How do I setup an email server for an office....
Everyone in my office runs Win2k except me, Suse 8.0. My firewall is a standalone box running RH 7.0. My boss asked me if there was a way to run an internal email server so that we didn't have to go to the outside to send email to each other. I said, "Sure, boss! I'll get right back to you." Now what? He wants to be able to get inter-office email as well as external email. The email we currently use is with our web-hosting service. What email program should I run and how do I set it up? For now I can set it up on my Suse system...unless it were to bog my system down too much. Thanks, Tom -- Tom Nielsen Neuro Logic Systems 805.389.5435 x18 www.neuro-logic.com
On Mon, 2002-09-23 at 18:42, Tom Nielsen wrote:
Everyone in my office runs Win2k except me, Suse 8.0. My firewall is a standalone box running RH 7.0.
My boss asked me if there was a way to run an internal email server so that we didn't have to go to the outside to send email to each other. I said, "Sure, boss! I'll get right back to you." Now what? He wants to be able to get inter-office email as well as external email.
The email we currently use is with our web-hosting service. What email program should I run and how do I set it up? For now I can set it up on my Suse system...unless it were to bog my system down too much.
This can be done, but it is not a simple problem. If you want to send e-mail internally without going outside your LAN to your current hosted mail server, then in addition to setting up a local mail server on your network, you will have to point all your mail clients on every machine on your network to use your local mail server and configure your local mail server to forward all non-local mail to your ISP. If anyone has any mail stored on your hosted mail server, you will need to transfer it either to their local machines or move it to your new local mail server. You have lots of decisions to make, which MTA (I prefer postfix), do you need POP and/or IMAP and/or webmail access? The next issue is how will you receive outside mail? Your current domain mail goes to your hosted mail server. If you have a full time Internet connection, you can get your ISP to point your MX record to your new internal mail server, or you have set up a program to pull your mail down from your ISP via cron and store it on your local server. Since your current hosted mail sits on the Internet, you can access it from home. Do you still need this if you move it internally? Lots to think about :) Best Regards, Keith -- LPIC-2, MCSE, N+ Sing blue silver Got spam? Get spastic http://spastic.sourceforge.net
WOW!!!! I was expecting something completely different. I guess I thought that since someone using Outlook can access as many email servers as they want, that all I had to do is to add an IP of my email server in the office and have it setup as a second server on everyone's machine. Similar to accessing my home email and work email from work. Your assumptions of my current setup were right on the money. While you totally sound like you've done this many times before, I have to ask....do I really need to do all this? I guess my plans above can't be done? My work uses email from our webhosting service rather than from our ISP. All the ISP does is provide Interent connection....no mail. For educational purposes, why can't I have an email server in the office for people that just want to pass files and send quick emails to each other and the email server to and from the outside world? Thanks for all your help!!! Tom On Mon, 2002-09-23 at 16:46, Keith Winston wrote: On Mon, 2002-09-23 at 18:42, Tom Nielsen wrote: > Everyone in my office runs Win2k except me, Suse 8.0. My firewall is a > standalone box running RH 7.0. > > My boss asked me if there was a way to run an internal email server so > that we didn't have to go to the outside to send email to each other. I > said, "Sure, boss! I'll get right back to you." Now what? He wants to be > able to get inter-office email as well as external email. > > The email we currently use is with our web-hosting service. What email > program should I run and how do I set it up? For now I can set it up on > my Suse system...unless it were to bog my system down too much. This can be done, but it is not a simple problem. If you want to send e-mail internally without going outside your LAN to your current hosted mail server, then in addition to setting up a local mail server on your network, you will have to point all your mail clients on every machine on your network to use your local mail server and configure your local mail server to forward all non-local mail to your ISP. If anyone has any mail stored on your hosted mail server, you will need to transfer it either to their local machines or move it to your new local mail server. You have lots of decisions to make, which MTA (I prefer postfix), do you need POP and/or IMAP and/or webmail access? The next issue is how will you receive outside mail? Your current domain mail goes to your hosted mail server. If you have a full time Internet connection, you can get your ISP to point your MX record to your new internal mail server, or you have set up a program to pull your mail down from your ISP via cron and store it on your local server. Since your current hosted mail sits on the Internet, you can access it from home. Do you still need this if you move it internally? Lots to think about :) Best Regards, Keith -- LPIC-2, MCSE, N+ Sing blue silver Got spam? Get spastic http://spastic.sourceforge.net -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com
I don't really think the solution is all that difficult - let me dig out the documentation for my system and I'll send you a copy. Jon
WOW!!!! I was expecting something completely different. I guess I thought that since someone using Outlook can access as many email servers as they want, that all I had to do is to add an IP of my email server in the office and have it setup as a second server on everyone's machine. Similar to accessing my home email and work email from work.
Your assumptions of my current setup were right on the money. While you totally sound like you've done this many times before, I have to ask....do I really need to do all this? I guess my plans above can't be done? My work uses email from our webhosting service rather than from our ISP. All the ISP does is provide Interent connection....no mail.
For educational purposes, why can't I have an email server in the office for people that just want to pass files and send quick emails to each other and the email server to and from the outside world?
Thanks for all your help!!!
Tom
On Mon, 2002-09-23 at 16:46, Keith Winston wrote:
On Mon, 2002-09-23 at 18:42, Tom Nielsen wrote: > Everyone in my office runs Win2k except me, Suse 8.0. My firewall is a > standalone box running RH 7.0. > > My boss asked me if there was a way to run an internal email server so > that we didn't have to go to the outside to send email to each other. I > said, "Sure, boss! I'll get right back to you." Now what? He wants to be > able to get inter-office email as well as external email. > > The email we currently use is with our web-hosting service. What email > program should I run and how do I set it up? For now I can set it up on > my Suse system...unless it were to bog my system down too much.
This can be done, but it is not a simple problem. If you want to send e-mail internally without going outside your LAN to your current hosted mail server, then in addition to setting up a local mail server on your network, you will have to point all your mail clients on every machine on your network to use your local mail server and configure your local mail server to forward all non-local mail to your ISP.
If anyone has any mail stored on your hosted mail server, you will need to transfer it either to their local machines or move it to your new local mail server.
You have lots of decisions to make, which MTA (I prefer postfix), do you need POP and/or IMAP and/or webmail access?
The next issue is how will you receive outside mail? Your current domain mail goes to your hosted mail server. If you have a full time Internet connection, you can get your ISP to point your MX record to your new internal mail server, or you have set up a program to pull your mail down from your ISP via cron and store it on your local server.
Since your current hosted mail sits on the Internet, you can access it from home. Do you still need this if you move it internally?
Lots to think about :)
Best Regards, Keith -- LPIC-2, MCSE, N+ Sing blue silver Got spam? Get spastic http://spastic.sourceforge.net
-- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com
On Tue, 2002-09-24 at 01:26, Tom Nielsen wrote:
WOW!!!! I was expecting something completely different. I guess I thought that since someone using Outlook can access as many email servers as they want, that all I had to do is to add an IP of my email server in the office and have it setup as a second server on everyone's machine. Similar to accessing my home email and work email from work.
Your assumptions of my current setup were right on the money. While you totally sound like you've done this many times before, I have to ask....do I really need to do all this? I guess my plans above can't be done? My work uses email from our webhosting service rather than from our ISP. All the ISP does is provide Interent connection....no mail.
For educational purposes, why can't I have an email server in the office for people that just want to pass files and send quick emails to each other and the email server to and from the outside world?
You can set a separate mail server internally that doesn't interact with the outside world. That elimiates many of the thorny issues, but not you have two mail systems. If you set up multiple mail accoutns in Outlook, I'm not sure how to force it to send your internal e-mail only to the internal server, and all other e-mail to your other mail server. Maybe you could set up multiple Outlook profiles on each machine and sign on to the one you want to use depending on whether you want to send local mail or mail to the outside world. By the way, if your ISP does not handle your mail, who does? I hope I did not dissuade you from searching for a solution, I just wanted to point out that a nice integrated solution was not a 5 min rpm install. Best regards, Keith -- LPIC-2, MCSE, N+ Sing blue silver Got spam? Get spastic http://spastic.sourceforge.net
Why not just use sendmail to differentiate between internal and external email ? A unique user-id for each internal user, with the "internal domain" added to unqualified addresses. That's how I do it here on a smaller scale and it works fine. Jon
On Tue, 2002-09-24 at 01:26, Tom Nielsen wrote:
WOW!!!! I was expecting something completely different. I guess I thought that since someone using Outlook can access as many email servers as they want, that all I had to do is to add an IP of my email server in the office and have it setup as a second server on everyone's machine. Similar to accessing my home email and work email from work.
On Tuesday 24 September 2002 14.20, Keith Winston wrote:
You can set a separate mail server internally that doesn't interact with the outside world. That elimiates many of the thorny issues, but not you have two mail systems. If you set up multiple mail accoutns in Outlook, I'm not sure how to force it to send your internal e-mail only to the internal server, and all other e-mail to your other mail server.
Does one need to? How about one server (the internal) for outgoing mail, and two servers for incoming mail. That seems to me to be the simplest solution. //Anders
On September 24, 2002 08:20 am, Keith Winston wrote:
For educational purposes, why can't I have an email server in the office for people that just want to pass files and send quick emails to each other and the email server to and from the outside world?
You can set a separate mail server internally that doesn't interact with the outside world. That elimiates many of the thorny issues, but not you have two mail systems. If you set up multiple mail accoutns in Outlook, I'm not sure how to force it to send your internal e-mail only to the internal server, and all other e-mail to your other mail server.
Why not use virtusertable and I guess a smart host. Basically all email hits the internal server. It then decides what to keep locally and what to send out. It wouldn't be hard but depending on the number of users could take a little effort. Nick
On Tue, 2002-09-24 at 05:20, Keith Winston wrote:
On Tue, 2002-09-24 at 01:26, Tom Nielsen wrote:
WOW!!!! I was expecting something completely different. I guess I thought that since someone using Outlook can access as many email servers as they want, that all I had to do is to add an IP of my email server in the office and have it setup as a second server on everyone's machine. Similar to accessing my home email and work email from work.
Your assumptions of my current setup were right on the money. While you totally sound like you've done this many times before, I have to ask....do I really need to do all this? I guess my plans above can't be done? My work uses email from our webhosting service rather than from our ISP. All the ISP does is provide Interent connection....no mail.
For educational purposes, why can't I have an email server in the office for people that just want to pass files and send quick emails to each other and the email server to and from the outside world?
You can set a separate mail server internally that doesn't interact with the outside world. That elimiates many of the thorny issues, but not you have two mail systems. If you set up multiple mail accoutns in Outlook, I'm not sure how to force it to send your internal e-mail only to the internal server, and all other e-mail to your other mail server.
Maybe you could set up multiple Outlook profiles on each machine and sign on to the one you want to use depending on whether you want to send local mail or mail to the outside world.
By the way, if your ISP does not handle your mail, who does?
I hope I did not dissuade you from searching for a solution, I just wanted to point out that a nice integrated solution was not a 5 min rpm install.
Best regards, Keith --
So far, I'm liking Keith's idea the best. I just don't know if it can be done...or how. Outlook, as well as Evolution, when given more than one email account, allows the user to pick which account to check or which account to send on. It also has a default to always send on XXX account unless otherwise stated. Keep in mind the following... 1. Other users are Win2k 2. ISP doesn't handle email. The webhosting service does. ISP is just ISP (dsl account). 3. I don't want to bog my system down with a bunch of outside email (using internal server to access external mail). With that said...if I can just setup a server for inter-office mail, what program should I use? I assumed that there was a program that acted as an email server and I would assign IP adddresses of the clients and give corresponding names, e.g. 192.168.5.2 = bob. Then setup an account on Outlook that points to the server via IP 192.168.2.20. I'm I making this too easy? Seems like a really simple program. I remember back in the Windows for Workgroup days we had an email server that did just what I mentioned. I guess life's getting too complicated now, huh? Thanks, Tom
At 18:33 24/09/2002 , Tom Nielsen wrote:
On Tue, 2002-09-24 at 05:20, Keith Winston wrote:
On Tue, 2002-09-24 at 01:26, Tom Nielsen wrote:
<snip>
Keep in mind the following...
1. Other users are Win2k 2. ISP doesn't handle email. The webhosting service does. ISP is just ISP (dsl account). 3. I don't want to bog my system down with a bunch of outside email (using internal server to access external mail).
With that said...if I can just setup a server for inter-office mail, what program should I use? I assumed that there was a program that acted as an email server and I would assign IP adddresses of the clients and give corresponding names, e.g. 192.168.5.2 = bob. Then setup an account on Outlook that points to the server via IP 192.168.2.20.
I'm I making this too easy? Seems like a really simple program. I remember back in the Windows for Workgroup days we had an email server that did just what I mentioned. I guess life's getting too complicated now, huh?
Thanks, Tom
Hi Tom, Your situation sounds very similar to mine - except we are on dial-up. I use an old pentium 166 PC as our mail server (SuSE 7.2 / Sendmail - no graphical interface - install as 'network server' option) Sendmail queues outgoing mail for sending at scheduled intervals (hourly), and fetchmail collects for the various users from their respective POP mailboxes on our hosting company's server. Clients (MS$ - various 'flavours') connect using POP3 to the local server to collect their mail, and SMTP to send mail, whether internal or external destinations. Give your internal domain the same name as your registered domain - it shouldn't produce any conflicts, as you are not offering services to the internet from your internal network (are you?). Use SuSEfirewall2 to protect the server - you can probably close all external access. You may also consider using squid to allow your client machines to browse internet through the server. (and lot's of other interesting possibilities). As SuSE says - Have a lot of Fun! Brgds, Tony
On Tuesday 24 September 2002 17.33, Tom Nielsen wrote:
So far, I'm liking Keith's idea the best. I just don't know if it can be done...or how.
Outlook, as well as Evolution, when given more than one email account, allows the user to pick which account to check or which account to send on. It also has a default to always send on XXX account unless otherwise stated.
Keep in mind the following...
1. Other users are Win2k 2. ISP doesn't handle email. The webhosting service does. ISP is just ISP (dsl account). 3. I don't want to bog my system down with a bunch of outside email (using internal server to access external mail).
With that said...if I can just setup a server for inter-office mail, what program should I use? I assumed that there was a program that acted as an email server and I would assign IP adddresses of the clients and give corresponding names, e.g. 192.168.5.2 = bob. Then setup an account on Outlook that points to the server via IP 192.168.2.20.
I'm I making this too easy? Seems like a really simple program. I remember back in the Windows for Workgroup days we had an email server that did just what I mentioned. I guess life's getting too complicated now, huh?
Another, possibly simpler, solution for inter-office communication is to set up some sort of messaging server, such as jabber. That will also have the added benifit of being able to both have offline messages (an email replacement) and online chatting, which could be needed on occasion. //Anders
Tom Nielsen wrote:
Everyone in my office runs Win2k except me, Suse 8.0. My firewall is a standalone box running RH 7.0.
My boss asked me if there was a way to run an internal email server so that we didn't have to go to the outside to send email to each other. I said, "Sure, boss! I'll get right back to you." Now what? He wants to be able to get inter-office email as well as external email.
Do you mean he now wants to get both external email and internal email from your local email server? Install the imap package, which contains both a pop server and an imap server. You will need to enable them/it in inetd (Yast>Network/Basic>Start/Stop Services). You would need to add all the users so that they have a mailbox (but set there shell to /bin/false so they can't actually log in). You would also need to configure sendmail to accept the local mail to deliver it to procmail. If he also wants to pick up internet mail locally, you could use fetchmail to retrieve the mail and deliver locally. If he wanted all outgoing mail to go through that box, sendmail would need configured for that. If not, the clients would just need to point to the local email server for incoming/outgoing LOCAL mail, and local addresses added to address books.
The email we currently use is with our web-hosting service. What email program should I run and how do I set it up? For now I can set it up on my Suse system...unless it were to bog my system down too much.
It shouldn't be that much of a load. You could even set up sendmail and amavis with antivir tp automatically scan for viruses on email. -- Joe & Sesil Morris New Tribes Mission Email Address: Joe_Morris@ntm.org Web Address: http://www.mydestiny.net/~joe_morris Registered Linux user 231871 God said, I AM that I AM. I say, by the grace God, I am what I am.
participants (7)
-
Anders Johansson -
Joe & Sesil Morris (NTM) -
Jon Biddell -
Keith Winston -
Nick Zentena -
Tom Nielsen -
Tony White