Recommend an MTA?

Darklion · 11-19-2004, 09:22 AM

With the spare time granted to me next week by Thanksgiving, I'm planning on setting up a working mail system on my Slackware machine. The problem is the choice of mailers. Sendmail is shipped with Slackware, but it also has a reputation for being somewhat buggy, as well as horrendously difficult to configure properly. This machine isn't going to be supporting anyone other than myself, so my requirements are fairly simple. I would, however, like to know that the setup is relatively secure.

Recommendations on an MTA to use?

mdarby · 11-19-2004, 09:30 AM

Postfix, Postfix, Postfix.

Easy, secure, and configs like Sendmail without the bugs. I have it running on my Slack-Current box for months with TLS, works wonders.

xushi · 11-19-2004, 11:57 AM

Darklion,

If you find any good tutorials or instructions on how to configure and use postfix, could you display them here or email me about it? I wouldn't mind making a switch from sendmail to postfix myself.

Thanks

Darklion · 11-19-2004, 12:16 PM

xushi:

I dug up this Postfix documentation page, which is on the postfix.org website. On a preliminary browse through, it seems like a good bundle of documentation on configuration and usage.

If I find anything else that stands out, I'll update this post.

rivang · 11-19-2004, 12:17 PM

A couple tutorials I have found...

http://www.gfxcafe.com/Mail%20Howto.htm

http://www.high5.net/howto/

objorkum · 11-19-2004, 06:21 PM

Postfix is VERY good.

rotvogel · 11-19-2004, 07:29 PM

Exim is a good one as well.

gug · 11-19-2004, 07:57 PM

I'm thinking about installing aeon - just because it is VERY simple - looks like a question of 15 minutes.

http://www.abenetkiewicz.neostrada.pl/

Anyone know of any "security issues"?

mdarby · 11-19-2004, 08:05 PM

Postfix's configuration is literally editing four values in one config file

gug · 11-19-2004, 08:07 PM

Hmmm. Thanks for pointing that out... :-)

mdarby · 11-19-2004, 08:45 PM

in fact, to help you along, I'll post my main.cf

alias_database = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases
alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases
command_directory = /usr/sbin/
config_directory = /etc/postfix
daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix
fast_flush_domains = $relay_domains
header_checks = regexp:/etc/postfix/header_checks
home_mailbox = Maildir/
html_directory = /usr/doc/postfix-2.1.4/HTML
inet_interfaces = all
mail_owner = postfix
mailq_path = /usr/sbin/mailq
manpage_directory = /usr/man
masquerade_domains = matt-darby.com
mydestination = $mydomain, $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain
mydomain = matt-darby.com
myhostname = slackbox.matt-darby.com
mynetworks = 192.168.0.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8
myorigin = $mydomain
newaliases_path = /usr/sbin/newaliases
queue_directory = /var/spool/postfix
readme_directory = /usr/doc/postfix-2.1.4/README_FILES
relay_domains = $mydestination, $virtual_alias_domains
sample_directory = /etc/postfix/sample
sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail
setgid_group = postdrop
smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name
smtpd_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/cacert.pem
smtpd_tls_CApath = /etc/postfix
smtpd_tls_ask_ccert = yes
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/mail_signed_cert.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/mailkey.pem
smtpd_use_tls = yes
soft_bounce = no
unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 550
virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual_aliases

This config adds SSL support and virtual domain support.

H2O-linux · 11-19-2004, 09:03 PM

Make sure to check what ports your ISP blocks so you do not drive yourself nuts like I did with apache and sendmail

ringwraith · 11-19-2004, 09:43 PM

I use the stock sendmail supplied in Slackware. You might try it before you try to change it out.