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.
The bugger is in the details.
First off, if you are serving mail to actual users you DO want IMAP. You may not KNOW you want IMPA, but trust me, you do. The instant you throw up a squirelmail webmail your users will start sending you baskets of fruit, flowers, sports cars, gold doubloons, and other things. Sure. It might take some time, but the convenience of the webmail OPTION is a huge winner, especially once someone goes on vacation and realises they can check their mail from anywhere they happen to be.
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.
Depends on the choices you make as far as authentication, of course. It is a hurdle you will have to overcome sometime.
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.
Yes, although not really as many options for logging. Standard logging is quite good, postfix -v is absurdly detailed.
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.
None of the web interfaces come close to the SIMS interface, in my opinion. I tried webmail for postfix and decided it was a poor joke at my expense and stuck with the CLI.
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.
This is possible, although adding the X-Mirrored-By header is not as strightforward.
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.
Yes, in spades. MUCH more configuration.
My postfix install has these checks:
smtpd_helo_reqired = yes
#Self-explanatory. If a smtp connection is made that doesn't say helo (or ehlo) the conenction is dropped
smtpd_helo_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, reject_invalid_hostname, check_helo_access regexp:/etc/postfix/helo_access
# helo's are check for valid hostname, and looked up up in the "helo_access" file
# cat helo_access
# /^207\.174\.31\.23/ REJECT Don't spoof my IP
# /^\[207\.174\.31\.23\]/ REJECT Don't spoof my IP
# /kreme\.com$/ REJECT Don't spoof my hostname
# /southgaylord\.com$/ REJECT Don't spoof my hostname
# /david-dodge\.com$/ REJECT Don't spoof my hostname
# /butlerinstitute\.com$/ REJECT Don't spoof my hostname
# /spammer\.net$/ REJECT FOAD SPAMMER SCUM
# /[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ REJECT WE DON'T ACCEPT MAIL FROM ANNOYINGUSER
# /ns\.btnet\.sk/ REJECT DO NOT BOUNCE TO MAILING LIST POSTS YOU GITS
# /62\.80\.65\.4/ REJECT DO NOT BOUNCE TO MAILING LIST POSTS YOU GITS
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = reject_invalid_hostname,
reject_non_fqdn_sender,
reject_non_fqdn_recipient,
reject_unknown_sender_domain,
reject_unknown_recipient_domain,
reject_unauth_pipelining,# All of those checks help reduce the spam load.
permit_mynetworks,
check_client_access hash:/etc/postfix/pop-before-smtp,
check_client_access hash:/etc/postfix/access,
# Check my local access files
reject_unauth_destination,
reject_rbl_client cbl.abuseat.org
reject_rbl_client opm.blited.org,
reject_rbl_client relays.orbdb.org,
reject_rbl_client sbl.spamhous.org,
reject_rbl_client cn-kr.blackholes.us,
reject_rbl_client singapore.blackholes.us,
reject_rbl_client malaysia.blackholes.us,
reject_rbl_client nigeria.blackholes.us,
# All my RBLs
check_sender_access hash:/etc/postfix/freemail_access,
# This file rejects a mail claiming to be from a yahoo account unless it is sent by a yahoo server, or a msn account, etc.
# % cat /etc/postfix/freemail_access # yahoo.com from_freemail_host # hotmail.com from_freemail_host # msn.com from_freemail_host # mindspring.com from_freemail_host # earthlink.net from_freemail_host # juno.com from_freemail_host
# % cat /etc/postfix/freemail_hosts # yahoo.com OK # hotmail.com OK # msn.com OK # mindspring.com OK # earthlink.net OK # juno.com OK
permit
# default action if nothing else gets hit is to permit the mail
smtpd_restriction_classes = from_freemail_host
from_freemail_host = check_client_access hash:/etc/postfix/freemail_hosts,
reject
# See files above
As you can see, it is not nearly as simple or straightforward as SIMS. OTOH, you can also do a LOT more.
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!
SIMS routing is better, imo. Something as simple as:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> = d2-*
is annoyingly hard to do in postfix
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.
The thing I miss most from SIMS is the spamtrap address. Sigh.
--
When we woke up that morning we had no way of knowing that in a matter of hours we'd changed the way we were going. Where would I be now? Where would I bee now if we'd never met? Would I be singing this song to someone else instead?
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