setup own mail server?

[dragonb]

Hey all,

Looking for some help on setting up my own email server.
I'll probably dedicate an older machine to this, got a k6-2 500 machine running again.

I have a couple domain names, setting up one is ideal, in the future two.
I have an available dsl line with static IP, going through NAT router. Have a separate machine as webserver running win2k, so I'd want to obviously forward different ports to each of these machines.

I've setup linux before, done some command line stuff, but I think Linux is the way to go on this, mostly cuz it's free, and I know it does this type of stuff all the time.

I'm looking for at least pop3 to start off with, and if not too much trouble would like to add a simple(yet secure) web based access to that if I can.

So, if anybody has any links that could help out, I would be very appreciative. Looking for both links on how to setup pop3/web email on linux, and which linux distro would be the best/easiest to do this, or I wouldn't even doubt if there was a small email distro out there.(linux side note, starting playing with knoppix...pretty cool)

thanks in advance all,
dragonb


p.s. a bonus would be fitting the whole thing on a 1gig HD, so I won't have to use a bigger one, and make backups a breeze.

Doesn't really matter which linux distro you use, but if ya only wanna use a 1GB HDD, then it better be a small one!

I'd suggest checking out the qmail-HowTo for basics on setting up a mail server.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
Mick

[goldenbuddha]

If you use Windows as your mail server OS, there is a great FREE email server available, its called Mailenable, someone on the board recommended it, I used it, liked it so much that I upgraded to the PRO (which adds lots of features, like the ability to check your email by browser etc)

http://www.mailenable.com

I'll second mailenable, as I use it on a windows XP box to run my home mail server. You could even run it on your current windows webserver, so you wouldn't even need an extra box.

Of course, then you wouldn't have the fun of setting up another linux box.

Cheers
Mick

[ShawnD1]

I agree with Buddha, MailEnable is really good. It's free, supports infinite users, infinite domains, has full SMTP and POP3 support and it's very easy to use. I helped setup MailEnable for a school once. Takes no time to install and we managed to setup the ENTIRE SCHOOL (over 1600 students and teachers) with an email account in less than 5 minutes. Just import the users from the Windows NT server

[vass0922]

Don't forget you'll have to add a MX Record to your DNS registration as mail requires a different DNS record versus normal http traffic.

[M_Six]

I also use MailEnable. Works great. But there's also SME Server, which is free and is Linux based. SME requires next to no command line skills and is by far the easiest web/mail server to set up and maintain.

[dragonb]

thanks for the help guys,
I'll probably try the mailenable on the win2k box, and then migrate later to a linux box when I get it up and running.