From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 5 20:53:15 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9E4DA16A420 for ; Wed, 5 Sep 2007 20:53:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fbsdlists@gmail.com) Received: from wr-out-0506.google.com (wr-out-0506.google.com [64.233.184.228]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3089313C48D for ; Wed, 5 Sep 2007 20:53:14 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fbsdlists@gmail.com) Received: by wr-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id 70so986831wra for ; Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:53:00 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=GSPFsFvfSjLT6EGiK3ziRfC/tFHvKMCMzmVrW60qwOe8MEF5EA4U7XtZ8BttBk9OkZHskTzdkxls1UrygdwxHjrU6Zu2YBCCAEVZKqVoACONWHlAzrMM/UdJXRSYgjXMUhB0SSSIYgNF1ImRN7ZoJpnilHMQ/5vS7aXt8530VLk= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=WT2scJStMiohYFaZgZt4Ik/P9W4clndmDPVkn4eFRoOrE+rjIgVSMAjBdSTHUSmuX/F3OSi/97scWRyTOORqBY2NIGlZwd1TY/VI5Z5jbAGcwe8UJbpDlCETByr9v/8p/VL+nkjtywJ2MQMpsKNH/j15ECNG5ZDOql9CtDhNZ1k= Received: by 10.142.77.11 with SMTP id z11mr389365wfa.1189025577122; Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:52:57 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.80.8 with HTTP; Wed, 5 Sep 2007 13:52:56 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <54db43990709051352g2e5f8e14xc2e04b032f7efc76@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 16:52:56 -0400 From: "Bob Johnson" To: "Andrey Shuvikov" In-Reply-To: <24393ae80709051205j211b7ae4p54ea2f9d94b3c5e3@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <80f4f2b20709041503g3b3f85d1oa6a09b110ac31d7b@mail.gmail.com> <20070905155804.GE25281@ayvali.org> <24393ae80709051205j211b7ae4p54ea2f9d94b3c5e3@mail.gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: mail server setup questions X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:53:15 -0000 On 9/5/07, Andrey Shuvikov wrote: > Hi, > > I'm trying to set up a home mailserver with imap/web access. But I was > going to use exim. Several people mentioned postfix here, but nobody > named exim. Is it a matter of personal preference or is exim not > suitable for this task? > It's most definitely a matter of personal preference. I lean toward Exim or Courier. Exim is highly customizable, but the price you pay for that is a steep learning curve when you start looking at customization. Courier isn't as flexible, but can do anything most people are likely to want from a mail server by just setting the appropriate configuration values. And if you just must have more complexity, you can use procmail to do local delivery for Courier. FWIW I use Courier at home and Exim at work. We replaced Qmail (yech!) with Exim at work in part because we needed its customizability. The only real reason for me to switch to Exim at home would be to reduce the number of tools I'm dealing with. Courier has the advantage of having everything (smtp, pop, imap, and webmail servers) all distributed as one package, other than the host web server for the webmail component. Whatever you do, please don't use Qmail. I don't want any more blowback spam than I already get. In case I haven't made myself clear, I despise Qmail with a passion. I suppose it is suitable for people who like puzzles (as in "What patches do I need to make this do something useful?" or "What third-party tool do I need to make sense out of these awful log files?") and who don't mind inflicting lots of unnecessary secondary spam on the rest of the world. Yes, I know there are _supposed_ to be patches that fix that problem, but (a) the one I've seen in action doesn't work very well, and (b) you shouldn't need to apply third-party patches to your mail server to make it do what it is supposed to do in the first place. - Bob