Recommendations for internal mail server

Quick scenario: Small school, Internet access via proxy, no pop3, no smtp
etc. Require mail server for internal use only.

Could some kind person recommend some application(s) that would let our
network users (mostly using OE) send and receive emails to each other
internally and be easy to setup up and configure.

Hope that's enough information.

Thanks

John Murf

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In comp.os.linux.networking John Murf <(E-Mail Removed)> suggested:
> Quick scenario: Small school, Internet access via proxy, no pop3, no smtp
> etc. Require mail server for internal use only.

> Could some kind person recommend some application(s) that would let our
> network users (mostly using OE) send and receive emails to each other
> internally and be easy to setup up and configure.

For pop3, I'd suggest qpopper, if you want to keep mails on the
server, you could look for some imap server, mostly there's one
coming with your distro, whichever you use.

As MTA anything should work, postfix/qmail/sendmail, I prefer the
last, but then any of those will work without problems.

I'd would be a great advantage, if you wouldn't use that utter piece
of crap called M$-OE, even if you are restricted to M$, there are
a bunch of free/good MUA available (eudora/pmail). Try a google
search.

If that didn't made much sense to you, start here:

http://www.sendmail.org/email-explained.html

Anyway, you could take a look at http://www.ltsp.org/ and
http://www.k12ltsp.org/.

Good luck

--
Michael Heiming (GPG-Key ID: 0xEDD27B94)
mail: echo (E-Mail Removed) | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
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On 2004-05-30, John Murf <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Quick scenario: Small school, Internet access via proxy, no pop3, no smtp
> etc. Require mail server for internal use only.
>
> Could some kind person recommend some application(s) that would let our
> network users (mostly using OE) send and receive emails to each other
> internally and be easy to setup up and configure.

Send: postfix is as easy as an SMTP server can be, but if you aren't
at least somewhat familiar with what an SMTP server does, configuring
any SMTP server (sendmail, exim, qmail) will be at least somewhat
difficult.

''Receive'': if this machine will really be inaccessible from the outside,
the IMAP/POP3 daemons that come with your linux distro should be
sufficient. (Often that's WU-IMAP, but not always.) Even a horrible
client like OE can do IMAP or POP.

- --keith

- --
kkeller-(E-Mail Removed)
(try just my userid to email me)
AOLSFAQ=http://wombat.san-francisco.ca.us/cgi-bin/fom

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Keith Keller <kkeller-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

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>
> On 2004-05-30, John Murf <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Quick scenario: Small school, Internet access via proxy, no pop3, no
>> smtp etc. Require mail server for internal use only.
>>
>> Could some kind person recommend some application(s) that would let
>> our network users (mostly using OE) send and receive emails to each
>> other internally and be easy to setup up and configure.
>
> Send: postfix is as easy as an SMTP server can be, but if you aren't
> at least somewhat familiar with what an SMTP server does, configuring
> any SMTP server (sendmail, exim, qmail) will be at least somewhat
> difficult.

I've found that. I'm trying at the moment to narrow down what I have to
read up on.

> ''Receive'': if this machine will really be inaccessible from the
> outside, the IMAP/POP3 daemons that come with your linux distro should
> be sufficient. (Often that's WU-IMAP, but not always.) Even a
> horrible client like OE can do IMAP or POP.

Thanks for the reply. I'm using Slackware 9.1 as a test at the moment but
also have three servers using Sol 18 (just set up) and Redhat 9 to run
Samba and MRBS.

--
John Murf

Michael Heiming <michael+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:ebipo1-(E-Mail Removed):
>
> In comp.os.linux.networking John Murf <(E-Mail Removed)> suggested:
>> Quick scenario: Small school, Internet access via proxy, no pop3, no
>> smtp etc. Require mail server for internal use only.
>
>> Could some kind person recommend some application(s) that would let
>> our network users (mostly using OE) send and receive emails to each
>> other internally and be easy to setup up and configure.
>
> For pop3, I'd suggest qpopper, if you want to keep mails on the
> server, you could look for some imap server, mostly there's one
> coming with your distro, whichever you use.
>
> As MTA anything should work, postfix/qmail/sendmail, I prefer the
> last, but then any of those will work without problems.

> If that didn't made much sense to you, start here:
>
> http://www.sendmail.org/email-explained.html

Thanks for the link. Actually it was this sort of thing (MTA etc) that
confused me. I've just re-read it. I wouldn't recognise what I require
from those decriptions. That's why I need someone to tell me what I need.
:-)

Thanks again

--
John Murf

John Murf wrote:
> Quick scenario: Small school, Internet access via proxy, no pop3, no smtp
> etc. Require mail server for internal use only.
>
> Could some kind person recommend some application(s) that would let our
> network users (mostly using OE) send and receive emails to each other
> internally and be easy to setup up and configure.
>
> Hope that's enough information.
>
> Thanks
>
> John Murf


Just about any Linux distro will handle setting up a POP3/IMAP server
with a fairly nice interface. Some even do it with virtual users so
you're not adding users to the system, just email accounts. Personally,
I like SuSE.

Make sure that you have a fairly good understanding of what maintaining
a mail system entails; particularily what the protocols are. That is to
say, understand that the process of sending mail is the job of the MTA
and it talks SMTP and retrieving mail is the job of another protocol
either POP3 or IMAP. Not trying to be snobbish, but the job will go a
whole lot easier if you understand these differences first. If you
already do, then you're half-way there.

For an email client, I strongly recommend against using Outlook Express.
Even though you're using it for internal email, it's just not what I'd
call a stellar client. Mozilla Thunderbird does everything OE does, and
it's just as free and to me seems a whole world more stable.




--

WWJD? JWRTFM
Rot13 for email address: yvfgf @ ehqa.pbz

Jeff Breitner <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

> John Murf wrote:
>> Quick scenario: Small school, Internet access via proxy, no pop3, no
>> smtp etc. Require mail server for internal use only.
>>
>> Could some kind person recommend some application(s) that would let
>> our network users (mostly using OE) send and receive emails to each
>> other internally and be easy to setup up and configure.



> Make sure that you have a fairly good understanding of what
> maintaining a mail system entails; particularily what the protocols
> are. That is to say, understand that the process of sending mail is
> the job of the MTA and it talks SMTP and retrieving mail is the job of
> another protocol either POP3 or IMAP. Not trying to be snobbish, but
> the job will go a whole lot easier if you understand these differences
> first. If you already do, then you're half-way there.

Thanks for the reply. I thought I understood I started this. :-)

--
John Murf

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On 2004-05-30, John Murf <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the reply. I'm using Slackware 9.1 as a test at the moment but
> also have three servers using Sol 18 (just set up) and Redhat 9 to run
> Samba and MRBS.

Slackware is an excellent platform for this kind of task. IIRC
Slackware comes with the IMAP and POP daemons from University of
Washington, so you will definitely not want to expose those daemons to
the internet (they have a history of security holes, though I think in
recent times there have been fewer).

- --keith

- --
kkeller-(E-Mail Removed)
(try just my userid to email me)
AOLSFAQ=http://wombat.san-francisco.ca.us/cgi-bin/fom

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Keith Keller <kkeller-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

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> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 2004-05-30, John Murf <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks for the reply. I'm using Slackware 9.1 as a test at the moment
>> but also have three servers using Sol 18 (just set up) and Redhat 9
>> to run Samba and MRBS.
>
> Slackware is an excellent platform for this kind of task. IIRC
> Slackware comes with the IMAP and POP daemons from University of
> Washington, so you will definitely not want to expose those daemons to
> the internet (they have a history of security holes, though I think in
> recent times there have been fewer).

It seems likely that we will retain our present Internet access for the
immediate future and that allows no direct access i.e. no pings, pop3 etc.
So we have no smpt or pop3 server to connect to. I don't know what the
daemons from Washington are but I've just run popa3d as a daemon with no
configuring and to my surprise it works. Scary.

--
John Murf