Mail server?

[jan.muenther at nruns.com]

Howdy,

> > configuration has always seemed pretty straight-forward.  If I stay with 
> > sendmail, should I download and compile from sources?

You should always use the ports collection, or a package, for what it's
worth. By the way, if you think sendmail configuration is straightforward, I
don't think there's much MTA software out there that could still scare you,
not even qmail :P

> If you choose to go with sendmail, you should use the base-system's.
> It's pretty up to date with critical patches and the like.

I personally deprecated sendmail ages ago, for two mai reasons:
 - it's a cruft, one big old leviathan and delivers mail at according speed
 - its security history

I know both points are arguable and I don't want to troll off another holy
MTA war here, just saying that these two points did it for me. 
> 
> I personally prefer Postfix, which is also used by the mail-servers at
> FreeBSD.org. The UCE blocking support offered by it is pretty good,
> and configuration is straightforward. You don't even need to remove 
> the base-system's MTA, just tweak rc.conf and mailer.conf and you're
> up and away.

I couldn't agree more. Postfix is fast, flexible and way secure and its
configuration and general handling isn't as messy as qmail's. 
For the most part, all you have to worry about is one central config file
and it aims to integrate well into a system replacing sendmail. Try it.

Cheers, J.