Want to make FreeBSD mail server

[emmons]

I need to make a mail server for a library. Any suggestions on what software to use such as mail transfer agent. Oh and OS. I know this is a FreeBSD forum so I guess people think FreeBSD would be better than Linux. That seems to be quite a topic and I don't know who to believe. Does anyone know of any canned instructions on how to set up a mail server using FreeBSD. Thank you!

 

[emmons]

OK, I'm going to reply to myself. I posted a similar message on the Linux discussion board and had many replies right away. This makes me wonder if I should use Linux instead of FreeBSD even though I think FreeBSD would probably be the better choice for my application. FreeBSD people just aren't available for advice or just aren't talking to me. Maybe it's just that there are more Linux people out there to talk with and get advice from. Any comments would be appreciated. -Kris

 

[summoner]

http://matt.simerson.net/computing/mail/toaster/

This is a pretty good mail server recipe I was trying out a while ago. I don't know how much experience you have with freebsd but I couldn't get it to work. Regardless, it is loaded with some great features and would make a great production server.

 

[Chewie71]

How about QMail? Here's my setup...

I'm running all this on OpenBSD by the way...which I am upgrading to 3.2 this weekend. But I've done this on FreeBSD too and it works great.

1) Running QMail as the MTA.

http://www.qmail.org

http://www.lifewithqmail.org

These next 2 packages come from

http://www.inter7.com.

Check out their other offerings too...they have some great stuff.
2) Running VPOPMAIL for easy management of virtual POP accounts.
3) QMAILADMIN for a web based management of QMail.
There are other web based utilities there to check out.

These next are on my to-do list
4) COURIER-IMAP which allows IMAP access to QMail Maildirs.
5) IMP webmail client (requires the IMAP access in step 4)

http://www.horde.org/imp/

6) The horde.org also has calendering/PIMs/etc that work alongside IMP.

It takes a little effort to get it all setup, but once it's done I think it's pretty easy to manage.

Matt

 

[Chewie71]

Forgot one other important piece I am using, and that is TMDA. This is a spam blocking system.

http://www.tmda.net

There's a link in the FAQ to a site that has a web based admin for this too....if you use it with QMail.

Matt

 

[kojack96]

I am running a freebsd server 4.3, I have sendmail installed and it runs great. I have a web based e-nail system installed called snailmail and I can also connect via my outlook windows based clients.

I liked it because the ports are easy to install in freebsd so sendamil setup was a breeze. The only difficult thing I found was the config file but there are tons of sendmail discussion boards and excellent examples that you can get through it no problem.

I can now setup a freebsd server with sendmail and config the whole thing in under 2 hr, and that is because I install all my freebsd servers from flopy and download what I need from the net. I could never burn the ISO images you download onto CD I dont think the version of easy cd creator I have support it properly.

I haven't used Linux too much but I don't believe it would be too different on a linux system you might even find more support for Linux on the web but make sure you know the difference in where your problems will be. If you have problems setting up a mail server you will need to ask people that have experience with mail servers not really freebsd or Linux.

I personaly enjoy freebsd more and am really happy with the network performance, it suppost to be one of the best OS for network related which is where you bottle necks will most probably be when you are running sendmail or apachee.

Not sure about this maybe someone can confirm but I believe that hotmail was built on freebsd Could be an old wives tail though maybe someone can confirm!!!

 

[bonkerz]

Yahoo/Google are run by FreeBSD servers, I believe hotmail is too, despite the fact that it's run by Microsoft. Microsoft wouldn't use their own crappy software now, would they?

 

[ikester]

Late Post FYI . . .

Hotmail is run on FreeBSD servers using a hacked qmail VERY similar to Matt Simerson's toaster. This was CONFIRMED in the press when Hotmail went down cuz a large majority of the HUNDREDS of servers they were using were still on 2.2.x
Another little known FACT is that Microsoft owns 14% of Apple and is the largest external shareholder. Hotmail (FreeBSD) and the gang that run it were INSTRUMENTAL in basing MAC OS X on FreeBSD despite what you hear about the GNU license being the reason they did not use Linux. The Army's web servers are all MAC and now most are OS X which has FreeBSD under the hood. I use Linux on the desktop but my servers are ALL FreeBSD . . .
Ike

 

[rycamor]

Nice little article:

http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2002/10/24/squirrelmail.html

-------------------------------------------

Big Brother: "War is Peace" -- Big Business: "Suspicion is Trust"
(

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html)

 

[danclark]

Well with FreeBSD I have found Sendmail to be installed during a default system build...

sendmail_enable="YES"

add that to your /etc/rc.conf, setup the config file correctly and your away.

email me if you need a hand.