Linux Email: Set Up and Run a Small Office Email Server (Paperback)

by David Rusenko (Author), Carl Taylor (Author), Alistair McDonald (Author), Patrick Ben Koetter (Author), Ralf Hildebrandt (Author), Magnus Back (Author)
Key Phrases: incoming user name, antivirus protection, data directory, Busting Spam, Incoming Mail, Getting Started (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A simple step-by-step guide to setting up a Linux email server using the most popular free Open Source tools

• All the information you need to easily set up your own Linux email server
• Shows how to provide web access to email, virus and spam protection, and more
• Techniques to backup and protect your data
• Applications used include PostFix, Courier, SquirrelMail, SpamAssassin, ProcMail, and ClamAV

In Detail

Many businesses want to run their email servers on Linux, but getting started can be complicated. The attractiveness of a free-to-use and robust email service running on Linux can be undermined by the apparent technical challenges involved. Some of the complexity arises from the fact that an email server consists of several components that must be installed and configured separately, then integrated together. Unlike other approaches that deal with one component at a time, this book gives you a basic knowledge across all the server components, leaving you with a complete working email server for your small business network.

Based entirely on free, Open Source software, you will see how to protect your server from spam and viruses, offer web access for remote access, and secure your installation with regular backups.

What you will learn from this book?

• Setting up and running a Linux-based email server
• Key information about installing, configuring, and using PostFix, Courier, SquirrelMail, ProcMail, ClamAV, and SpamAssassin
• Securing and protecting your installation from viruses, spam, intruders, and hardware failure

Approach

The book takes a practical, step-by-step approach to working with email. We start by establishing the basics, so that your users can send and receive their email in their favourite email client. We then move on to look at providing web access, so that users can access their email out of the office. After this we look at the features you'll want to add to improve email productivity: virus protection, spam detection, and automatic email processing. Finally we look at an essential maintenance task: backups.

Who this book is written for?

This book aimed at 'unofficial' sysadmins in small businesses, who want to set up a Linux-based email server without spending a lot of time becoming expert in the individual applications.

About the Author
Alistair McDonald Alistair McDonald is a freelance IT consultant based in the UK. He has worked in IT for over 15 years and specializes in C++ and Perl development and IT infrastructure management. He is a strong advocate of open source, and has strong cross-platform skills. He prefers vim over vi, emacs over Xemacs or vim, and bash over ksh or csh.

Carl Taylor Carl Taylor has worked over 20 years in the IT industry and has spent the majority of that time working on Unix type systems, mainly communications or office automation projects. He was an early user of the UseNet network and taught himself to programme in C through working on a variety of open source software. His experience covers roles including pre and post sales support, product development, end user training and management.

Carl now runs his own Web Solutions development company 'Adepteo' where they specialise in intranet and workflow products building on the best open source applications available. Whilst not working or looking after his children Carl is something of a dance addict and is currently learning Latin and Ballroom and Salsa.

Magnus Bäck Magnus Bäck has been playing and working with computers since he was a kid, and within the computer field he is interested in everything from digital typography and compilers to relational databases and Unix. His interests also include e-mail services, and he is an active contributor to the Postfix mailinglist.

Magnus holds a master's degree in computer science and engineering from Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden, and currently works with software configuration management and tools development for GSM/UMTS phones at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.

David Rusenko David began working as a freelance web designer in 1996 and had his first experience with open source, a box copy of RedHat 5.2, shortly after in 1999. After six years and as many versions of RedHat, he now creates appealing web pages and devises solutions implementing high availability through clustering and alternate security models.His search for an appropriate Webmail platform for the company led him to Squirrelmail. Initially managing all aspects of the business, from the technical concerns to customer support, gave him the experience he now contributes to the Webmail chapter of this book.

Ralf Hildebrandt Ralf Hildebrandt is an active and well-known figure in the Postfix community, working as a systems engineer for T-Systems, a German telecommunications company.

He speaks about Postfix at industry conferences and hacker conventions and contributes regularly to a number of open source mailing lists. Ralf Hildebrandt is Co-author of 'The Book of Postfix'.

Patrick Ben Koetter Patrick Ben Koetter is an active and well-known figure in the Postfix community, working as information architect. Patrick Koetter runs his own company consulting and developing corporate communication for customers in Europe and Africa.

He speaks about Postfix at industry conferences and hacker conventions and contributes regularly to a number of open source mailing lists. Patrick Koetter is Co-author of 'The Book of Postfix'.

Alistair McDonald

Alistair McDonald is a freelance IT consultant based in the UK. He has worked in IT for over 15 years and specializes in C++ and Perl development and IT infrastructure management. He is a strong advocate of open source, and has strong cross-platform skills. He prefers vim over vi, emacs over Xemacs or vim, and bash over ksh or csh.

He is very much a family man and spends as much time as possible with his family enjoying life.

Carl Taylor

Carl Taylor has worked over 20 years in the IT industry and has spent the majority of that time working on Unix type systems, mainly communications or office automation projects. He was an early user of the UseNet network and taught himself to programme in C through working on a variety of open source software. His experience covers roles including pre and post sales support, product development, end user training and management.

Carl now runs his own Web Solutions development company 'Adepteo' where they specialise in intranet and workflow products building on the best open source applications available. Whilst not working or looking after his children Carl is something of a dance addict and is currently learning Latin and Ballroom and Salsa.

David Rusenko

David Rusenko was born in Paris, France, and spent most of his childhood overseas. He began working as a freelance web designer in 1996 and had his first experience with open source, a box copy of RedHat 5.2, shortly after in 1999. After six years and as many versions of RedHat, he now creates appealing web pages and devises solutions implementing high availability through clustering and alternate security models.

He founded Aderes in 2001, a company which provides email and web-based security solutions. His search for an appropriate Webmail platform for the company led him to Squirrelmail. Initially managing all aspects of the business, from the technical concerns to customer support, gave him the experience he now contributes to the Webmail chapter of this book.

David has studied both Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and Management Information Systems (MIS) at the Pennsylvania State University. He speaks English and French fluently, and is conversational in Arabic. During his free time and vacations, he enjoys scuba diving, backpacking, playing racquetball and playing electronic music records.

Magnus Back

Magnus Back has been playing and working with computers since he was a kid, and within the computer field he is interested in everything from digital typography and compilers to relational databases and Unix. His interests also include e-mail services, and he is an active contributor to the Postfix mailinglist.

Magnus holds a master's degree in computer science and engineering from Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden, and currently works with software configuration management and tools development for GSM/UMTS phones at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.

Patrick Ben Koetter

Patrick Ben Koetter is an active and well-known figure in the Postfix community, working as information architect. Patrick Koetter runs his own company consulting and developing corporate communication for customers in Europe and Africa.

He speaks about Postfix at industry conferences and hacker conventions and contributes regularly to a number of open source mailing lists. Patrick Koetter is Co-author of 'The Book of Postfix'.

Ralf Hildebrandt

Ralf Hildebrandt is an active and well-known figure in the Postfix community, working as a systems engineer for T-Systems, a German telecommunications company.

He speaks about Postfix at industry conferences and hacker conventions and contributes regularly to a number of open source mailing lists. Ralf Hildebrandt is Co-author of 'The Book of Postfix'.

Alistair McDonald

Alistair McDonald is a freelance IT consultant based in the UK. He has worked in IT for over 15 years and specializes in C++ and Perl development and IT infrastructure management. He is a strong advocate of open source, and has strong cross-platform skills. He prefers vim over vi, emacs over Xemacs or vim, and bash over ksh or csh.

He is very much a family man and spends as much time as possible with his family enjoying life.

Carl Taylor

Carl Taylor has worked over 20 years in the IT industry and has spent the majority of that time working on Unix type systems, mainly communications or office automation projects. He was an early user of the UseNet network and taught himself to programme in C through working on a variety of open source software. His experience covers roles including pre and post sales support, product development, end user training and management.

Carl now runs his own Web Solutions development company 'Adepteo' where they specialise in intranet and workflow products building on the best open source applications available. Whilst not working or looking after his children Carl is something of a dance addict and is currently learning Latin and Ballroom and Salsa.

David Rusenko was born in Paris, France, and spent most of his childhood overseas. He began working as a freelance web designer in 1996 and had his first experience with open source, a box copy of RedHat 5.2, shortly after in 1999. After six years and as many versions of RedHat, he now creates appealing web pages and devises solutions implementing high availability through clustering and alternate security models.

He founded Aderes in 2001, a company which provides email and web-based security solutions. His search for an appropriate Webmail platform for the company led him to Squirrelmail. Initially managing all aspects of the business, from the technical concerns to customer support, gave him the experience he now contributes to the Webmail chapter of this book.

David has studied both Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and Management Information Systems (MIS) at the Pennsylvania State University. He speaks English and French fluently, and is conversational in Arabic. During his free time and vacations, he enjoys scuba diving, backpacking, playing racquetball and playing electronic music records.

Magnus Back

Magnus Back has been playing and working with computers since he was a kid, and within the computer field he is interested in everything from digital typography and compilers to relational databases and Unix. His interests also include e-mail services, and he is an active contributor to the Postfix mailinglist.

Magnus holds a master's degree in computer science and engineering from Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden, and currently works with software configuration management and tools development for GSM/UMTS phones at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.

Patrick Ben Koetter

Patrick Ben Koetter is an active and well-known figure in the Postfix community, working as information architect. Patrick Koetter runs his own company consulting and developing corporate communication for customers in Europe and Africa.

He speaks about Postfix at industry conferences and hacker conventions and contributes regularly to a number of open source mailing lists. Patrick Koetter is Co-author of 'The Book of Postfix'.

Ralf Hildebrandt

Ralf Hildebrandt is an active and well-known figure in the Postfix community, working as a systems engineer for T-Systems, a German telecommunications company.

He speaks about Postfix at industry conferences and hacker conventions and contributes regularly to a number of open source mailing lists. Ralf Hildebrandt is Co-author of 'The Book of Postfix'.

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (July 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190481137X
• ISBN-13: 978-1904811374
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #533,230 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not a simple book, September 9, 2005

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Email is probably still the most important application on the Internet. More so than browsing. But setting up an email server can be fraught with complexity under unix or linux. In response, Taylor offers a straightforward guide to installing and running a server for a small company. One attraction about the book's software is that it is all open source and free.

Understanding enough of it to usefully maintain it is another matter. But Taylor gives enough explanations of various key applications. Like Postfix and Procmail and SpamAssassin. This is still not a simple book. For example, SpamAssassin's classification of an email as possible spam is a statistical assessment based on a set of rules typically seen in spam. But it is quite possible for an email that you want to get hit by this and marked as spam. You might want to experiment with SpamAssassin's settings until you are comfortable with the results.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not For New System Admins, August 15, 2006

By	Michael Perez (Upland, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I actually got myself in quite a pickle at work introducing them to linux. Immediately they wanted it on our network starting with an email server. First of all, I am a programmer, not a system admin. Second, I use linux on a daily basis at work and home but not for servers. Desperately, I reached for this book for help. Bad idea at the beginning at least. The book's way of going through setting up postfix at the beginning was no help for me and my novice knowledge with servers. I ended up getting everything setup thanks to google and wikipedia howtos. Later I blew dust off this book and picked it up for another go. Now that I understand the basics I am at a comfort level with this book, but still have struggles here and there. This book, however, definitely helped me with setting up squirrelmail and spamassassin. Definitely recommend this book to somebody with a basic understanding of linux and some-what of an understanding of servers.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lacking complete instructions for setting up virtual mail hosting., November 26, 2006

By	M. M. Egan "I'm Not Stupid!" (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book does a fine job of giving an overview of the suite of mail servers. The setup steps are introduced from easiest (basic) to more complex (enhanced), allowing the reading to incrementally set up their environment. This is important in that it provides milestones where testing can take place before enhancements are introduced.

I knocked off two stars because the authors failed to give clear instructions for setting up virtual users in Postfix and Courier-IMAP's POP3 and IMAP service. I had to search the web for this information. Virtual users are critical for a modern day email system, and the failure to flesh-out a virtual-user capable system is a major short-coming.