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Home > Archive > Web Servers on Unix and Linux > May 2004 > ISP Rugged Mail Server Recommendation for Linux?
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ISP Rugged Mail Server Recommendation for Linux?
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| Myles 2004-04-26, 12:36 pm |
| We are about to convert our ISP servers from Windows to Linux, and I'm
trying to find out what people with about 100 mail accounts are
suggesting for rugged mail servers in Linux. We need the ability to
handle anti-virus scans on all incoming and outgoing mail, as well as
good integrtaion with SPAM filtering, etc.
I'm sure there must be some 'defacto' standard mail servers that ISPs
are using these days for email.
Any suggestions where to look?
Myles
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| dpuryear@usa.net 2004-04-27, 11:35 pm |
| On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 09:14:19 -0700, Myles <spam@techsol.org> wrote:
>We are about to convert our ISP servers from Windows to Linux, and I'm
>trying to find out what people with about 100 mail accounts are
100 mail accounts for an ISP? Small town? 
>suggesting for rugged mail servers in Linux. We need the ability to
>handle anti-virus scans on all incoming and outgoing mail, as well as
>good integrtaion with SPAM filtering, etc.
>
>I'm sure there must be some 'defacto' standard mail servers that ISPs
>are using these days for email.
There is no real de facto standard, but Postfix is definitely becoming
a leader these days. It's very fast, can handle very large loads, and
has a strong history of security.
>Any suggestions where to look?
Test, test, and test some more to see what works best for you site.
Are you in the wrong newsgroup?
---
Puryear Information Technology, LLC
Baton Rouge, LA
225-343-3056
http://www.puryear-it.com
Author of "Best Practices for Managing Linux and UNIX Servers"
Download your free copy:
http://www.puryear-it.com/manage-linux.htm
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| Myles wrote:
> We are about to convert our ISP servers from Windows to Linux, and I'm
> trying to find out what people with about 100 mail accounts are
> suggesting for rugged mail servers in Linux. We need the ability to
> handle anti-virus scans on all incoming and outgoing mail, as well as
> good integrtaion with SPAM filtering, etc.
Good move. You won't regret it. This happened many years ago at my ISP
when we had about 300 users. They brought me into the loop because I
was a Linux guy. They've been going strong ever since. 3 POPs in two
states. 13 servers by the end of the summer. Linux will treat you
right. One question though, do you have any experienced Linux admins?
I'm assuming you do since you're saying that you're about to convert in
the near future. It wouldn't be the first time I saw someone try it
with no experience though. The production environment is not a good
place to try and learn a completely new operating system, not to mention
unknown daemons and admin tools. If you don't have any Linux experience
then I highly recommend you get some before you attempt this conversion.
At the very least get a spare box and start experimenting. Trial and
error is the best way to learn. Give yourself some goals like trying to
get a web server running w/ php and SSL support. Toss in virtualhosts.
Mess with permissions and see how things break. It's a long process
if you haven't already got the experience. It's worth it in the end.
We've used Sendmail on all our mail system for years and have no plans
or desire to ever switch. It is the de facto standard in entreprise
mail system. Many folks like Exim and Postfix too. What works for them
is whatever they're most comfortable with. I have some extremely
complex setups involving Sendmail that were really quite easy build with
a little experience backing up the effort. There's a plethora of
information online. I've used MIMEDefang to glue Sendmail to spam and
virus filtering tools for many years as well. We rolled out a new mail
system 2 weeks ago using MIMEDefang's commercial Big Brother (Big Daddy
actually), CanIt Pro. It's an excellent tool. It uses MIMEDefang at
its core to glue SpamAssassin (the current de facto standard in spam
filtering) and a wide assortment of AV clients. It comes with an open
source AV tool called Clam Antivirus which is quite nice (hard to beat
free). Our users love the new spam filtering solution. I've been
thoroughly impressed from an admin standpoint as well. CanIt Pro runs
$1.50/user, although there might be a minimum purchase.
> I'm sure there must be some 'defacto' standard mail servers that ISPs
> are using these days for email.
Sendmail. It's the old standard that does whatever you need with ease.
Sure some people XXXXX and moan about how hard it is to configure.
I'll say it like this: any compotent sysadm can configure Sendmail.
It's not rocket science. :-) Get some Linux experience under your
belt. If you haven't picked a Linux distribution yet, start with Redhat
Entreprise or Fedora (free Redhat). Most of the HOWTOs, whitepapers,
books, and other references write with it in mind. I'm moving away from
it to Gentoo, but it's not something I'd recommend to a new Linux user.
Start with what works (most of the time).
Hope this helps
J
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