BS''D
> I'm looking at setting up a mail server but I'm a bit confused about a few things
>(regarding this subject). What's the difference
> between SMTP and POP3 servers? Is one dependent on the other? Can they both send
>and receive? Are some of the POP3 servers easier
> and quicker to setup?
POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) are
commonly
used protocols
for receiving and sending out emails.
In your /etc/services you find entries for both services and their standard ports
smtp 25/tcp mail
ssmtp 465/tcp # SMTP over SSL
pop3 110/tcp pop-3 # POP version 3
pop3 110/udp pop-3
The whole stuff is a relatively complex matter that cannot be explained in 2 words. In
short: one sends email
with SMTP over the SMTP port 110 and gets them using POP3 over the POP3 port 25.
Before you start, you should read first some documents about this; for example
http://www.sendmail.org/
sendmail is THE mail server program
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Qmail-VMailMgr-Courier-imap-HOWTO.html
This document is about building a mail server that will support virtual domain
hosting
and provide
smtp, pop3 and imap services, using a powerful alternative to sendmail.
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/ISP-Setup-RedHat.html
Outlines the setup of a single RedHat box for dial-ins,virtual web hosting,
virtual
email, POP3 and ftp servers
or take the classical sendmail book by Bryan Costales & Eric Allman (here you'll find
everything you need to know
... but you'll maybe got hammered by the mass of details)
Actually it depends on your taste, what server you run. Sendmail is the most powerful
but
live can also become
very difficult with it (I am the SysAdmin in our ISP and got gray hair on it :->) With
sendmail you can do
both smtp, pop3 and lots more ... we do nearly everything with it. For the easy
tasks you
don't need much
info and you are quickly done ... but the more you want to do with it the harder it'll
be.
A lot of people love qmail because they say its easier to handle. But it is less
powerful
(though most services
you'll never use) and it has some strange license agreement: you cannot distribute a
changed
version of it -- you
can only provide patches. But even big providers use qmail.
But with Mandrake you have also postfix ... and maybe you try it out.
Best,
Daniel.
