Hi!

I've used linux on and off for years as a gateway, firewall, webserver, IDS and a few other simple bits. I've never had the time to learn as much as I'd like about it so it's taking a fair time to get anywhere with it! Anyway, I have a question that I'm sure will be childsplay to most of you guys. I've already looked around but there's really too much information on this so I just need a simple answer

After killing our Win2003 server I want to go back to my old linux box which was just ridiculously stable in comparison. We have a few Win XP boxes which currently retrieve email directly from my ISPs server. All I want to do is set up my linux box to retrieve emails from all our accounts on the ISPs server, ready to be called from any of the XP clients we have here.

The main reason for this is that I need to keep an eye on some addresses and what is going through them. These users currently download their emails with outlook, but I also retrieve them first to get a copy of messages for myself - leaving the messages on the server for them. This currently means I have to leave my main machine on 24/7 to make sure I get a copy of all their mails and setting up the server to do it for me would mean all other machines can be shut down without losing these mails (all other users' systems delete the mail once retrieved - I just grab a copy first before they do).

The server is currently running debian but I have only set it up as a firewall so far so there's next to nothing on it. I will probably use a second machine as a firewall if this gets set up ok, as webmail access to it could be useful in the future and I obviously want to keep all my other machines on the private side.

This must be a pretty simple thing to set up but with so many packages about there's reallt too much detail for someone like me to set anything up, having not done this before.

Any helpful comments or suggestions guys?

Thanks!

Adam

Welcome to LQ!
You could use fetchmail to get the mail from your ISP and let your clients get it from local box, running a POP3 or IMAP server. Disadvantage of this method is the mail will be delayed somewhat, you just can't fetch it every minute 7x24.
Or, you could run a mail server yourself and receive incoming mail directly, assuming you can set the MX record. Outgoing mail can still be handled by ISP (but doesn't have to).

Hi, and thanks for the reply!

I think I'll use fetchmail and run a POP3 at home then, and leave all the outgoing mail to my host. I've still got webmail access to my accounts so want to leave them in charge in case I have a problem at this end. At least I know it will always be going somewhere then! Is there any reason why you couldn't have fetchmail checking every minute all day? I currently have outlook checking every minute and need to keep it as often as possible to make sure I get as many copies as I can. If other users are collecting their mail every minute too then probability says I've only really got a 50% chance of getting a copy of messages as it is.

I'll start looking around for the best looking POP3 option

I know none, depends on your ISP.

Most common POP3 server can be found here:

http://packages.debian.org/stable/mail/ipopd

This is why I asked, thought there was a reason why I couldn't do this. I must have misunderstood. No problem at the other end as the mail is held by my host and I've already paid for the bandwidth. I'll check out that list then and get cracking - broadband's going in on Thursday. Thanks very much for your help, it's appreciated