Best free Linux email server

[Jay]

We have a single POP3 catchall account eg catchall@mydomain.com, I used to just used EFS mail to grab it from the server and EMWAC to distribute it via SMTPD but I found it to be slow and could not be run on Linux. This is all to do with cost really, if we had the cash I would just get exchange and be done with it.

[peterb]

Verily, Ikonia speaketh the truth (as usual )

His listing of distros is a fair one for the application you have in mind, and given the relative complexity of compiling a latest patched copy of qmail, (which I overtlooked) sendmail and postfix are probably your best options. Sendmail is a standard, and ships with most distros, but some consider postfix to be a more flexible alternative.

If you are planning to install this in an enterprise environment, I would advise you to take a trip down to a large branch of Waterstones or a technical bookshop and have a browse through some of the many textbooks on the subject. Have a look on Amazon first to try and narrow your selection - there are many to choose from, both sendmail and postfix.

Installing the application is one thin g - getting it to run correctly - and securely is another - the last thing you want to do is leave an open relay running!

I have played with sendmail and got it to do what I wanted after a while (not actually running a mail server as such - for my simple needs it is too much hassle) but in an enterprise environment (that I assume you intend running it in) you need it to work correctly from the start!

What is it you actually want to do? Is it download several users' mail from your ISP's mailbox and then use the server to distribute it locally? If that is the case, you might find it easier just to buy more pop3 mailboxes from your ISP one for each user, although the server route is more flexible and gives you more control. If it is an IMAP facility you want to provide, then you will have to go the own server route.

(Sorry - you answered the last part while I was composing my post)

[ikonia]

ok, now I see what your doing.

You hosted pop server just gets everything. You want this box to download everything then logcially split it out.

Very do-able. something along the lines of "fetchmail" will grab the mail for you and intergrated with postfix for example will work well as a pop3 service for your userbase.

One thing to consdier is how are you planning to send mail. Do you expect this new server your setting up to be an smtp relay for you ?

Are you hosting this on a broad band or cable connection ?

[Jay]

I will send mail by allowing them to connect to the catchall pop3 directly, this will send "as the user" in essence when joebloggs connects to the pop3 it will log on as catchall@mydomain but the recipient will get a mail from joebloggs@mydomain.com (this is how it used to work with outlook anyway)

It will be on a 512K / 384K line that will soon be upgraded to 20mb/784k.

[ikonia]

that sounds like a good way of sending mail.

Is the line a DSL/Cable line ?

[Jay]

dsl at the moment but will be cable in the next few months

[Jay]

so if I use ubuntu and fetchmail this will do the basic job for me?

[directhex]

Verily, Ikonia speaketh the truth (as usual )

His listing of distros is a fair one for the application you have in mind, and given the relative complexity of compiling a latest patched copy of qmail, (which I overtlooked) sendmail and postfix are probably your best options. Sendmail is a standard, and ships with most distros, but some consider postfix to be a more flexible alternative.

If you are planning to install this in an enterprise environment, I would advise you to take a trip down to a large branch of Waterstones or a technical bookshop and have a browse through some of the many textbooks on the subject. Have a look on Amazon first to try and narrow your selection - there are many to choose from, both sendmail and postfix.

Installing the application is one thin g - getting it to run correctly - and securely is another - the last thing you want to do is leave an open relay running!

I have played with sendmail and got it to do what I wanted after a while (not actually running a mail server as such - for my simple needs it is too much hassle) but in an enterprise environment (that I assume you intend running it in) you need it to work correctly from the start!

What is it you actually want to do? Is it download several users' mail from your ISP's mailbox and then use the server to distribute it locally? If that is the case, you might find it easier just to buy more pop3 mailboxes from your ISP one for each user, although the server route is more flexible and gives you more control. If it is an IMAP facility you want to provide, then you will have to go the own server route.

(Sorry - you answered the last part while I was composing my post)

RHEL (and white box equivalents) ship sendmail by default. nobody likes it because it's an absolute pig to configure, but it's antique (read: "enterprise") so probably a good pick for RHEL. Fedora uses sendmail by default too. And so do the SUSEs.

Ubuntu ships with Postfix.

Debian ships with Exim4.

In all cases, switching between sendmail, exim and postfix is pretty trivial.

My expertise is with Exim4 (I object to things like Sendmail where you need to compile your config files), but general consensus is Postfix is the newest & "friendliest" of the bunch

[ikonia]

Ubuntu and fetchmail will get you your mail, then as directhex says, ubuntu ships with postfix which you could use to re-distribute into pop3 mail boxes for your clients.

You won't be needing the latest and greatest versions, so I suggest you use the ubuntu 6.06 LTS server release for valid support/updates/security.

dsl at the moment but will be cable in the next few months

One thing to consider now before you impliment (I'm sure you have an answer for this as you where doing it before) is the remote pop3/smtp service, how do clients send mail to them. As your on a DSL/cable line your ip may a.) be blacklisted as most DSL/Cable IP's are, my mail relay services b.) dynamic
With this in mind you need to consider something along the lines of a remote authentication system, over IP based rules for the remote relay or it could be classed as an open relay, in which case WILL be blacklisted and limit the sending of mails out.

My advice on this is
1.) Check the IP address of the remote service with a few blacklist URLS, SORBS is one of the main ones used on the internet and can be a good bass line
2.) check you own IP (if its dynamic you'll probably be blacklisted by default)
3.) Speak to your hosted mail service to make sure they are maintaining this mail service do you don't get blacklisted (eg: auth before smtp relay)

A possible solution is to use your ISP's relay rather than the remote pop3 as your smtp relay. That way your clients are on the same network as the relay and the dhcp addressing won't be a problem for your own isp.

[Jay]

ok, will do. Will post back once I have it up and running.

thanks.

[peterb]

My expertise is with Exim4 (I object to things like Sendmail where you need to compile your config files), but general consensus is Postfix is the newest & "friendliest" of the bunch

You can do minor tweaks to the sendmail config file by hand, but as you say major changes are a pig. BTW - Fedora also ships with postfix, although the deefault is sendmail it is easy to change that to postfix.

[aidanjt]

Postfix is fairly easy to set up, performs well, and is fairly secure. I notice people mentioned Q-Mail, but that thing is a bitch to set up and configure, definitely not for the faint hearted.. Sendmail, well that thing should hurry up and die already.

[PoDd]

FreeBSD/MailScanner/Sendmail/Qpopper/SquirrelMail

PoDd