[Chester LUG] You've heard about the Google thing..

[Sebastian Arcus]

On 27/01/12 04:21, Michael Crilly wrote:
> </snip>
>
> Stuart, I setup a Postfix/Dovecot server the other week. It was pretty 
> painless to be honest, but the issue comes from battling anti-spam 
> (which I have yet to implement). 
Not sure what your setup is - but I use Exim and Dovecot - and leave the 
antispamming business to the desktop end - in Thunderbird (which I think 
has SpamPal or SpanAssassin as options). Of course, that only works if 
you use desktop clients.

> It's also not using virtual domains or users because I hate the 
> thought of running a relational database just for that (what a waste 
> of resources).
I use only virtual users - and both Exim and Dovecot can use simple text 
files for that. Seems painless enough. I think the same can be done for 
virtual domains, with a bit of configuration trickery in both Dovecot 
and Exim. I only assume Postfix can do the same. Then again, if the 
setup grows significantly - a relational database is fully justified 
methinks.

> I'm going to rip it down soon unless you think it's worth keeping and 
> building up? I'm happy to share access. I was also thinking of pulling 
> down the SMTP side of it and using something else like MX Logic to 
> outsource the relaying aspect. For $2/month per mailbox you get triple 
> virus scans and mental anti-spam filtering.
Again - not sure if it suits the way things run at your end - but I use 
1and1 as regular provider (any other hosting provider would do). I pull 
email from 1and1 pop3 boxes using Getmail into Dovecot - and email goes 
out through Exim in smart relay mode, then through 1and1's SMTP server. 
This way I don't have to keep SMTP ports open to the Internet and worry 
about associated security implications. The main advantages of this 
setup is that the email storage is on the local IMAP server so:

1. I can back things up locally.
2. I have as much storage space as I want/can provide
3. At clients where the broadband line is slow and large email 
attachments are involved, I can do traffic shaping on the SMTP port so 
that it doesn't choke the uplink for an hour at a time when a large 
attachment is outbound.

In all fairness - the history just revolves into one big circle - as the 
above just emulates some of the advantages of running your own Exchange 
server - but with open source software.

If I remember correctly, 1and1, 123-Reg and others offer packages with 
up to 1000 emails for £2-£3/month all in.

However, if you just want pop3 or imap access without the extra hassle - 
why not just connect straight to their servers, without the trouble of 
running your own imap/smtp server?

Sebastian