Wow, thanks for the thorough response.
Do you only have one box to handle everything (pop, smtp, web inteface,
SQL)?
Do you have a back-up machine to handle mail when if that one goes down?
I have a Dual PentiumIII 733, with 100 gigs Raid 5, and 512megs Ram, which
will be running IMail only. SQL is on a dedicated machine, and the sign-up
on another web-server. I'm just trying to figure out if we need a machine as
a back-up server, or have it co-exist on one of our web-servers as a
back-up?
Did you use IMails web-based service, and just link to the scripts you
created for customer account changes?
Thanks again,
John
--Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Robert J. Fehn
Sr.
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 1:10 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] Recommendations for offering free e-mail?
We are currently doing that very thing (www.mailops.com) Where do I start?
:) Spam will be your biggest problem. I will address each of your
questions below:
> on-line registration process. I am considering using IMail with an extenal
> user database on SQL 7 and making the registration process with ASP. I was
Doing it here, works well... ASP script interfaces with SQL 7 through ODBC.
Directly sets up users in the database. One table for each domain configured
according to Ipswitch's specifications, one master users table containing
all customer info, one "bad names" table containing things you don't want
them to use for UserIDs such as "webmaster", "admin", etc
Do yourself a favor, create a script for the customer to access their
account and make changes to generic info, password, address etc. It will
save you hours of admin. Also, create an admin version of this for your tech
support with the ability to kill accounts and alter userIDs and passwords.
Validate all user input on your sign up script! Don't let them proceed if
there is info missing. Get everything you can. Many will fake the info to
use you for spam propogation. It is nearly impossible to stop all of this
activity but, we are working on verification system right now that requires
them to enter a valid ISP email address. Our system will automatically send
an Email to that address on signup. If the mail bounces or is in any other
way not deliverable, no access.
If we get a reply to support from some poor soul whop has no idea why they
have just been signed up for an email account, the account will also be
killed.
> - security and spam (I belive smtp-auth doesn't work with an external
> database)
It does work with external. You will have to use SMTP AUTH with "relay for
addresses" set for what you are considering. You might also consider using
IMGate in concert with the mail server. The author is on this list. We are
considering adding this.
> - hardware and disk space required for x amount of users
Big Iron! We have around 50,000 users right now running on a dual P III 450
box with 40 gigs HD space and 256 m of RAM. We are at the upgrade point now.
Utilization often sits above 50%, not good. We will be moving to a Quad Xeon
box with 1 gig of RAM and Raid 5 with 250 gigs of drive space.
> - best possible solution for dividing up the load for redundancy and
> performance
When you find it, let us know. Right now I recommend a high quality box with
enough resources to carry the load alone. Buy a real server, don't get
caught in trying to save money upfront and handle the customer complaints
later... Limit the following: Mailbox size, max messages, and max SMTP
allowed messages. If you run WebMail, increase the max threads for the
WebMail server from the default of 64. After much trial and error, ours are
set at 250...
> - amount of attention required on a daily basis for maintenance
>
Not much really. We are running .ASP scripts that keep a watch on mail box
size and automated procedures to delete old messages and clean the spool
directory once per week using Ipswitch's utilities. Most of your time will
be spent handling tech support for users who can't semd mail. Enabling SMTP
AUTH in mail clients is the #1 question we get. Also, many ISPs are blocking
external SMTP connections to port 25, you'll have to be aware of that.
> Initially I don't expect a huge amount of users (under a thousand) but I
We are signing around 100 per day, globally.
> would like to make sure that it is reliable. I currently do my own
> web-hosting and DNS and am curious to know if I can use some of the
> resources of our web machines for better performance, or redundancy.
Not really, Imail has it's own web server for Webmail. You can , of course,
carry your own DNS entries.
>
> Any tips would be appreciated.
Well, without posting our business plan, I think that about covers it. Hope
this helps....
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