Praetor databases onto the remote SQL Server
and re-attach it there.
Note:
Microsoft has limited MSDE to 8 concurrent queries. The built-in "workload governor" will automatically inject a fixed delay of "a few milliseconds" when there are more than 8. You can read more about this on Microsoft's website. Exceeding this amount occasionally is not catastrophic but will likely slow down Praetor's message processing ability during the period whenever the this governor is activated. CMS estimates that the non-server editions will suffice for sites receiving less than 500 messages per hour or 5000 messages per day. Typically this will be for sites with less than 100 users. Exceeding this limit constantly will be cause filtering issues, and in extreme cases it may appear that Praetor no longer filters as there are no new log entries. Click here to read more about this situation. Another limit found in MSDE is the maximum database size of 2GB. Even if your site may not have many users, your volume of mail may eventually cause you to reach this database limit. You need to make certain to regularly run the database cleanup tools to eliminate very old records to avoid reaching this limit. Once this limit is reached Praetor cannot add any more records so that quarantined messages cannot be reviewed and released. As of late June 2004, Microsoft announced plans to update MSDE with a follow-on product they call the SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. The reason for the name change was "MSDE was confusing to customers and partners because many did not realize that it was associated with SQL Server." CMS has not yet tested this as-yet beta version of MSDE's successor. |
One of the following mail servers, installed and configured to receive/transmit SMTP mail:
Microsoft Exchange Server v5.5 with operational Internet Mail Service,
Microsoft Exchange 2000 or 2003 with the Virtual SMTP server,
Lotus Domino Server v4.6 or later with its SMTP MTA,
Novell GroupWise Server with its Internet Agent, or
Sendmail or any SMTP compatible mail server
Visual Basic Script file VBScript.DLL must be version 5.6 or higher. You can download the latest version directly from the Microsoft website by using the following links. Normally this file is located in the following location:
Windows 2000: |
C:\WINNT\System32 or download here |
Windows XP: |
C:\WINDOWS\System32 or download here |
Windows 2003: |
C:\WINDOWS\System32 or download here |
Access 2000 or XP to use the LogAnalyzer application.
Dedicated connection to the Internet.
Note:
Since 2002 Praetor dropped support for a dial-up connection and made full-time Internet connectivity a requirement. This decision was made for several reasons:
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