There are generally three types of mail software, as i know: 1- Mail clients : used to connect to mail servers, read meails, and send mails, with or without gui's.. example: evolution, thunderbird, outlook, sendmail client 2- Mail Servers: the biggest part of picture, which actually sends and receives mails... handles/holds mails on servers... also named as MTA, example: postfix, qmail, sendmail server 3- Mail connection agents: used to connect mail clients to mail servers, over network over pop3 and imap... these are for reading/getting/posting mails...not sending them actually to targets...... mail servers send email actually... example: dovecot, courier, cyrus
there may be count a fourth type, which are mail delivery agents - MDA, in fact, i think these are part of mail servers... but if you use local mail, these handle mail locally... sendmail is a general term that is used for both a mail server and a separate mail client i dont know much about exim4 , but that may be a mixture of both mail server and type 2 mail connectors.. what i suggest: postfix... it is easy to install and maintain, i think.. as a hosting system, i suggest: ehcp, you may get that from www.ehcp.net/download it install everything needed for a hosting server: webserver, dns, mail, ftp, mysql and so on... i hope that would be usefull. if you have more question, you may ask me... On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 10:15 PM, Tony Yarusso <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, I've been reading various wiki pages and whatnot, but I'm still > having a little bit of trouble wrapping my head around the differences > between various mail server software. I've been trying to figure out > things like MTA, MDA, etc., and it also seems like some packages are a > mix of both, so I'd just really appreciate it if someone could take > the time to explain in super-simple terms how everything relates > (either by mail or IRC - I'm in #ubuntu-server as tonyyarusso with an > always-connected screen session). Generals would be a good start, and > in terms of any specifics things I'd be interested in knowing more > about include: > postfix > exim4 > dovecot > courier > procmail > cyrus > qmail > > -- > Tony Yarusso > http://tonyyarusso.com/ > > -- > ubuntu-server mailing list > ubuntu-server@lists.ubuntu.com > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-server > More info: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam > -- ubuntu-server mailing list ubuntu-server@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-server More info: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam
