I second the recommendation of Postini. I set it up last year for a multi-national that I used to work for and couldn't have asked for a better solution. There were a few false-positives tossed into the quarantine (mostly "special offers" from retailers and quasi-spam "business consultant" newsletters.) The adult content filter can also be a little restrictive so make sure you test it before enabling it site-wide. There's a per-user web-based system for users to un-quarantine false-positives or you can have it tag borderline messages and you can choose how to deal with them on your mail server.
Postini was considerably better than our tweaked SpamAssassin at avoiding false-positives and false-negatives. The PI virus filtering is also very good. There were only one or two brand-new Trojans that made it through PI and were caught by our local scanners on the inbound mail server (it's important to have backup scanning.) Their back-up SMTP spooling also saved us a few bounces when our network connectivity went down. Frank was easy to work with and really knew his stuff. That made for a painless setup that took minutes. Later on we had some "special needs" involving automated account management that he helped me get up and running quickly. So this is more than just an ad for Postini :) here are the building blocks that I've found to work the best for an open-source mail server: - Linux or FreeBSD as the underlying OS I personally prefer FreeBSD because it isn't the "Jack of all trades" that Linux is. Most of you are probably more familiar with a particular Linux flavor which should work fine. - Postfix http://www.postfix.org for SMTP Sendmail is nice, but it's too complicated for most people to admin well. For me, Postfix is the best mix of stability, simple configuration, options, and concise documentation. - DBMail http://www.dbmail.org for POP3/IMAP Hands down, this is my favorite pop/imap server. It requires database knowledge because that's how it stores all messages and settings, but it is incredibly fast when you have users who want to keep tens of thousands and gigabytes of messages in their mailboxes. The Sieve server-side message filtering is really useful for sorting messages into mailboxes on the server during delivery. It's also really easy to administrate a large user base because of the native DB back-end. You can even integrate Postfix auth and spam filtering into the same DB that DBmail uses for seamless storage of login info and spam filtering settings. or - Courier http://www.courier-mta.org/imap/ for IMAP/POP3 A very nice pop3/imap mail server that is widely used, well tested and pretty easy to set up thanks to good online tutorials. - amavisd-new http://www.ijs.si/software/amavisd/ for spam/virus filtering Amavisd-new is a front-end for spam filters like SpamAssassin and virus scanners like ClamAV. It doesn't get everything and you'll have to adjust it as the spam climate adjusts, but it's free and a good back-up to third-party filters. Over time I've learned to keep an updated clone of the os/config drive in a safe place so when the original drive/machine fails you just pop the second drive into a spare machine, restore the data files from a backup (or sync from the other data store if it's still working) and you're off and running while you diagnose the problem with the original server. It's cheaper than redundant servers for small installations and keeps down-time to a minimum. This assumes that you have trained staff on-site to deal with the potential outage. If not, you're probably better off with online redundant servers or outsourcing the services. For larger installs, virtual server images are really useful because they allow you to separate your inbound, outbound, scanning, mailboxes and storage without having to buy 5xN servers. You simply add machines when you run low on resources in your existing pool. This is a lot more text than I originally intended to write, but hopefully someone will find it useful. Best Regards, Tony Weasler On 05/28/2008 12:19 PM, Mark Nash created: > Why don't you check into Postini? Charge $1 per month per account and let > them deal with it... > > There's a Postini reseller on this list... Frank Muto. > > Mark Nash > UnwiredWest > 78 Centennial Loop > Suite E > Eugene, OR 97401 > 541-998-5555 > 541-998-5599 fax > http://www.unwiredwest.com > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Blair Davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> > Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 9:35 AM > Subject: Re: [WISPA] Email > > >> Getting ready to stop offering email services. Spam problem just too >> much for a small shop to deal with. >> >> Ross Cornett wrote: >>> Anyone charging for email sevices? We are spending lots on email > servers and Postini Services... Anyone out there charging for email and if > so how is it going? >>> Thanks >>> >>> Ross >>> > ____________________________________________________________________________ > _________________________ >>> Galatians 6:7-8: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a > man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall > of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the > Spirit reap life everlasting." > ____________________________________________________________________________ > _________________________ >>> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ------ >>> WISPA Wants You! 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