[plug] Linux Mail Server?

[Beau Kuiper]

On Fri, 20 Jul 2001, Bret Busby wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Jul 2001, connell wrote:
> > I recently heard of a country college that has a novell network with
> > Win 98 clients.  At the moment, one user on her workstation has a dialup
> > connection to the ISP and fetches the college's email, prints them up
> > and distributes them to the local recipients. Likewise, they hand their
> > typed-up email to her and she retypes them in outlook and sends them via
> > the ISP.  Strange but true.
> >
> > 	To my mind, a more sensible arrangement would be to have the modem
> > hanging off a server which would also act as a mailserver.  As a convert
> > to the Linux cause, my first reaction to say use a linux server.
> > Unfortunately, my enthusiasm does not compensate for my lack of
> > knowledge of the mail process.  Perhaps some plug members could suggest
> > what would be required to make a linux mailserver capable of fetching
> > mail from an ISP and distributing it to Outlook express mail readers on
> > Win 98 machines in a Novell network, and sending mail from the
> > workstations to the ISP.  Is it even possible?
> >
> > PaulC
>
> Without knowing the reason for using Novell, my suggestion would be to use a
> LAN like we have here; we have a Linux computer that we use as a
> firewall/gateway, that connects to the Internet via a modem, runs fetchmail on
> top of Linux, to download the emails, and, Postfix to distribute incoming and
> send outgoing emails, and, we can run Linux or Win98 workstations connected to
> that, using Samba, and communicate between Win98 systems, or, between Win98 and
> Linux, across the LAN, without any great problems. The mail clients used have
> been Netscape on Linux and Win98, Outlook on Win98, Star Office on Linux, and,
> kmail on Linux. The only significant problems have been in trying to connect Win
> NT to Linux, via Samba. By the way, with using Postfix to send mail out, a
> workstation can also send direct to the ISP's mail server.
>
> The main difference, I think, apart from the stability and secutity of using
> Linux, is the communication protocol; using TCP/IP, instead of the Novell one
> (IPX, I believe).
>
> But, it all depends on the need for the Novell.
>
> I am no Linux guru, but, I suggest that the method that I have described, would
> be more stable, and, more efficient, that the method that you have described,
> as being in use at present.
>
>

Actually, if the network is small, then there may be merit in leaving
netware as it is. You can use more than one protocol on a network at a
time, so IPX and TCPIP can both co-exist happyly.

Set the gateway box up to understand TCPIP only (don't compile IPX support
into the linux kernel). Have it do mail using postfix and fetchmail.

With this setup, it is less likely someone on the outside will be able to
access files stored on the netware server (if the linux box becomes
comprimised). Anyway, if you have netware up and going already, why get
rid of it.

Beau Kuiper
kuiperba at cs.curtin.edu.au