Re: Mail server question
sjk <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.org.user-groups.luni.tech |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
A number of people have responded to this, but I fell behind on my personal e-mail so here are some additional thoughts. There are three reasons for decide to run your own MTA: 1) You want more granular control then offered by hosted services, 2) You are uncomfortable outsourcing your privacy & security to a third party, and 3) for personal/professional technical development. I run several private mail servers for myself and some friends. I do so primarily for reasons 2 and 3. Though Google and others continue to work on improving security there still exist many questionable security issues in their systems, additionally their EULAs leave far too much leeway for my personal comfort. Additionally, operating a production mail server allows you to observe traffic and mail patterns more directly and quickly then you will see by using a hosted service. For those who work in or around inter-networking these can be critical for analysing trends and threats before they become commonplace. Configuring a basic mail server is actually quite simple - many have pointed to Postfix and Dovecott -- which are both easily configured for basic services -- and there are numerous "HowTo"s available. However, as with any globally available server, security is critical. The Internet is temporarily littered with hacked mail servers daily, and spammers/script-kiddies are always looking for a clean way to relay their spam. So if you do decide to run your own server check security regularly -- install simple auditors and controls such as Tripwire or Rkhunter, and Fail2Ban. --sjk On 11/24/2010 09:20 AM, Eric MacAdie wrote: > I have a few questions for the list. > > Does anyone on the list run their own mail servers? > > If so, which ones? Do you get your mail via POP or IMAP? > > How many people use gmail for their email? > > Regards, > Eric MacAdie > President, Chicago Java Users Group > http://blog.cjug.org -- http://www.sleepycatz.com [email protected] fingerprint: 1024D/89420B8E 2001-09-16 No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness. ~Sheik Abd-al-Kadir -- Linux Users Of Northern Illinois (Chicago) - Technical Discussion http://luni.org/mailman/listinfo/luni