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."
> ____________________________________________________________________________
> _________________________
>>>
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