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<TITLE>RE: Linux mail server </TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Thanks for the direction! I really appreciate your time and expertise. See you at the September meeting.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: cbbrowne@godel.brownes.org [<A HREF="mailto:cbbrowne@godel.brownes.org">mailto:cbbrowne@godel.brownes.org</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Thursday, September 16, 1999 9:38 PM</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: Williams, Todd</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Cc: discuss@ntlug.org</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: Re: Linux mail server </FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>On Tue, 14 Sep 1999 11:06:06 CDT, the world broke into rejoicing as</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>"Williams, Todd" <TWilliams@lmfsi.com> said:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I met you at the August NTLUG meeting and am thankful that you allowed me to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> pick your brain for information I intend to use for a Linux network</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> implementation. You pointed me in the right direction for an enterprise</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> faxing utility (HylaFAX) and to Star Office for an applications suite (now</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> free thanks to SUN). </FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Star Office is rather "newly differently available," to be sure...</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>> Well, now I need to pick your brain again. This network implementation will</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> consist of two Linux servers. One as a firewall server and one as a</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> production box (file, print, faxing,and email). The clients for this</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> network will be running Win95 and 98. HylaFAX has a windows client. My</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> question is how would I implement Linux as a mail server and what, if any,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> windows compatible mail client software would be able to access this Linux</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> mail server from the client machine?</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>There tends to be three major components to a mail system these days:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>1) Mail Transfer Agent</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>The MTA is used to route mail, whether from the outside world in, or,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>more particularly, from your users out to the outside world.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2> "Competing" options include:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> - Sendmail</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> - Qmail</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> - Postfix</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> - Exim</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> - Smail</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> - Zmailer</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Sendmail is famed for having had lots of security problems over the years</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>and for having a configuration file that simply put "contains frightening</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>looking stuff." It's definitely mature, and can be readily set up, but</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>also has a *very* thick "O'Reilly" book, indicating tremendous potential</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>complexity.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I'd suggest looking at Postfix; it is drop-in compatible with Sendmail,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>considerably safer from security perspective, *vastly* more efficient,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>and took me all of about 10 minutes to get set up last Saturday on not</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>one but *two* hosts.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Chat with people at an NTLug meeting about this; you'll get some varying</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>answers that may provide further insight.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>The next critical issue is of what protocol(s) users will be using to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>get at their mailboxes.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Two selections:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>a) POP3 - Very mature, with *lots* of clients and servers available;</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> Simple protocol that pushes messages to the user's workstation.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>b) IMAP - Newer, possibly less mature, this is a more sophisticated</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> (and complex) protocol that allows/encourages to leave messages on the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> mail server.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> For lots of info on IMAP, see <<A HREF="http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/cyrus/" TARGET="_blank">http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/cyrus/</A>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> and <<A HREF="http://www.imap.org/" TARGET="_blank">http://www.imap.org/</A>></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>2) Mail Clients.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>This is what the users will be using.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>There are *LOTS* of mail clients that speak POP3; Eudora, Pegasus Mail,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>and Netscape Communicator are some of the best known.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>IMAP clients include:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- Groupwise</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- Netscape Messanger</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- Lotus Notes</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- MS Outlook</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- StarOffice (apparently?!?)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- Eudora</FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>3) POP/IMAP Server.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>This is what is used on the Linux box to store mail on behalf of the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>users.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Notable servers include...</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>For POP3:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- qpop</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- ipopd</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- cucipop</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- roxen (groks pop3)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- Qualcomm qpopper</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>For IMAP:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- Washington IMAP</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>- Cyrus IMAP (CMU)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>--</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Now I know someone out there is going to claim, "Well then, UNIX is</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>intuitive, because you only need to learn 5000 commands, and then</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>everything else follows from that! Har har har!" (Andy Bates in</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>comp.os.linux.misc, on "intuitive interfaces", slightly defending</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Macs.)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>cbbrowne@ntlug.org- <<A HREF="http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/lsf.html" TARGET="_blank">http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/lsf.html</A>></FONT>
</P>
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