Starting a Mail Server

[RexRocket]

Hi,

I'm planning on setting up a mail server on Linux. Can someone point me to the right direction. Which mail server should I use?

I've heard of sendmail but i'm not sure if this is a mail server. If so, does it come with redhat 9?

Thanks,

-Ray

[andrewj]

I absolutely recommend QMail. It was, for me, a lot easier to configure than Sendmail, and, as far as I've heard, significantly more secure.

A "Mail Server" would typically include an SMTP server to receive emails from other mail servers, plus IMAP, POP3 and/or webmail to let your users read their email. When you send email, the "Mail Server" uses its SMTP to send it to the recipient mail server, unless you use a mail client that will do the SMTP for you.

Sendmail is, I believe, only the SMTP side. It's a Mail Transport Agent.

What I originally set up was qmail providing SMTP and POP3. When I needed IMAP and Webmail, I added courier, which provides POP3, IMAP and Webmail, but not SMTP (Courier isn't really an MTA).

If you do set up a "mail server", do the internet (and yourself) a favor, and make sure you're not an "open relay" for spam - its as simple as going to http://www.ordb.org/submit/ and typing in your IP. QMail has good instructions on how to not be an open relay, and it isn't by default. If you get flagged as an open relay, then many large ISPs will simply reject emails from you to any of their users, and it can be a pain to get "unflagged".

[Fryguy8]

I recommend exim, it's rather easy to set up, and has a single configuration file, and it's pretty easy to set up. It takes care of everything from receiving the mail to putting it in the correct mailbox.

Get yourself a dynamic DNS entry (www.dyndns.org), set up exim, and be prepared to have yourname@yourdomain.net for little or no money.

[0x12d3]

I reccomend against sendmail... or least if you decide to use it get the newest version/latest patches as new vulnerablity was discovered today (09/17/2003). Debian's default Exim is very good.

[RexRocket]

Which mail server is the most popular? Which one is for enterprise level implementation?

Does qmail come with RH9? If not where can I get it?

Thanks,

-Rex

[Dutch Mafia-boy.]

Which mail server is the most popular? Which one is for enterprise level implementation?

Sendmail is still largely used today because companies setup their mail servers back in the day when Sendmail was the only viable option.....and most of them haven't switched to anything modern like qmail.....most likely because of the headaches of migrating and risk of downtime....

I highly recommend qmail.....its more secure and faster than sendmail.....

[QUOTEDoes qmail come with RH9? If not where can I get it? [/QUOTE]

No, qmail does not come with Redhat. The reason being because of its licence.

You can get it here

here is the maual for setup - follow this letter for letter!!!

[Fryguy8]

sendmail is most popular, but it is WAY overkill for a 1 computer setup, or pretty much any home network. I find exim to be perfect for single machine email, or email on a small network.

[NeilBlue]

I have been reading this thread and trying things out last week. I am runing RH9. I have tried to install QMail but there are compilation errors unable to find errno. WIth exim 4 there are also errno compilation errors and the exim3 rpm executables doesn't seem to work. I think I need to start by tring to understand more how mail servers work. Are there any good introduction/tutorials that explain what SMTP/POP2?IMAP servers are and how they work with MX settings.

Thanks
Neil