[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Linux mail server

[cbbrowne@godel.brownes.org]

On Tue, 14 Sep 1999 11:06:06 CDT, the world broke into rejoicing as
"Williams, Todd" <TWilliams at lmfsi.com>  said:
> I met you at the August NTLUG meeting and am thankful that you allowed me to
> pick your brain for information I intend to use for a Linux network
> implementation.  You pointed me in the right direction for an enterprise
> faxing utility (HylaFAX) and to Star Office for an applications suite (now
> free thanks to SUN).  

Star Office is rather "newly differently available," to be sure...

> Well, now I need to pick your brain again.  This network implementation will
> consist of two Linux servers.  One as a firewall server and one as a
> production box (file, print, faxing,and email).  The clients for this
> network will be running Win95 and 98.  HylaFAX has a windows client.  My
> question is how would I implement Linux as a mail server and what, if any,
> windows compatible mail client software would be able to access this Linux
> mail server from the client machine?

There tends to be three major components to a mail system these days:
1) Mail Transfer Agent

The MTA is used to route mail, whether from the outside world in, or,
more particularly, from your users out to the outside world.

  "Competing" options include:
   - Sendmail
   - Qmail
   - Postfix
   - Exim
   - Smail
   - Zmailer

Sendmail is famed for having had lots of security problems over the years
and for having a configuration file that simply put "contains frightening
looking stuff."  It's definitely mature, and can be readily set up, but
also has a *very* thick "O'Reilly" book, indicating tremendous potential
complexity.

I'd suggest looking at Postfix; it is drop-in compatible with Sendmail,
considerably safer from security perspective, *vastly* more efficient,
and took me all of about 10 minutes to get set up last Saturday on not
one but *two* hosts.

Chat with people at an NTLug meeting about this; you'll get some varying
answers that may provide further insight.

The next critical issue is of what protocol(s) users will be using to
get at their mailboxes.

Two selections:
a) POP3 - Very mature, with *lots* of clients and servers available;
   Simple protocol that pushes messages to the user's workstation.
b) IMAP - Newer, possibly less mature, this is a more sophisticated
   (and complex) protocol that allows/encourages to leave messages on the
   mail server.
   For lots of info on IMAP, see <http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/cyrus/>
   and <http://www.imap.org/>

2) Mail Clients.

This is what the users will be using.

There are *LOTS* of mail clients that speak POP3; Eudora, Pegasus Mail,
and Netscape Communicator are some of the best known.

IMAP clients include:
- Groupwise
- Netscape Messanger
- Lotus Notes
- MS Outlook
- StarOffice (apparently?!?)
- Eudora


3) POP/IMAP Server.

This is what is used on the Linux box to store mail on behalf of the
users.

Notable servers include...
For POP3:
- qpop
- ipopd
- cucipop
- roxen (groks pop3)
- Qualcomm qpopper

For IMAP:
- Washington IMAP
- Cyrus IMAP (CMU)
--
Now I  know someone out there is  going to claim, "Well  then, UNIX is
intuitive,  because you  only need  to learn  5000 commands,  and then
everything  else follows  from that!  Har  har har!"   (Andy Bates  in
comp.os.linux.misc,  on  "intuitive  interfaces",  slightly  defending
Macs.)
cbbrowne at ntlug.org- <http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/lsf.html>