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General software and network General OS-independent software and network questions, X11, MTA, routing, etc. |
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Discussion on MTA : SendMail, Postfix, Exim, Qmail
Discussion on MTA : SendMail, Postfix, Exim, Qmail
MTA Comparison For historical reasons the most popular continues to be sendmail but since there are safer alternatives do not think that would be the case that some distro courageous thought to their use by default? Especially for distro think for security as openbsd. Which you prefer between postfix and exim? Qmail. I think that still has the drawback of do not be a truly open. |
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My Journal Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''. |
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I use qmail actually, and never had any issues with running it or setting it up...We have been using it for about 3 years for our in-house email server.
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Also, it's still early in the developmental phase. But.. I can't wait until it replaces sendmail.. m4 is just horrid for configuration files. OpenSMTPD* will have pf-style syntax.. |
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Query: If your email provider has an smtp server (i.e., smtp.myemail.com), do you still need an MTA (i.e., sendmail) to send email if you use a basic MUA like mutt? Would you need one (i.e., fetchmail) to get mail if you have a pop server?
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And the WORD was made flesh, and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) |
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I would not use POP3 period. Cheers, OKO |
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Why wouldn't you use POP3?
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And the WORD was made flesh, and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) |
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Mutt-devel (and I think mutt-stable) support pop3(s) and imap(s). I'm sticking with mutt-devel because it supports imap header caching (and I'm going to use imaps with my new webhost). Using mutt's built in imap support, I don't need fetchmail and I can configure different mailboxes on the webhost's side, so I don't need procmail. (but they are both great programs to use - it was fun learning procmail's quirky format!) Mutt-devel does support smtp(s), but it doesn't seem to work very well. I thought I'd be able to just use the one program and be done with it. I had to recompile postfix with sasl support (which isn't compiled in the postfix that comes with NetBSD). But, then I found ssmtp. It does what I need. I am not running a mail server. I have one specific need and that is to relay the mail from mutt and my computer to the smtp server of my webhost. Using postfix (or sendmail) is like using a crowbar to open a bottle cap. It's overkill for my application. Ssmtp works for what I need it to do. So now my setup is mutt-devel (using it's own built-in imaps support) and ssmtp. Ssmtp works with gmail (a bugger to get to work right using any program!) using smtp over ssl and hopefully it will work with the stmp server of my new webhost (I should be making the switch this weekend - so we'll see).
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And the WORD was made flesh, and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) |
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I've never really understood the purpose of using IMAP/POP over SSL/TLS. For authentication, sure, but for the actual data transfer? What's the point? The messages travelled over plaintext SMTP between how many different SMTP servers, routers, and other networking gear? And are stored in plaintext on how many systems? And are stored on the ISP/destination server in plaintext for how long? Why encrypt the last connection only?
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Exactly. So, if your message is signed and encrypted, why would you need POP-over-SSL or IMAP-over-SSL?
POPS (POP3S?) and IMAPS never made sense to me, as a message-transfer protocol. Unless the entire communications channel, from end-point to end-point, is encrypted, then there is very little value in encrypting the final leg of a message's journey. On groupware systems where messages tend to remain within the system (internal messages), then secure server-client connections like IMAPS make sense. But for general "sending over the Internet" setups? Not really. At least not in my mind. That's like driving a tank from home to work, then jumping on a 10-speed bike to travel from work to the mall, then jumping on a bus to travel from the mall to the grocery store, then hitch-hiking from the grocery store back to work, then jumping back in the tank to drive home. Sure, the home-to-work leg of the trip is super-secure, but what about the rest of the journey?? |
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People live in blissful ignorance, they assume that if they encrypt the communication... everyone else will.
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There is some use in pop3s and imaps.
For example, if you want to eavesdrop on me, then the easiest way to do so is to listen on the pop3/imap/smtp traffic from my computer to the main server/MTA. If pop3s/imaps/smtps are used, this will be much harder.
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UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. |
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It seems that most consumer email systems (at least the ones I've dealt with) only use POP3 (and some IMAP) - unless they are using pop3s/imaps and just not saying so in their documentation.
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And the WORD was made flesh, and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) |
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Yes, most only support smtp and pop3, only the better ones support imap, and few support the secure version.
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UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. |
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I talked with my friend who works for the company that hosts my website. He claimed that they had the secure protocols, but that I'd need a SSL certificate (which costs money). Is that correct?
Note: I'm not running an email site - the email account(s) for that site is just for my own use - i.e. myusername@mydomain.com
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And the WORD was made flesh, and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) |
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