[NTLUG:Discuss] Basic email server

[richard witt]

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 10:12 AM, Michael Barnes <barnmichael at gmail.com> wrote:
> I need to set up a very basic email server for my lab.  I just need to
> create a few users and have it send and receive mail for those users.
> It needs to be accessible from other machines using a standard client
> like Thunderbird.
>
> Basically it will be used with development of other applications that
> need to send and receive email to and from users and administrators.
>
> This is a closed lab network, so I don't need/want all the
> anti-spam/virus/etc. stuff.  Just a basic configuration that will run
> on a minimal machine.
>
> I've not fooled much with email servers before.  Any recommendations
> on setup guides, etc. would be very helpful.  Most of the ones I have
> found and tried so far are way too complicated for my needs.

Personally for the MTA piece i would strongly suggest that you use
Postfix. IMO the configuration is quite simple compared to most MTA's
and its in plain english. Usually the default config file
(/etc/postfix/main.cf) is quite heavily documented and it does not
take much to get it sending/receiving email. For client access portion
Dovecot, again IMO, is also very simple to setup for pop/imap access.