On Monday 24 March 2008 11:20:43 Jila Zakizadeh wrote: > Hi all, > > I am going to set up a Linux Debian computer to work as a Mail server. I am > looking for guidance and the latest software available for Debian systems. > Would somebody introduce me any documentation or a good book for this > matter? Any idea on what software for MTA, MDA, ... I could choose is > highly appreciated. > > > Thank you and have a nice day! > > Jila > Hi, Everyone has their favourite answer to this question. Mine is POSTFIX+MYSQL+SpamAssassin+Courier-IMAP+Maildrop and HORDE/IMP for webmail. There are lots of others, but most people are coming around to the idea of using Postfix for the MTA. I used any number of howto's to put my system together, but a quick scan of the howto links on the Postfix page (http://www.postfix.org/docs.html) finds this, tailored for Debian Etch: http://workaround.org/articles/ispmail-etch/ It proposes, (from the page): Postfix for receiving incoming emails from the internet and storing them to the users' mailboxes on the harddisk. And for receiving emails from your users that are sent out to the internet (relaying) Dovecot to allow your users to get their emails into their email client through POP3 and IMAP Squirrelmail as a webmail interface (although any IMAP capable webmail interface will do) MySQL as the database system that stores information about your domains, the user accounts and email forwardings AMaViS for scanning incoming emails for viruses, spam and unwanted attachments I had chosen courier-imap, but getting authentication and TLS/SSL working was a pain, especially smtp authentication. Looking at this page, it appears that using dovecot for authentication simplifies the whole process. You will also want to looking to other anti-spam measures, especially grey-listing. Here is a good guide: http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/168 You will also want to investigate header checks and checking senders against blockhole lists, info for which you will find on the postfix site. Good luck, Mike