[Sussex] Exchange replacement for Linux? || and rant

[Nik Butler]

Out of interest , speaking as a serious system admin how would I achieve 
this using a Normal Windows2k and Exchange Server set up ?


nik at sickpuppy:~$ dig actus-it.com MX

; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> actus-it.com MX
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 26072
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 4

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;actus-it.com.                  IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
actus-it.com.           86392   IN      MX      30 oasis.actus-it.com.
actus-it.com.           86392   IN      MX      20 mail.actus-it.com.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
actus-it.com.           86392   IN      NS      ns1.widge.net.
actus-it.com.           86392   IN      NS      ns.designs2web.net.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mail.actus-it.com.      86392   IN      A       62.115.226.146
oasis.actus-it.com.     86392   IN      A       217.160.173.6
ns.designs2web.net.     52817   IN      A       80.249.110.50
ns1.widge.net.          44493   IN      A       64.49.244.185

;; Query time: 30 msec
;; SERVER: 212.159.11.150#53(212.159.11.150)
;; WHEN: Thu Feb  6 00:00:15 2003
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 193


sickpuppy:~# telnet mail.actus-it.com 25
Trying 62.115.226.146...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: No route to host
sickpuppy:~#

sickpuppy:~# telnet oasis.actus-it.com 25
Trying 217.160.173.6...
Connected to actus.co.uk.
Escape character is '^]'.

sickpuppy:~# exim -v -bt postmaster at actus-it.com
postmaster at actus-it.com
  deliver to postmaster at actus-it.com
    router = smarthost, transport = remote_smtp
      host relay.plus.net [212.159.11.46] 
      

What am I doing ? well im trying to ascertain that mail will be
delivered to their domain, in order I check that the domain resolves to
a relevant MX record, and that the MX record points to machines which
access mail on port 25.

then I check my local mail agent to see how to deliver to it. here
though I relay mail so thats not a big help.


okay so in windows I do this sought of job how ? at the command line for
dig and telnet.

but if I want to check activity of mail being delivered , such as via my
agent its a bugger in exchange as it does not come with a mail delivery
rules checking tool !

but dont worry its a serious product for business, its just fucking
lousy at allowing you to be the administrator for it. Same goes for DNS
configuration and rules as well a user administration and maintenance. 


at least their colocated server ( most likely a *nix box ) is
appropriately configured and someone had the smarts to set up fall back
MX records.


Currently, and as has been the case since they put in the windows box
mail is not capable of being delivered to the site.Users will not be
recieving external emails. 


Now even I could get bitchy here but i wont... what amazes me is that
Jon F really does know how this stuff works and fits together and its
being overuled and ignored and put to the side in favour of <quotes>
branded </quotes> products. 


Lets not even get into the fact that mail in and outbound will be
handles by a Open Source mail transfer agent ( 95% chance its sendmail )


Thoughts People ?


-- 
nik at wired4life.org	http://www.wired4life.org/	Wired4Life, an Answer.

apt-get upgrade life++
	life++ is already upto date