Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 23:36:01 -0500 From: Bob Johnson <bob89@bobj.org> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, madden@cmsrtp.com Subject: Re: Recommend MTA Message-ID: <200403092336.01772.bob89@bobj.org> In-Reply-To: <404A8DE3.7040109@cmsrtp.com> References: <404A8DE3.7040109@cmsrtp.com>
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On Saturday 06 March 2004 09:50 pm, Michael Madden <Michael Madden <madden@cmsrtp.com>> wrote: > Which MTA is the recommended one to use on FreeBSD? > I've noticed sendmail is installed by default, but > my book I've been learning FreeBSD from (The Complete > FreeBSD) only covers setting up postfix. Should I > go ahead a learn/setup sendmail? If so, where's > a good place to find a tutorial on setting it up > on FreeBSD? > > Thanks, > Michael The best MTA for you is the one you are most comfortable with, assuming it does the job you need. It may be that the one you have the best documentation for is the best one for you to use, at least until you've used it long enough to know what you don't like about it ;) Sendmail is the default for historical reasons. It's essentially the "Unix standard". Postfix is quite popular, and has many supporters, and there is lots of documentation for it. I've never used it so that's about the end of my knowledge about postfix. Qmail similarly has many supporters. It is usually very confusing to someone who is used to the sendmail way of doing things, because instead of one huge configuration file with a few helper files, there are a BUNCH of configuration files. Similarly, instead of one big program that handles everything, qmail has several programs that each handle a different part of the job (which is where part of the confusion comes from: figuring out which program does the part you need to change). My personal preference is Courier (http://www.courier-mta.org). It's very similar to Qmail, but doesn't require as many patches to make it do what you want (or at least, to make it do what _I_ want). The package includes a pop/imap server and a webmail server, although they are independent modules so you don't need to install them if you only need the MTA. I've also used sendmail, Cyrus, and qmail. They all work. Whether they meet your specific needs is hard to say. One good rule of thumb is to read the documentation, and if it makes no sense to you, you might want to keep looking. - Bob
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