> On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 10:34 AM, /dev/rob0 <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 10:15:40AM +0600, Vishal Agarwal wrote:
> > > I want to reinstall postfix server right from scratch with
> > > spam filter, grey listing and antivirus support working on 
> > > submission port. Pl suggest/advise any practical working 
> > > tutorial.
> >
> > I have reviewed quite a few of what I call the "kitchen sink" 
> > tutorials on the web, those which include "everything but the 
> > kitchen sink" (a colloquial expression.) Most of them are very 
> > weak for various reasons. IMO they're trying to cover too much 
> > material. They cannot take the place of the software 
> > documentation.
> >
> > The right thing to do is to take it in pieces, so you understand
> > about each piece.

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 02:01:05PM -0400, John Hudak wrote:
> Sometimes, it is very helpful to get a view of how all the parts 
> fit together, their inter-dependencies for configuration, some 
> aspect of data flow, etc.  In some cases, these 'kitchen sink' 
> articles serve that purpose very well, not to mention sometimes 
> citing/or based on OS install specifics wrt directory structures, 
> permissions, etc.

This is a valid point. You CAN use such tutorials to help gain the 
"big picture" overview of what you need.

> So, having pointed the OP to a wealth of detailed info,
> and having reviewed 'quite a few "kitchen sink" articles"
> perhaps you could suggest one or two of the better ones????

I am not familiar with any such tutorial that precisely meets the 
OP's stated goals. Note also that the OS in use was not stated, 
neither could it be guessed from context.

Most of the tutorials one might find are for setting up virtual 
mailboxes with a MySQL database backend. That was not stated as a 
goal, nor should it be a goal in many cases. And as you note, in 
general they are specific to one OS or Linux distribution.

One tutorial to which I can give qualified approval is the one at 
workaround.org, "ISP-style mail". I know the author to be competent 
in Postfix and general Unix/Linux matters. But:

1. His howto is for Debian, which might not be suitable. Changing
   one's OS for the purpose of beginning a mail server is *not*
   advisable: one should be fluent in the OS/distro BEFORE one
   undertakes a project so complex as a mail server. (I should have
   mentioned this in my previous post.)

2. His howto is for MySQL-based virtual mailboxes, "ISP-style mail",
   which as I indicated above, is not what everyone needs. You may
   need that if you are running an ISP. Again, that was not stated
   in the OP.

2a. (Also, I did not like the SQL schema, so I made my own for
   SQLite, with the benefit -- and the drawbacks! -- of greater
   normalization.)

3. While it does cover content filtering, it does not cover the
   pre-DATA spam control tactics[1] as are usually a good idea. And
   I don't think the content filtering will block authenticating
   malware, which I inferred (right or wrong) was one of the goals.

4. Sender rate limiting is not covered at all, and if my inference
   was correct, that would be a good idea.

With those caveats, it might be useful to the OP. But I guess the 
bottom line is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution for mail 
servers.

Regarding the matter of authenticating malware, I'm working on that 
issue myself, and in due time I might put forth a howto therefor.


[1] A link to such a page exists, but is 404 at this time:
   http://workaround.org/ispmail/squeeze/postfix-smtpd-restrictions
   Perhaps it exists for previous versions?
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