I know this has been touched upon before, and I'm certainly not bringing the subject up again to diss SIMS. But I am looking at alternatives, especially since I've been using SIMS on a LinuxPPC box for the last 3 years or so. I'm not considering CG right now, based on cost for my load and number of accounts, and also because I'm staying on LinuxPPC for the time being. If our server iron turns to OSX, CG will become an obvious candidate.
I know there are different opinions here on the various alternatives. Bill Cole argues cogently for the old favorite, sendmail, and I know LuKreme has recently migrated some or all to postfix. I do need both POP and SMTP, but not IMAP, and (this is not a requirement for now) a way to do secure connections in the future would be nice (I'm not talking here about just password-in-the-clear issues). I hesitate to mention this aspect because I'm not ready to address it nor do I need to at this time, but just so it's out there as a potential talking point. In fact, just forget I said anything about 'secure.' I've heard the names, now I have to connect the dots: qmail, courier, procmail, kerio, etc etc.
Of course, I need to maintain compatibility with our company's choice of e-mail client: Eudora. But I assume this will be a non-issue.
Indeed
Anyway, I'm less concerned with the details of running the different possibilities than I am with reproducing the features of SIMS. To wit:
a) I know I'm going to get the ability to query RBLs, and since I run my own private one as well, that covers the blacklist.
b) SIMS logging is acceptable, perhaps even better than average (?). I figure, without knowing for sure, that I'll have as good or better logging capability anyway with a postfix for example.
SIMS' logging is actually quite a bit nicer than most *x MTA's. Sendmail's is quite atrocious, and others seem to have used it as a model rather than as a negative example. You CAN get a lot out of sendmail logs if you fiddle with the logging settings and write some log analysis code, but it is a lot tougher than working with a rational logging system like SIMS. Postfix is a little better but not great, I've only heard groans about exim logs, and I cannot speak to qmail at all.
c) SIMS web admin is nice, so that would be a plus - I figure webmin or similar does or will eventually have some capabilities for many different mail servers out there, if not now. Some of these servers may have their own built-in web admin anyway. Besides, I'm fine with CLI interface anyway, so this is not an issue, just a plus.
You will not find anything quite like that in any free MTA that I am aware of.
d) Account options. I need what mirror-to-list gives me as opposed to forward (no I'm not running a mailing list and whatever I choose does not have to be good for list interfacing), so I'd like to still have that.
Hmmm...
The standard (i.e. sendmail) aliases file can function as an exploder much like the SIMS mirror-to-list option with even a bit more functionality. I'm fairly certain that postfix will also use the same file and I am told that exim has the same functionality.
I'm more concerned about 2 particular features of SIMS:
e) Verify-return-paths feature (or equivalent), which snags a fair share of spam in ways the blacklist does not.
Normal behavior with sendmail, but like everything it can be overridden in the config.
f) The router. For all it's shortcomings, I find it to be an incredibly handy little doo-dah, and I'd really like something equivalent. My SIMS is a mail server for 3 domains, and the router makes that trivial, as well as its rejection capability and, well, its routing ability!
With sendmail, the equivalent (and in fact far greater in whole) functionality is split in about 5 places, some dependent on main config tweaks. Postfix is a bit simpler than sendmail but about as capable as SIMS. The Stalker router is in fact the clearest and simplest method of making an MTA do what it does that I've ever encountered, and you will miss it no matter what MTA you switch to.
So, if there's any comments out there, I'd like to hear them, especially if you think I've missed some aspect. I'm sure SIMS will still occupy a place where I administer, and what knows, I may come running back to it, but I long to try some different things, for the education if nothing else.
Well, it is pretty much no secret that I'm a dinosaur and still pretty much stick to sendmail, procmail, and qpopper as a combo because it is a reasonable and very common combo that I know well and that is likely to be familiar to anyone who comes along after me and is not a major massive problem. I think maybe I'd look more readily at postfix plus Courier IMAP or even an all-Courier setup if I was not so comfortable with sendmail. I admit that I just don't quite understand exim's target niche and that I have an abhorrence for djb-ware per se which mixes with a dislike of some of the quirks of qmail behavior to leave me incapable of ever suggesting it.
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Bill Cole [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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