A practical guide to building, tuning, and testing email servers based on sendmail to function more efficiently and resist both accidental and malicious load-related incidents. Based on sendmail 8.12 and earlier versions, the volume covers performance tuning, configuring, and security, with precise directions for managing bottlenecks and load-testing. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.
Reliable, flexible, and configurable enough to solve the mail routing needs of any web site, sendmail has withstood the test of time, but has become no less daunting in its complexity. Even the most experienced system administrators have found it challenging to configure and difficult to understand. For help in unraveling its intricacies, sendmail administrators have turned unanimously to one reliable source--the bat book, or sendmail by Bryan Costales and the creator of sendmail, Eric Allman. Now in its third edition, this best-selling reference will help you master the most demanding version of sendmail yet.The new edition of sendmail has been completely revised to cover sendmail 8.12--a version with more features and fundamental changes than any previous version of the Unix-based email routing program. Because the latest version of sendmail differs so significantly from earlier versions, a massive rewrite of this best-selling reference was called for.The book begins by guiding you through the building and installation of sendmail and its companion programs, such as vacation and makemap. These additional programs are pivotal to sendmail's daily operation. Next, you'll cover the day-to-day administration of sendmail. This section includes two entirely new chapters, "Performance Tuning" to help you make mail delivery as efficient as possible, and "Handling Spam" to deal with sendmail's rich anti-spam features. The next section of the book tackles the sendmail configuration file and debugging. And finally, the book wraps up with five appendices that provide more detail about sendmail than you may ever need. Altogether, versions 8.10 through 8.12 include dozens of new features, options, and macros, and this greatly expanded edition thoroughly addresses each, and provides and advance look at sendmail version 8.13 (expected to be released in 2003).With sendmail, Third Edition in hand, you will be able to configure this challenging but necessary utility for whatever needs your system requires. This much anticipated revision is essential reading for sendmail administrators.
This book explains how and why Sendmail does what it does and provides "cookbook recipes" and simplified explanations on how to manage a mail system. The authors progress from the simple to the complex, providing knowledge essential for both the interested user and the experienced system manager.
More often than not, the words "sendmail configuration" strike dread in the hearts of sendmail and system administrators--and not without reason. sendmail configuration languages are as complex as any other programming languages, but used much more infrequently--only when sendmail is installed or configured. The average system administrator doesn't get enough practice to truly master this inscrutable technology.Fortunately, there's help. The sendmail Cookbook provides step-by-step solutions for the administrator who needs to solve configuration problems fast. Say you need to configure sendmail to relay mail for your clients without creating an open relay that will be abused by spammers. A recipe in the Cookbook shows you how to do just that. No more wading through pages of dense documentation and tutorials and creating your own custom solution--just go directly to the recipe that addresses your specific problem.Each recipe in the sendmail Cookbook outlines a configuration problem, presents the configuration code that solves that problem, and then explains the code in detail. The discussion of the code is critical because it provides the insight you need to tweak the code for your own circumstances.The sendmail Cookbook begins with an overview of the configuration languages, offering a quick how-to for downloading and compiling the sendmail distribution. Next, you'll find a baseline configuration recipe upon which many of the subsequent configurations, or recipes, in the book are based. Recipes in the following chapters stand on their own and offer solutions for properly configuring important sendmail functions such as: Delivering and forwarding mail Relaying Masquerading Routing mail Controlling spam Strong authentication Securing the mail transport Managing the queue Securing sendmail sendmail Cookbook is more than just a new approach to discussing sendmail configuration. The book also provides lots of new material that doesn't get much coverage elsewhere--STARTTLS and AUTH are given entire chapters, and LDAP is covered in recipes throughout the book. But most of all, this book is about saving time--something that most system administrators have in short supply. Pick up the sendmail Cookbook and say good-bye to sendmail dread.
A classic O'Reilly title since 1993, sendmail now covers Versions 8.10 through 8.14 of this email routing program, including dozens of new features, options, and macros. This edition also takes a more nuts-and-bolts approach than its predecessors. It includes both an administration handbook and a reference guide that provide you with clear options for installing, configuring and managing sendmail's latest versions and companion programs. The sendmail program has withstood the test of time because of its ability to solve the mail-routing needs of all sites large or small, complex or simple. But it's also difficult to configure and even more difficult to understand. That's why this book has proven valuable since the dawn of email. With it, you will be able to configure the program to meet any need, so that you never again have to call in a sendmail guru to bail you out. sendmail includes the following sections: Some Basics is especially useful for people new to the program. It covers the basic concepts underlying mail delivery and the roles sendmail plays in that delivery Administration covers all aspects of handling sendmail, from downloading and installing new releases to managing mailing lists and aliases Configuration Reference contains a heavily cross-referenced guide for configuring and tuning sendmail. Every arcane detail of sendmail is listed alphabetically Appendices contain more detail about sendmail than you may ever need This edition also includes new material on SSL and AUTH and a new chapter on Mitlers. If you're interested in what has changed since the last edition, one appendix categorizes the many improvements of sendmail's intervening versions by chapter, complete with references to the appropriate sections and page numbers in the book. With sendmail, system administrators, programmers, network engineers, and even inexperienced users will be able to match this challenging but necessary utility to the needs of their network.
qmail has quietly become one of the most widely used applications on the Internet today. It's powerful enough to handle mail for systems with millions of users--Like Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, while remaining compact and manageable enough for the smallest Unix- and Linux-based PC systems. Its component design makes it easy to extend and customize while keeping its key functions secure, so it's no wonder that adoption of qmail continues at a rapid pace.The downside? Apparently none. Except that qmail's unique design can be disorienting to those familiar with other popular MTAs (Mail Transfer Agents). If you're coming from sendmail, for instance, you might have trouble recasting your problems and solutions in qmail terms. qmail first helps you establish a "qmail frame of mind," then explores the installation, configuration, administration, and extension of this powerful MTA. Whether you're installing from scratch or managing mailing lists with thousands of users, qmail provides detailed information about how to make qmail do precisely what you wantqmail concentrates on common tasks like moving a sendmail setup to qmail, or setting up a "POP toaster," a system that provides mail service to a large number of users on other computers sending and retrieving mail remotely. The book also fills crucial gaps in existing documentation, detailing exactly what the core qmail software does.Topics covered include: Installation and configuration, including patching qmail Moving from sendmail to qmail Handling locally and remotely originated messages Managing virtual domains Logging qmail activity Tuning qmail performance Running multiple copies of qmail on the same computer Mailing list setup and management Integrating the qmail MTA with POP and IMAP delivery Filtering out spam and viruses If you need to manage mailing lists, large volumes of mail, or simply find sendmail and other MTAs too complicated, qmail may be exactly what's called for. Our new guide, qmail, will provide the guidance you need to build an email infrastructure that performs well, makes sense, and is easy to maintain.
Postfix is a viable alternative to sendmail - currently the most common Mail Transport Agent (MTA) - and is being increasingly accepted in the administration community. One of the greatest advantages of Postfix is that it offers higher performance than other standard-compliant MTAs. Sendmail has been diverging from the "UNIX model" of small discrete code units that do very specific, if interlocking, tasks, so it is only to be expected that alternative MTAs would crop up. This book offers broad coverage to instruct both the large ISP and the small business network administrator on how to install and configure a full featured Internet email system with a minimum amount of expense. This is possible using the Linux Operating System which supplies all of the necessary server software, the Postfix email software package, and Public Domain client email software on the client PC's. This book also includes educational information that can be used by network administrators in using Postfix to connect an office email server to an ISP. The Postfix email software package is widely used on the Internet without any books documenting how to install, configure, and operate the email server.; This book provides all the information needed to run Postfix effectively and efficiently.
Today's hottest Internet technologies, they also explore the important issues regarding precisely what is at stake for a society with greater and growing ties to cyberspace. Topics in this timely collection include privacy and security, property rights, censorship, telecommunications regulation, and the global impact of emerging Internet technologies.
