[wplug] Mail

[Chris]

> > I have been intending to ask wpluggers about mail for some time and
> recently have noticed some threads.
> >
> > Would anybody amongst the knowledgable wpluggers have any interest in
> putting together a presentation about mail in all
> > its aspects?
> >
> > I think that an introduction that provides information about the
> concepts concerning mail would be useful, perhaps
> > starting with a walkthrough of the life of an email: initiator's
> keyboard to recipient's screen with mention of what
> > software can/should be used at each point and how to go about setting it
> up.
> >
> > I am thinking about from the administrator's perspective - 'What should
> I do to setup mail for my company's employees? I
> > want my users to be able to send and receive mail without using [ISP's]
> mail server. I want to be able to install
> > antispam filters. I want to avoid gotchas like getting blacklisted
> because it's an open relay. What do I need to know
> > about and what questions should I be asking?'
> >
> > There is probably a whole lot more that should be added to that list of
> the prospective mail administrator's 'I
> > wants.....' but I'm not a mail admin (yet) so I'm not sure.
> >
> > Anyway, having inserted the idea (should I say plea?) for such a talk
> into your minds, I'll leave it to someone more
> > knowledgable to come up with appropriate content ideas.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: wplug-admin at wplug.org [mailto:wplug-admin at wplug.org] On Behalf Of
> Sal Mangiapane
> Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 11:52 AM
> To: wplug at wplug.org
> Subject: RE: [wplug] Mail
> 
> Hi Duncan,
> 
> I would be glad to contribute.  I think that I understand a little about
> the 'life of an email' and would have some input there.
> I've also reviewed the rfc documents about SMTP for some work I've done.
> 
> I always wanted to learn Sendmail (I even an O'Reilly book on the subject)
> but it is so complicated.  Every time I think about
> delving into it I think some other product maybe qmail, or ??? would be a
> better solution.  I mean you do have to administer the
> beast once you turn it on.  I haven't looked at any email servers, but I'm
> thinking about putting together a server for the internet
> too.
> 
> Also, I don't know about any of the open source clients.  I still use M$
> Outlook.  Another thing I think could be addressed is
> converting an Outlook PST file.
> 
> Any suggestions of existing training material would be helpful.
> 
> This may fall into the wplug training material that was mentioned on the
> list earlier this year.
> 
> 
> sal

I use qmail and really like it.  It was very easy to setup and configure.
The qmail website has a lot of good information about not only qmail but
mail in general.  There is a good walk through of the "Life of an email"
like you are talking about.  You might want to have a look around on that
site. http://qmail.mirrors.pair.com/top.html is a local mirror of the site.

Converting an Outlook pst file is tough one.  There was only one package
that I was able to find that worked.  Look for libpst_0.3.4; it can't really
convert attachments but does a good job with messages.  I haven't tried
addresses.

Chris Romano