Re: Family mail server

[Bob McClure Jr <robertmcclure earthlink net>]

On Wed, Nov 19, 2003 at 09:17:13AM -0500, David Condliffe (E-mail) wrote:
> Dave Condliffe wrote:
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: redhat-install-list-admin redhat com
> [mailto:redhat-install-list-admin redhat com]On Behalf Of Rick Stevens
> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 6:55 PM
> To: redhat-install-list redhat com
> Subject: (Can you hear the crickets?)
> 
> 
> Sure is quiet in here today...I think I can hear crickets and bullfrogs.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens vitalstream com -
> - VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
> -                                                                    -
> -     If you can't beat your computer at chess...try kickboxing!     -
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Since it is so quiet... thought you might be able to give some advice on
> something else I am investigating.
> 
> SPAM is getting so bad these days, I was considering putting up my own mail
> server, running the filters and virus detection on that machine....etc
> 
> I am reading that qmail is a good product, does anyone else have any
> suggestions...
> 
> Will be running on RH9
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Dave

Ah, the sounds of the great mail server debate.  Well, my preference
is Postfix.  It's easy to configure and RedHat makes it easy to switch
back and forth from Sendmail while you're making the transition.

But you can get control over your spam without going to your own mail
server.  I pick up my mail from Earthlink and let procmail run it
through SpamAssassin

http://spamassassin.taint.org/

Everything deemed to be spam (score is more than 5.0) is sent to a
spam bucket, the rest, to my mailbox.  Then a postprocessing script
goes through the spam bucket and punts anything with a spam score over
9, leaving the remainder for me to scan at my leisure.  I use Mutt for
most of my mailing, so I can scan the sender and subject without
bringing up the mail, or possibly tapping their web server, to which
there is frequently a link.

Any spam that leaks through is saved to another spam bucket for which
I have a cron job that teaches SpamAssassin that it is spam.

Interestingly enough, I recently found two missives from my
sister-in-law (who is on AOL) in the caughtspam bucket.  They took two
major dings for not having proper reverse DNS for their mail server,
so they were classed as spam.  I resorted to putting her address on
the SA whitelist in ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs and that takes care of
that.

Getting back to the mail server question, you could use your server to
suck down your family's mail via POP or IMAP, and then set up your own
internal mail POP or IMAP server.  You can have SpamAssassin process
mail site-wide or individually.

Cheers,
-- 
Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
robertmcclure earthlink net  http://www.bobcatos.com
A backbone is better than a wishbone.