Email server tutorial

[John Hansen]

---------- Original Message -----------
From: Gavin McCullagh <gmccullagh at gmail.com>
To: edubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
Sent: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:58:07 +0100
Subject: Re: Email server tutorial

> Hi,
> 
> On Fri, 10 Jul 2009, John Hansen wrote:
> 
> > I'm looking to rebuild our current email server and was wondering if anyone
> > has a good tutorial on how to do that, especially with the configurations. I'm
> > looking at using the following on 8.04 LTS.
> > Postfix, Dovecot, LDAP, Amavisd-new, Spamassassin, ClamAV, Grey listing, and
> > OpenWebmail.
> 
> As someone who runs several, do you have a really good reason to run 
> an in-house mail server?  If so, fair enough.
> 
> If not, I'd be looking at getting someone to take the workload off you.
> Gmail is an obvious free service (who will remove adverts for educational
> customers) but there are lots of other services (some cheap if not 
> free) available too.
Do I  have a really good reason, I suppose that's up for debate. We have
always had our mail server in house, and want to keep it that way for now. I
have around 500 email accounts that authenticate using an LDAP server, and
also run LTSP. I like the idea of Gmail, and have checked into it. It's a good
option, but not sure if it's a good fit for us at this time. I still need to
do more looking into it.

> 
> I'm curious to know what the compelling reasons are to go to the 
> trouble of self-hosting and not use a service like Gmail.  To have 
> someone else provide an excellent webmail system with pretty good 
> spam filtering that's also available over pop3/imap from anywhere, 
> provide large storage, excellent integrated calendaring with 
> Email/SMS notifications, very high uptime and reliability all for 
> free.  It seems you'll create a lot of work for yourself trying to 
> make a poor-man's version of it.  Economies of scale are pretty 
> enormous in this industry.
Good points. I'm not sure if I look at running an in house mail server as
trouble. I have the option to stay with my current set up, which is stable and
running good. Just time for an upgrade with current versions. Probably the
biggest reasons is that I have the control, like using free software, and can
integrate it with our existing systems.

> 
> I guess the big scarey word "privacy" is likely to come up.  Is that 
> the only reason?  To what degree is this really a concern?
Privacy might be a concern, but then again, nothing on the Internet is really
private.


> 
> We're all geeks and like to run things ourselves and be in control of
> systems, but we also owe it to our employers to allocate our 
> available scarce resources as best we can.
It's a balance of time and resources. I'm using open source software that is
free, so I'm saving my employer money that way. By having a stable environment
with integrated systems that can work together well, I'm able to save time and
money, freeing up my resources for other tasks.

> 
> I'm not saying this is necessarily the answer for you, but I'm 
> curious to hear people's thoughts.
> 
> Gavin

Thanks,

John

> 
> -- 
> edubuntu-users mailing list
> edubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: 
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
> 
> -- 
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by the Cotter Technology 
> Department, and is believed to be clean.
------- End of Original Message -------


-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by the Cotter Technology 
Department, and is believed to be clean.