Re: mail server recommendations?

From: Cody Baker (cody_at_wilkshire.net)
Date: 04/13/04

  • Next message: W.D.McKinney: "Re: mail server recommendations?" 
    Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 20:21:25 -0400
To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org

    Hello,
        I put my personal recommendation in to qmail. I have 10 + servers
    running qmail, some with 3000+ users. We use vpopmail for a mysql based
    single UID/GID solution. For POP3 access we're using the integrated
    qmail-pop3d, and courier-IMAP for IMAP. Virus scanning / MIME-magic is
    done via qmail-scanner and clamscan. Many people chose to use
    qmail-scanner with spamassassin as spam-gateway, although we've chosen
    to implement it with some custom scripting in the general area of
    qmail-local. I am particularly fond of qmail because once it's setup
    it's very easy to use, and is ROCK solid. It may not have been updated
    in years, but that's because there really hasn't been a call for it; it
    was rock solid and secure years ago and still is. The longevity is
    wonderful. I've installed qmail on machines years ago, and still
    haven't had the need to reinstall/update qmail. We've had machines
    which have been traveled from freebsd 4.1 to freebsd 4.9 through years
    of make worlds, but qmail is running on the same, identical, and secure
    source it was in the beginning. It does have a lot of patches, and yes,
    the documentation on some of the patches is lacking in places. At the
    same time there's a patch for almost anything you can imagine, so you
    don't have to wait for the developers of your favorite alternative MTA
    to incorporate the requested feature. One of the things I like the most
    about qmail is its incredible scalability. Qmail on a system of 4 users
    will run quietly and out of your way with a relatively small footprint.
    If your 4 users divide and multiply to 40, 400, 4,000, or 40,000 you can
    keep using qmail and it will keep up with you and your fans. Some
    really big names in mail use Qmail, "Yahoo! mail, Network Solutions,
    Verio, etc." according to qmail.org. Qmail is a tweaker's MTA, I
    haven't come across a mail situation yet where qmail hasn't had some
    appropriate place in the configuration. It's modular, so you can pick
    and chose the parts you want, remove, replace, or rearrange the others.

    I've heard good things about combining it with postfix, although I can't
    claim to have attempted this myself.

    Thank you,

    Cody Baker
    cody@wilkshire.net

    Arie Kachler wrote:

    > Hi Michael,
    >
    > I've researched mail systems myself for quite some time now. We
    > currently use Sendmail + a custom pop3 server. We don't use system
    > accounts. Sendmail is showing its age, mostly in the way it scales.
    > It's difficult to integrate with any database backend. LDAP is your
    > only solid option, but I'm no fan of LDAP.
    > We are about to migrate from Sendmail and have considered Qmail and
    > Postfix. Qmail is great. The only reason we did not choose it is
    > because most features are patches of different authors and the quality
    > and documentation of the patches varies. It makes us a little nervous
    > to patch so much.
    > So we've decided on Postfix+mysql+courier-imap. Postfix seems to have
    > everything we're looking for: security, speed, sql backend, no system
    > accounts, and quotas. We're still testing it, but it seems to behave
    > very well under heavy loads.
    > Regarding virus and spam filtering, we are doing it on Sendmail boxes
    > now, which simply forward to other servers for pickup via pop. That
    > will not change when we migrate since milter works well and there is
    > no need for a sql backend on these boxes.
    > We never looked at Exim. Some people like it. We just never got around
    > to it so I can't give you any information on it.
    >
    > Hope the info helps.
    >
    > Arie Kachler
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >> Hi folks,
    >>
    >> I've already tried Google, and found a lot of discussions that are
    >> either a) old, or b) don't quite match our requirements. So:
    >>
    >> I'm looking for a decent solution for a mail server software package.
    >> We need SASL, IMAP, pop3ssl, antivirus, and mime-type filtering. In
    >> an ideal world, we'd have the ability to create mail accounts without
    >> creating user accounts.
    >>
    >> I have to admit that I'm partial to sendmail simply for the milter
    >> interface that lets me plug in, say, MIMEDefang, clamav, and all sorts
    >> of other nifty stuff.
    >>
    >> What are people using these days? What sucks the least? Any opinions
    >> from folks who have been there welcome.
    >>
    >> Thanks,
    >> ==ml
    >>
    >> --
    >> Michael Lucas mwlucas@FreeBSD.org, mwlucas@BlackHelicopters.org
    >>
    >> Today's chance of throwing it all away to start a goat farm: 49.1%
    >> http://www.BlackHelicopters.org/~mwlucas/
    >> <http://www.BlackHelicopters.org/%7Emwlucas/>
    >>
    >
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  • Next message: W.D.McKinney: "Re: mail server recommendations?"

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