*BSD News Article 80097


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From: tedm@agora.rdrop.com
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Dedicated mail server
Date: 7 Oct 1996 00:48:45 GMT
Organization: Symantec Corp.
Lines: 30
Message-ID: <539k1d$po@Symiserver2.symantec.com>
References: <52uc9h$ug4@library.airnews.net>
Reply-To: tedm@agora.rdrop.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: shiva1.central.com
X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 v1.2.5

In <52uc9h$ug4@library.airnews.net>, bob@texana.com writes:
>I am a novice in the process of setting purchasing a PC-based FreeBSD
>unix dedicated mail server which will be maintained by an ISP on a T1.
>I am trying to find out what type of system would be best.
>
>This server will be used to forward mail to 2,000-3,000 aliases and
>will host about 1,000 POP mail accounts. 
>
>Since this is a stop-gap plan that will be used only for a year or so,
>we do not want to invest too heavily in this server.
>

I don't want to sound mean, but this is the most idiotic thing that I ever heard,
and I can believe that you are a novice - ie you haven't got a clue of what you
are in for.

No one goes out and sets up a 1000 user mailserver to use for just a year unless
someone is holding a gun to their head.  It is going to take at least 6 months for
you to get the thing completely debugged and running smoothly, and by the time
your users have adjusted to it your going to be ripping it out again.

My best advice, after much experience setting this sort of thing up is to forget
the idea of using it as a stop gap and go with whatever permanent solution
_now_ that you want to be using.

To be a little kinder, if someone asked me to set such a thing up (which I could
do so in a week's time) and told me that their going to rip it out in a year I'd
turn on my heel and walk away.  I can find lots of folks willing to pay me to
set such a solution up permanently.  Call it a pride thing, but that's how I feel
about it.