Slackware Mail Server advice needed please.
 

Hi everyone,

Can you give me some advice please. I would like to setup a mail server using slackware 10.1.

I dont expect a full how to or anything like that just a few helpful hints on which software to use and any pitfalls to look out for.

I'm completely new to slackware and have googled but not found a lot about mail server setup with slack.

Does slack install sendmail/postfix/other by default and should I completely remove any default apps.

The server should collect pop3 mail from mulitple accounts at the same ISP with a registered domain name. eg user1@ourdomain.com, user2@ourdomain.com etc. All with their individual pop3 id/password at the ISP. The clients (outlook express) collect their mail from the slack server and send via the isp smtp server.

I know this sounds a bit mad, but I hope to test the server with the existing accounts before switching to either a pop drop box or smtp mail.

And when I've got this working, expand to include antivirus, antispam etc.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thank you.

Antispam: SpamAssassin (install it through MCPAN console to make it much easier to install/update)
Antivirus: ClamAV (there should be a package available, if not it's easy to compile)
SMTP: sendmail (comes with Slack)
POP3: popa3d (comes with Slack, just uncomment a line in inetd.conf)
IMAP: uw-imapd (comes with Slack, same package as pico. uncomment a line in inetd.conf)

To add a user to the setup, just add the user to the Linux system.

And to answer the question you asked...
pop3 fetching from ISP: getmail or fetchmail, both of which come with Slack. Make sure you've got procmail installed (package comes with Slack), and everything should be pretty easy to set up.

Check the docs... they should be fairly self explanatory. I've got a mail server set up which does all of that, and there's probably others here who have it, as well. If you run into a roadblock, don't hesitate to ask and somebody can help.

Thanks for the reply killerbob, I'll look into those applications when I get home (Im at work).

Should I stick with sendmail or go with postfix. If postfix is the preferred option do I have to uninstall anything other than sendmail. Or should I just stick with sendmail and ignore any "postfix is easier/better/safer than sendmail" posts.

Thank you for your time.


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PS.
I must say to anyone reading this that Slackware is no-where near as difficult to get up and running as you expect. Just do it. I have used Mandrake for a while but slack seems to be doing what I tell it to do, and although I'm no linux expert I feel like I'm in control of the system not the system in control of me. Nice. I've never really felt like that with Mandrake.

Anyway, I just thought I would add that for anyone that is intersted in slackware

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There's a reason that Pat has gone with Sendmail instead of Postfix. In older versions of Slack, it was Postfix, btw. People who write those posts haven't used Sendmail recently. It's *way* easier than it used to be, and the security in Sendmail has improved significantly with the recent development trees. There hasn't been an update since 8.13.4 (in -current), and that came out in March of this year. Why? Because there hasn't been a critical security flaw found. And the only weirdness with most of the configuration files is that you need to compile them before Sendmail will recognize them. You can still edit the file directly, but the uncompiled mc file is a whole lot easier to modify than the compiled version. (they keep the compiled format for backwards compatability). The problem with Sendmail really arises from the fact that the default mail setting used to be as an open relay. They changed that a major revision or two ago. (I think it was in the 6.x tree, but I don't remember)

As I said, I'm using Sendmail on my mail server. It's open to the public (that is, port 25 on my firewall is routed to the mail server, as is port 993 for IMAPs), and I haven't had any security problems in the 7 months since opening it up. If I were you, I'd stick with Sendmail.

Thank you for that explantion. It has settled my mind and now I can get started on the nitty gritty.

Caffeine at the ready.

Thanks again, much appreicated.

Does the built in IMAP do IMAPs? I was under the impression that it didn't... I guess I will have to check that out.

it doesn't. stunnel, however, does, and that comes with Slack.

http://www.qmailrocks.org, a installation guide for the mta qmail. Complete with antivirus, antispam, pop3 imap etc.

The qmail rocks installation is good and is kept very up to date, however when you are done you will feel like you have no idea what is going on with your system. IMHO The install leaves you with a great mail server, but no clue how any of the 25+ things you have installed work or even exactly how they all relate.

So maybe I should stick with sendmail, fetchmail, pop3ad and uw-imapd because the whole purpose of switching to slack was to learn.

That is what I would recommend, though don't feel tied to only the included software. For instance you might want to look at other IMAP servers to see if they meet your needs, or consider installing SquirrelMail if you want web mail. To me the best part about Slackware is that I can easily compile and use other pieces of software without having to worry about them being compatible with my distro.

I was thinking about trying courier-imap purely because it seems the most popular choice on other distros, but I feel I should stick with the included imap. After all if slack is based on stability, maybe the included one is what should be used. Decisions, decisions.

Now my dilema is where to start. Is there a sequence to follow?

The first thing you should start with is Sendmail. Shilo's Guide has a good basic sendmail setup. Once you get that working I would get your IMAP/POP server working. If you are allowing remote users to retrieve thier mail you should spend some time setting up stunnel to avoid giving out your password to any would be crackers. Once you have all of that going you can worry about antiv-virus (ClamAV) and Spam Filtering (SpamAssassin).
Also: 10.2 will have a significant sendmail enhancement which will allow SMTP secure Auth so if you are not using current you may want to be prepared for an update soon.