Date: 27 Jan 2001 19:50:03 +0100 From: Simon J Mudd <sjmudd@pobox.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Installation of a mail server, (not mua) Message-ID: <86lmrweso4.fsf@unicorn.ea4els.ampr.org> In-Reply-To: chip@wiegand.org's message of "27 Jan 2001 18:21:50 %2B0100" References: <3A72F6B8.3EDEB0FA@wiegand.org>
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chip@wiegand.org (Chip) writes: > Here at my company we are tired of having to rely on our isp's mail > server, so I want to set up my own. Sounds fine. > I have been using a FreeBSD box for mirroring our web site (hosted > on a public isp), and told my boss that we can use it for our own > mail server also. I realize I need to make a DNS change, that's no > big deal. I have a FreeBSD4.2 machine up and running, which has > sendmail running by default, right? Yes sendmail is the MTA configured by default on FreeBSD. Your original message said "mail server, not mua or mta". You ought to realise that sendmail is a MTA. MTA is Mail transfer agent, the server which sends mail to other destinations. The MUA (mail user agent) is the program you use to compose a message, and the mua sends the message to the local (or ISPs) MTA, which is responsable for forwarding the message to its final destination. For most "modern" mail servers you need a MTA for sending mail out, and a server to allow remote users to retrieve their mail, normally using the POP or IMAP protocols. These two mail servers are completely different, the only important thing is deciding how to integrate them, a task which is often more complicated when you do this for multiple domains. > I installed the port qpopper. I have looked at several sites for > info on just where to start, and the FreeBSD handbook on > FreeBSD.org, but am still in the dark (they all talk about setting > up a mail client). I'm not terribly familiar with POP/IMAP server's configurations, but one way to achieve what you want is to configure a FreeBSD/unix account per mailbox. Sendmail delivers to each user's mailbox and the pop/imap server allows remote access to the mailbox. For most small (hundreds of accounts) installations this is fine. The MTA configuration requires various things. Setting up the DNS to point MX records to your mail server. It also is important to get your provider to act as a backup MX host so that if your mail server is down, he will receive the mail and forward it to your mail server when the server comes up again. Finally the MTA 1. Configure the MTA to receive mail for the domains it is hosting 2. Setup the hostname correctly depending on ip address (it should be using a fixed ip address) and ensure that the reverse DNS lookup (ip -> hostname) is configured correctly. This is something which is often done incorrectly. 3. Finally setup (if you want to do this) anti-spam blocks/checks and ensure that the MTA does not rely mail. If you don't do this you may well find no-one will accept your mail, or a spammer uses your mta to send out 100,000 spam mails from your mail server. Specific instructions on all of this depend on the MTA you use. sendmail "can do everything", but its configuration files are quite difficult to understand. Buy the "bat book" (o'reillys sendmail) if you use senmdail, it is worth the money. An alternative mailer which I like to plug and which is used on the FreeBSD mail servers is postfix. It's configuration is straightforward, it offers sendmail compatibility and has good anti-spam measures and is extremely fast. It's also quite secure. Postfix's author uses FreeBSD as his primary development platform. The mailing list and documentation is good, but the out of the box setup works in 95% of the normal configurations. To be fair others prefer qmail and exim: the choice is yours. Hope these pointers help, even if they are not detailed URLS. Simon -- Simon J Mudd, Madrid SPAIN Tel: +34-91-408 4878 email: sjmudd@pobox.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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