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Date:      Wed, 5 Feb 2003 14:52:17 +0200
From:      Willie Viljoen <will@unfoldings.net>
To:        Anand Buddhdev <arb@anand.org>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: need some advice on  MTA
Message-ID:  <200302051452.17412.will@unfoldings.net>
In-Reply-To: <20030205123705.GA17038@anand.org>
References:  <3E4020A7.6030807@myrealbox.com> <20030205120228.GU393@freepuppy.bellavista.cz> <20030205123705.GA17038@anand.org>

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On Wednesday 05 February 2003 14:37, Anand Buddhdev wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 01:02:29PM +0100, Roman Neuhauser wrote:
> >     I run four Postfixes (one of them with Courier-IMAP), and one Qma=
il
> >     with vpopmail.
> >
> >     Postfix is IMO easier to install and administer, but doesn't have=
 a
> >     point'n'click interface.
> >
> >     It also looks like Postfix is a much faster moving target than
> >     Qmail, e. g. the virtual address/mailbox support has been evolvin=
g
> >     quite a lot, and the configuration changed in Postfix-2.
> >
> >     I wouldn't recommend Courier; I don't know the SMTP part of the
> >     pack, but the IMAP server is pretty admin-hostile in that it
> > doesn't log almost anything at all, so when you run into trouble,
> > you're left to guessing, and hacking the source.
>
> Courier-IMAP is not admin-hostile. You can enable debugging, and it
> will log a lot of information. The SMTP server and client part of
> courier is also nice, robust and friendly to other sites, and has many
> useful features (RBL checking, rejecting spam, flexible aliasing,
> SMTP authentication, SSL support) all out of the box. And if you
> install the entire courier suite, you also get a POP server, webmail
> server and mailing list manager, and a webadmin CGI to configure it all
> easily. Courier's SMTP server takes its basic design from qmail, but ha=
s
> gone far beyond qmail in features, and has made many improvements over
> those parts of qmail that many people have long been criticising. Take
> a look at it more closely before trashing it so trivially.

Off topic:

If you absolutely do not want to run Courier (or any part of it), you can=
=20
get the same results with Exim as your MTA, solidpop3d as your POP3 serve=
r,=20
UW IMAP (imap-uw in ports) as your IMAP server, and squirrelmail (require=
s=20
IMAP server and PHP4 supported web server) as your web mail.

This set of programs, IMHO, is the best for the job, but you will probabl=
y=20
have more trouble configuring them than Courier. Personally I'd go for my=
=20
set of programs, but they are seperate things that have to be configured =
to=20
work properly together. As far as features and robustness goes, both=20
solutions will give you exactly the same end result.

As for things being admin-hostile. If you are used to something like Wind=
ows=20
NT MDaemon or Microsoft Exchange Server, there is simply nothing on the=20
UNIX platform that will ever make you happy, unless you are willing to ma=
ke=20
a paradigm shift, and to start reading the manuals.

I do not know of any good software which can be configured by pointing an=
d=20
clicking. UNIX mail servers have power and versatility, the Windows serve=
rs=20
have user interfaces that an infant can master. These two separate=20
paradigms can not be combined. In the case of a system with an easy GUI=20
interface, all you can do with it is what the GUI developer thought of. I=
n=20
the case of UNIX servers, in most cases, you can do what ever you can cod=
e=20
in C or perl with it.

Will

--=20
Willie Viljoen
Freelance IT Consultant

214 Paul Kruger Avenue, Universitas
Bloemfontein
9321
South Africa

+27 51 522 15 60
+27 51 522 44 36 (after hours)
+27 82 404 03 27 (mobile)

will@unfoldings.net

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