chodarama

I'm setting up a new email server for my company in the next couple of weeks and I'd just like some feedback about which SMTP/POP3 servers you guys prefer and why. I've narrowed down my choices to either qmail, postfix/fetchmail, or exim/fetchmail. Thanks for any help.

saberyo

I've had VERY good luck with qmail over the years. I've been using for 300+ users for 4 years with no qmail related issues at all.

I've been using courier at home for 2 years and have had very good luck as well.

I can't really speak about exim or postfix 'cause I have never used either.

If you haven't checked out courier yet, give it a look.

congrats on choosing open source!!

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yotta

I'm also interested in this subject. Also, I require a mail server that supports user+foo@domain addresses (user+foo@domain and user+bar@domain are automatic alaises for user@domain)

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chodarama

Also, our email server sends and recieves about 7-8K emails per day. It rejects about 2-3K spams each day. Thanks for the input saberyo.

Peetster

I've used Qmail before, it's very robust. I'm forced to use Windows based Exchange at work, because frankly nothing else is as powerful.

chodarama

Well, fortunately our users aren't spoiled (if that's the right word, maybe cursed) with Exchange. They just need simple SMTP/POP3 accounts. Thanks for the info.

Boner

Sendmail is fine, and I think it gets a bad rap. Of course it has had more security issues come to life than others because its much older and much more widely used. Just stay up to date, and you'll be fine.

Many people rave about Qmail. I tried running it, but I didn't like it. The daemontools package that it requires insists on putting its directories in the / filesystem, right at the / level. That sucks. I've really tried to like it, but its never grown on me.

Postfix is a really good drop in replacement for sendmail. The configuration is quite different, but any software that ran with sendmail should work with it. It is also designed to do less stuff as root if possible. I've used it before with good results.

I'm getting ready to start messing with Exim. Exim is supposed to be really flexible, especially with integrating with spam filtering (RBLs, etc).

Another thing that you'll need to decide on is what type of mail storage you'll be using. mbox is the format that sendmail, postfix (I think), and Exim use by default. Qmail does maildir by default. Your choice of POP3/IMAP daemons will be affected by this choice.

Check this link out for a quick comparison:
http://www.geocities.com/mailsoftware42/

chodarama

Our current mail software (novonyx mail server/Novell, ugh) uses mbox format. I've found several perl script examples that can convert from mbox to maildir and back, so it's really not too much of an issue. Thanks for the link.

Boner

Converting isn't an issue as much as making sure that your POP3 and IMAP package supports the format you go with. I think Courier will do both.

saberyo

yes, courier will.

courier is REALLY cool, and it will do the user-foo@domain.tld aliasing as well (qmail offers this too)

courier + spamassassin will provide a very robust and flexible (yes these can coexist!) solution.

courier also has an integrated webmail app (sqwebmail) that's written in C and reads maildirs and it BLAZES. It also has basic support for calendering.

... and yes, spoiled by exchange is the term.

sadly exchange is slowly replacing our qmail installation at work, but I'm keeping a qmail/spamassassin/rav smtp relay around 'cause I REFUSE to let the behemoth of exchange dangle on the internet for the next exploit to grab hold of.

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