[HLUG] Content filtering server, email server, domain controller

[Paul Shurman]

Hence thats why we use maildir here :-)

And yeah we are at the moment having a long hard think about a new ISP and
an upstream managed anti virus solution :-)

I'm not sure if we would remove alot of our current levels of protection as
the clamscans don't impact that much on performance of our boxes.

But can never complain about an extra layer of protection 8-)


Mark Broadbent wrote:
> On Feb 11, 2009 12:25am, Julian Robbins <joolsr at fastmail.fm> wrote:
>   
>>>> The main differences are whether you want to use mbox, or maildir
>>>> formats, ie whether  every email is stored as a file, or whether a
>>>> folder in your email client is stored as a single file. Each has its
>>>> pros and cons.
>>>>         
>>> Can you elaborate please?  The vast majority of emails are text only (we
>>> have HTML email disabled in Thunderbird by default) and have no
>>> attachments.  Most are customer queries and replies so are relatively
>>> disposable.
>>>       
>> mbox and maildir are the formats that unix mail systems store the actual
>> mails (and their attachments) in. I can never remember which is which,
>> but maildir I think effectively is 1 file for a whole users email folder
>> such as their inbox. This is good in terms of simplicity, but if you
>> need to restore a mail, it will be in a probably huge maildir file to
>> retrieve. Whereas, mbox (assuming i've got it the right way around),
>> stores every single users emails as flat file single files, so if you
>> have 1000 mails in a folder, that folder in the filesystem will have
>> 1000 mbox files.  Smaller files, but lots of them !
>>     
>
> Sorry, Julian, you got it the wrong way round. :-)
>
> Maildir stores each mail as a single file and mbox stores the entire
> mailbox in one file.  TBH, you would have to have good reason not use
> Maildir IMO, it's almost impossible to corrupt a Maildir store,
> whereas with mbox the entire file has to be rewritten everytime a mail
> is deleted, modified or added.  I have had problems in the past with
> moderate volume mail boxes get corrupted due to a mail client checking
> for new mail and the server trying to put mail in.
>
> Also with regard to spam/AV scanning.  Have you considered a managed
> service?  Without trying to sound like an advert, it can reduce your
> mail server hardware requirements and admin overhead (and traffic as
> well!).
>
> Thanks
> Mark
>
>   

-- 
Kind Regards,
Paul Shurman

I.T. Support Technician

Paul.Shurman at q-par.com

Q-par Angus Ltd
Barons Cross Laboratories
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