Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:34:36 -0400 (EDT) From: vogelke+unix@pobox.com (Karl Vogel) To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Whic mail server? Message-ID: <20090928013436.D04F9BE4C@kev.msw.wpafb.af.mil> In-Reply-To: <721122.91358.qm@web56206.mail.re3.yahoo.com> (message from Aflatoon Aflatooni on Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:01:22 -0700 (PDT))
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>> On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:01:22 -0700 (PDT),
>> Aflatoon Aflatooni <aaflatooni@yahoo.com> said:
A> I am running a server that is acting as the mail server for only
A> internal users (about 50 users). Currently we are running Sendmail...
First things first: if you're happy with Sendmail and your system works
to your satisfaction, I'd leave it be. Just watch your logs and keep an
eye out for security patches.
A> I am wondering if qmail is thought to be better than sendmail.
There are fanboys on all three sides of that question ("yes", "no", and
"qmail bites, use this-other-MTA instead"). I switched from sendmail to
qmail on a server because I had an odd corner case that qmail happened
to handle just about perfectly. I also botched a qmail install on my
own workstation, didn't feel like finding out what I did wrong, and
decided to install Postfix instead.
I've had fine experiences with both qmail and Postfix. If you're
using a system that's a little under-powered, you might appreciate Dr.
Bernstein's efforts to make qmail and its supporting tools *very* frugal
with OS resources. If you're used to the sendmail way of doing things,
you'd probably be better off with Postfix.
I like Dr. Bernstein's programming approach, but be prepared to spend
time getting used to his way of setting up network daemons, etc. It's
internally consistent but *very* different. It takes me 30-40 minutes
to install all of the qmail stuff from source because I've done it at
least 6 or 7 times; I could probably cut that in half if I didn't save
build and installation outputs for my logs. My first time took most of
a weekend to figure out what was going on.
A> Any suggestions on spam filters like spam-assassin?
I tried SA a few years ago, and it was a little heavy-weight for my
filtering needs. I use a simple Bayesian filter (ifile) trained on
around 100,000 spams plus some procmail rules, and I get along fine.
Your mileage will vary. I saw some other comments:
>> Qmail is not, nor has it been, actively supported for years.
Depends on what you mean by support. The user community is very active;
have a look at http://www.ornl.gov/lists/mailing-lists/qmail/ if you
doubt it. OTOH, said community can be a bit, um, brusque, but the Qmail
Handbook and the "Life with Qmail" webpage filled in the blanks for me.
>> Qmail has a very limited set of features...
It's intended to handle one problem well, which it does. If you have
some other requirements, http://www.qmail.org/ probably has a plugin
that will do what you want.
OK, now let's settle which text editor is best.
--
Karl Vogel I don't speak for the USAF or my company
They say marriages are made in heaven. So is thunder and lightning.
--Clint Eastwood
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