[SATLUG] Setting up email server

[Daniel J. Givens]

Brad Knowles wrote:
> Dovecot is a good POP3/IMAP server (by all reports), and shouldn't 
> require much additional configuration, although you should probably set 
> everything up to use only encrypted/authenticated channels.

I just setup Dovecot on a client's system last weekend. The documentation for it 
is absolute crap, even for FOSS. If you're only doing one domain, then it's 
fairly straight forward. Where it gets muddy is when setting up virtual domains 
w/ virtual users. I spent more time trying to figure out their documentation 
than actually configuring the services.

> On the webmail side, there are many options. Some like IMP/Horde, others 
> like SquirrelMail, and I prefer TWIG.

Have you tried Roundcube at all? I really like it and have been using it for at 
least a year or more.

I'm in the same boat with sending and receiving mail. I have my own mail server 
and domain and store the mail here. I am on a residential connection though and 
can't receive mail directly, nor send it out. The solution I've found was to use 
my ISP's SMTP server as a smarthost, where all outbound mail is forwarded 
through their server. They don't care what domain it's coming from or going to, 
so it works.

For incoming mail, I use forwards at the domain level. So my address gets 
forwarded to my Gmail account, since there's plenty of space and I can get POP3 
access. I use fetchmail at the server to pull my mail down from the Gmail 
account. It then goes through my sieve rules on its way through Cyrus to my 
mailbox. I can then access my mail, fully sorted and spam filtered, via IMAP 
locally, or by webmail using Roundcube.

Hope that gives you some ideas on how to proceed.

Regards,
Daniel