Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 11:47:28 -0700 From: Ted Cabeen <secabeen@pobox.com> To: James Godwin <james@organicwire.net> Cc: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Ideal mail server: qmail or postfix Message-ID: <877k6a2ybj.fsf@gray.impulse.net> In-Reply-To: <BB422296.66BE%james@organicwire.net> (James Godwin's message of "Mon, 21 Jul 2003 23:07:02 %2B0200") References: <BB422296.66BE%james@organicwire.net>
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James Godwin <james@organicwire.net> writes: > Hi, > > We are building small server solution for our clients which run a number of > services and we are looking at incorporating mail server services. > > As a hosting provider we manage their web and email services. Our boxes were > configured with Sendmail and we have had no need to change. No need fixing > something which is not broken. :) basically have not had the time to change. > > As our company grew we became more familiar with running BSD and aware of > other alternatives. > > I was wondering what mail servers fellow ISP are running. I can't decide > between postfix or qmail. > > Any advantages or disadvantages would be greatly appreciated. I recently moved a sizeable system from qmail to postfix. While qmail is a fine MTA, we were running into its limitations. The main objection I have to it is that it's stagnant. The last official release was over 5 years ago, and any advances in MTA technology since then has to be implemented as a patch. This includes SMTP AUTH, SSL, SQL aliasing, and many of the common anti-spam tactics. After a while, the whole thing gets quite unwieldy, especially when you have conflicting patches. We also had large problems with qmail's "everything goes in the queue" architecture. A vanilla qmail install accepts every mail that is sent to it, even those that are to non-existent users. No mail is rejected at smtp time. This means that the queue is always full of bounce message to non-existent senders. Also, when you get hit with a mail bomb, the messages in the queue end up delaying new incoming messages, even after the mail-bomb has stopped. Performance on the queue disk can become a substantial bottleneck. Still, it's a fine mailer once you get your mind around how it works. We switched to postfix primarily because I wanted a MTA that was under active development and qmail has limited support for LMTP. Postfix does have it's quirks, and Wietse is sometimes less than willing to add new things to postfix that people want. However, they do eventually get added, once Wietse comes up with a system that he likes. I've heard good things about Exim and Courier , but I had some experience with postfix before the changeover, and none with those two MTAs. -- Ted Cabeen http://www.pobox.com/~secabeen ted@impulse.net Check Website or Keyserver for PGP/GPG Key BA0349D2 secabeen@pobox.com "I have taken all knowledge to be my province." -F. Bacon secabeen@cabeen.org "Human kind cannot bear very much reality."-T.S.Eliot cabeen@netcom.com
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