[techtalk] Hi.I'm new.Postfix/mail server questions...

[Aaron Malone]

> Michelle Murrain wrote:
> > qpopper is a good all purpose POP server: http://www.eudora.com/qpopper/
> > http://www.imap.org/products/longlist.htm#Server is a list of IMAP servers -
> > the generic one is the UWash server.

A note on POP3 daemons -- a lot of information I've read indicates that
qpopper may not be your best choice, depending on server load.  I've
seen data showing that qpopper does incur more overhead on heavily-used
boxes than, say, cucipop.  cucipop, btw, is excellent software, but it's
neither free nor Free.  If you do end up using it, it is quite cheap,
though. :)

You should be able to find some of this qpopper info by searching for,
say, "qpopper vs cucipop" or similar on google.

Another POP3 daemon I've used is Solid-POP3d
(http://solidpop3d.pld.org.pl/).  I used this for several months on my
personal mail server without incident.  Solid has a major bonus for me
in that it can pop Maildirs, which are my storage format of choice.  The
only other popper I know of that supports Maildirs is Dan Bernstein (the
creator of maildir)'s qmail-pop3d, which naturally comes with qmail.
Keep in mind that whether or not qmail is Free software is a topic of
constant debate. :)

For those that care, an excellent IMAP server that supports Maildir is
courier-imap (http://www.inter7.com/courierimap/).  I'm currently using
it for the aforementioned personal mail server, and again have had no
problems.  It doesn't support standard mbox format, though.

As far as MTAs go, most of my experience, and thus what I perceive as
"easy to configure and maintain" (<wink>), are with qmail and Postfix.
Both are well-designed for security and performance.  If one decides to
go with qmail, though, there is a lot of information to absorb to set it
up "the right way", and many qmail users (including on the qmail list)
can be dismissive if you don't set it up "the right way". ;)

One more thing to consider regarding mail is spam-blocking provisions --
I personally recommend that people use the three mail-abuse.org (MAPS)
databases: the Relay Spam Stopper, the Realtime Blackhole List, and the
Dial-Up User List.  (I don't have any experience with ORBS.)  Both qmail
and postfix can be easily configured to use these systems to deny mail
from any listed sites.

Thus endeth my ramblings on mail service for tonight.  I apologize if
I've repeated anything someone else said, I'm a bit tired. :)
-- 
Aaron Malone (aaron at semo.net)
System Administrator                 "It's easier than thinking!"
Poplar Bluff Internet, Inc.                  -- Rick Moen
http://www.semo.net