George, I'm speaking from the perspective of a networking guy, NOT an email administrator. But, the answer (to borrow from the Simpsons) is "yes with an if, and no with a but."
Most hardware firewalls operate using what is known as "stateful packet inspection." The short description is: traffic is not allowed in from outside, unless first requested from inside. This is usually sufficient to keep out the worst of the baddies. HOWEVER, remember that email is something you invite into your network. And like any vampire, once you give the invitation... Qmail is (as I understand it) about the most secure mail server currently in production. When combined with spamassassin and clamav, it gives great security benefits. But if you receive an HTML email with a picture embedded in it, when you open up your outlook, that code is going to "phone home" to the server that hosts the image. It is entirely possible for that seemingly innocent little bit of code to bring something malicious into your machine. Now, by the time it gets to your desktop mail client, you've probably downloaded it from the server. So, strictly speaking, in that case, your desktop is most at risk. The point is, that it is a mistake to assume that the bad guys are stupid. So, to get back to your original question, my answer would be, it's a question of how much risk are you willing to assume in return for a reduced amount of administration (setting up and maintaining iptables)? Good luck, Ron > Hi; > > I'm a newbie. > > I have successfully installed qmailToaster on FC5 and got most of the > things working. My server is behind a NAT router/firewall with SPI and DoS > enabled. > I have forwarded the required ports from the NAT router to the server. > During installation process I have stopped iptables that were configured > using standard distro script. > > I would guess that the iptables rules in the script are for direct > connection to the Internet and wold not work behind NAT without > modifications. Question is - being behind NAT and router firewall, do I > even need an additional firewall on my server ? > > George > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > QmailToaster hosted by: VR Hosted <http://www.vr.org> > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- Ron Jones The Fulcrum Technology Group, Inc Office: 678.921.0318 Cell: 770.378.3647 www.tftgi.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- QmailToaster hosted by: VR Hosted <http://www.vr.org> --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
