Gradual move to own mail server - strategy for noob

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

Your going to get yourself blown up if you try that, I guarentee it.

Here is what you want to do if your really serious.

1) Get yourself a DSL line (for your home) with a static IP address
on the end of it.

2) Register a personal domain name. (barneyscott.com or some such)

3) Build a mailserver, set up DNS MX records for your domain.  Set
up your own e-mail address on it and get rid of all other mail addresses
you use.

4) Become familiar with all the components of it.  Ask lots of
questions.  In about 6 months when you are at the point to where you
understand what your doing, THEN build a mailserver for your 8
users.

It is frankly immoral for you to use your 8 users as guinea pigs
to train yourself how e-mail works and how mailservers work.  There
are so many minefields in Internet mail today that a newbie isn't
going to be able to do this with a production company without being
crucified by the users.

I fly a desk at an ISP that has about 10 different mailservers with
different domains and hundreds to thousands of addresses on them and
I do everything right - but I still get bitched at by users on a regular
basis on e-mail problems.  Trust me, it doesen't matter one whit to
an angry user who has missed an e-mail that the problem is because
they didn't correctly spell their e-mail address in their From setting
on their e-mail client, and their coorespondent got a bounce when trying
to reply to their mail, even when the problem is 10,000% their fault and
does not have a snowballs chance in Hell of being your fault to any
sane observer, to that user, Hell will freeze over before they will admit
that the problem is on their side.  It's ALWAYS your problem.

And, Hell will indeed freeze over before any user will ever compliment
you on a well-run mailserver.  If you have 0 complaints, your doing well.
And you will NEVER EVER be thanked for fixing their e-mail problems for
them, caused by them crapping up their own machine.  You simply have got
to know what your doing before tampering with this.

Ted

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Barnaby Scott
> Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 2:28 AM
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Gradual move to own mail server - strategy for noob
> 
> 
> Hi, I'm trying to replace my current arrangement for email, and though I 
> have read as much as possible on it, I just want to check if I am on the 
> right lines with what I'm planning. (Is that a legitimate use of this 
> list?) It's the same old story, when you're a beginner it is very hard 
> to take even small steps until you have a grasp of the 'big picture', 
> and know what direction you should be going. So I'd be glad of any 
> opinions, pointers, or How-Tos that I may not have spotted.
> 
> If you read the rest of this, you may think that I'm trying to implement 
> something way too heavyweight for what I need at the moment, and you'd 
> be right! However, I want to learn, and enjoy trying to master the big 
> boys' toys.
> 
> OK, so here's where I am:
> 8 users
> 3 or 4 Windows machines including a laptop - users may use 
> any/all of these
> New FreeBSD server so far only operating as a Samba server (PDC).
> Email is downloaded by individual clients from ISP via POP3 - user must 
> be at specific machine to access their local mail folders. If elsewhere, 
> they must use webmail, but of course sent messages, replied flags etc 
> are then inconsistent, besides which messages are only left on the (ISP) 
> server for a limited time.
> 
> Here is where I want to get to:
> IMAP server on my FreeBSD box (and using Maildir is my instinctive 
> preference.)
> Ultimately, but not yet, I want to start using the FreeBSD machine as a 
> proper mailserver - i.e. get a static IP address and point the MX record 
> hosted by my provider at it. For now though I am happy to fetch from the 
> existing mailboxes that they host for me.
> Again, not necessarily now, but when I am fully up and running, run spam 
> and virus checking (that's done for me now, but inevitably could be 
> improved on.)
> 
> What I _think_ I want to do is this:
> Install Fetchmail to get mail from my various hosted mailboxes
> Configure Sendmail, which I accepted as the default mailer
> Install Procmail to deliver messages in Maildir format (to users' home 
> directories?)
> Install Courier IMAP as the IMAP server
> 
> Ultimately, then drop Fetchmail and reconfigure Sendmail for receiving 
> mail directly, and add anti- spam and virus tools.
> 
> Have I got this about right? Do I really need 4 separate tools to do 
> this? Have I overlooked something more obvious/elegant? Where are my big 
> pitfalls going to be?
> 
> If replying, please keep in mind my embarrassing level of inexperience!!
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Barnaby Scott
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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