Like the title says, I like to set up a mail server.
But I have a few questions about that. I used google to get a good howto on setting up such a server. But there to many hits on this subject.
I asume that:
- fetchmail is to get the email from the pop3 server and download it on the mail server.
- sendmail is to get a mail message from the email client (using evolution or mutt for example) and send it on to the end reciever.
- Imap is for managing the emails fetched by fetchmail on the server. and sending the structure of the email folders to the email client.
- spamassassin is for filtering the recieved mail (fetchmail)
So my questions are as follows:
Am I right about that?
Can somebody push me in the right direction, and point me to a good and understandable howto?
Thank you!
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Setting up a mail server
Use qmail instead
You have described the programs correctly but you do not say what you want your mail server to specifically do. Depending on what you want the server to do you may not need all the programs you describe.
However I just setup my first mail server a couple of months ago and while I'm no expert on the subject I can give you some starting advice.
Do not use sendmail. It's insecure by design and riddled with security holes and besides that it's also very difficult to configure.
I chose to use qmail, which is the second most popular MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) after sendmail. It is designed to be very secure, fast and easy to administer and the author has a standing cash prize for anyone who can find a security hole in the program. (The prize is still unclaimed after 8 years.) There is also a very good guide available online for installing qmail called "Life with qmail" and it is completely free. If you need more help the same author (Dave Sill) has also published an excellent book with the same name that has more info on installing pop and imap servers together with qmail among other things.
Of course you do not have to use qmail. Postfix is also probably a good alternative as is Debian's standard MTA, Exim.
Links:
Official qmail page: http://cr.yp.to/qmail.html
Life with qmail: http://www.lifewithqmail.org/
Qmail homepage: http://www.qmail.org/
BincIMAP, a good IMAP server: http://www.bincimap.org/
However I just setup my first mail server a couple of months ago and while I'm no expert on the subject I can give you some starting advice.
Do not use sendmail. It's insecure by design and riddled with security holes and besides that it's also very difficult to configure.
I chose to use qmail, which is the second most popular MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) after sendmail. It is designed to be very secure, fast and easy to administer and the author has a standing cash prize for anyone who can find a security hole in the program. (The prize is still unclaimed after 8 years.) There is also a very good guide available online for installing qmail called "Life with qmail" and it is completely free. If you need more help the same author (Dave Sill) has also published an excellent book with the same name that has more info on installing pop and imap servers together with qmail among other things.
Of course you do not have to use qmail. Postfix is also probably a good alternative as is Debian's standard MTA, Exim.
Links:
Official qmail page: http://cr.yp.to/qmail.html
Life with qmail: http://www.lifewithqmail.org/
Qmail homepage: http://www.qmail.org/
BincIMAP, a good IMAP server: http://www.bincimap.org/