Re: Building a mail server

From: Jesse Meyer (meyer_at_btinet.net)
Date: 07/31/03

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    Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 01:18:37 -0500
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org

    On Wed, 30 Jul 2003, Jeffrey Hartmann wrote:

    > I run a small server that is used for myself and some friends and family to
    > host email, webpages, etc.
    >
    > So can anyone give me some idea of what they run, or suggestions of what to
    > use that could be configured to do a lot of this stuff? Ease of install isn't
    > really an issue, as I really don't have to do that very often. Ease of use
    > and maintenance is a big issue, as I don't want to have to go through a 50
    > step process every time I add a new user.

    Locally, I'm running exim as a smarthost on two machines,
    courier-imap-ssl, and bogofilter. This setup is simple, well supported
    under debian, and works without a hitch.

    My advice is:

            1) Avoid virtual domains, they'd only add unnecessary
                    complexity for the small number of users you
                    seem to have.
                    
            2) Use smtp, imap, and pop3 over ssl for additional security
                    - any email client should support it!
            
            3) Use smtp-auth over pop-before-smtp, its less of a hack.

            4) Use spamassassin and keep the package up to date - it
                    doesn't require the continual training that bogofilter
                    needs.

            5) Use exim or postfix - both are well supported under debian.

            6) Set the users shell to /bin/false in /etc/passwd to disable
                    login.

            7) Use Maildir, the 'each email is a file, each email folder is
                    a physical folder' paradigm is sound.

            8) Skip an AV scanner, and use 'sanitizer' to remove javascript
                    and mangle/block attachments - that should protect your
                    users from most Outlook/OE viruses. Also, all of your
                    users should be running AV on their Windows machines.

            9) Either let your MUA's rule sort your email into different
                    folders, or else set up procmail rules for yourself
                    or globally. [A script to sort different domains into
                    different folders would not be too hard to create]

    Forgive the terseness and opinionated reply - I'm more then a tad ill
    and have a heck of an ear ache going right now (privately emailed ear
    ache remedies welcomed, btw).

    ~ Jesse Meyer 

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   "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we 
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