Re: [TCLUG:16017] Dedicated Linux e-mail servers: good experiences, anyone?

[Ben Beuchler <insyte@emt-p.org>]

On Tue, Apr 11, 2000 at 04:24:55PM -0500, Carl Patten wrote:

> For performance's sake, I need to move my company's e-mail services to a
> dedicated box.  Standard POP3/SMTP for about 50 simultaneous users.  I've
> been looking at Linux solutions, and the ZD test I found rated the Netwinder
> above the Cobalt Qube and IBM InterJet II as far as e-mail goes.
> 
> Good word of mouth means more than a review, though.  Any of you who are
> running mail servers care to share good experiences?  Lord knows there's
> enough bad experiences out there. ;)

When you say "simultaneous users", do you mean 50 accounts or 50 people
simultaneously retrieving their mail?  If you mean 50 accounts, you will
be fine with pretty much any box you have left laying around, as long as
you run a nice lightweight MTA like qmail.  I certainly wouldn't even
consider spending the cash for something as spiffy as a NetWinder or Qube.
Unless appearance is more important than cost...

If you're talking 50 simultaneous POP sessions, then again stick with a
nice lightweight MTA and just pile on the RAM.  64 should be more than
adequate.

In either case, I don't see any reason to spend the cash on a brand name
box when local mail tends to be such an undemanding task.

Note that RedHat is dealing with traffic in excess of 200,000 messages per
day at their corporate offices and they're using a P133 w/ 32MB of RAM
using qmail...

Now, if we were talking NT, I'd be recommending a dual PIII with 256MB...

Ben

-- 
"There is no spoon"
	-- The Matrix