Help with setting up a mail server using ubuntu, and using outlook to receive e-mails

[leonhook]

i need to setup a file and e-mail server for a friend in the next couple of months, i have found lots of walk throughs on how to set it all up but i can't seem to work out how to add users, and their e-mail addresses and then the info to be able to access them via outlook?

hope this makes sense if you need any more info please ask

many thanks

[beady]

Can you tell us which programs you're planning on using. For instance, which MTA (exim, postfix, qmail) and which IMAP/POP3 server (cyrus, courier etc?). The setup will depend on what programs you use.
Personally, I've got the most experience using exim and cyrus.

How big will the mail system be? How many addresses. Will it be a dedicated box? Have you got the ip and domain names set up already, or will you need to run a DNS resolver as well?

Sorry for all the questions, but it's important to understand what you want before I can help.

Cheers

[leonhook]

will most probably be using, postfix and dovecot, but can work out how to use most programs with a bit of playing about. so am willing to use exim and cyrus if needed. its not going to be that big probably 5-10 address at the most, it will be dedicated, mail and file server box. have the domain names and e-mails set up but they are running through 123-reg site on imap which doesn't seem to be that reliable, not go the ip set up yet, as need to work out where the box will be kept as it needs to be kept away from the office. can chnage the mx settings with 123reg, if thats what you mean by dns resolver??

many thanks

[leonhook]

basically i need to set up an e-mail & file server for a company being started by a friend and i want the cheapest way of doing it, i have decent pc to do this on and i will use ubuntu or similar as its free but the people that work for the company will use windows laptop/desktops, so they want to use outlook to pick up their e-mails as thats all they know how to do, and won't change. and also a file server because they will all need to access the files from around the country.

many thanks

[beady]

This is actually just what I used to do for a living.
I've no experience with postfix or dovecot, but I'm sure they'll be fine for the job. One thing I might say is that exim is excellent, and VERY configurable. Pretty much anything you'd want to do within an email MTA can be done in Exim. I don't know that Postfix isn't like this too, it's just I get the impression if you've got to learn one, learn Exim (see here. Of course if you already know postfix then you may as well stick with it.

Obviously you'll need SAMBA for the file sharing.

Couple of other points. You'll probably need at least an internal DNS server (BIND) for the machines to talk to each other. Also, DHCP is almost essential, and a Proxy (SQUID) would be useful.

You'll need a way to sync passwords. SAMBA allows you to run a script on windows password change, so you can link this into you email authentication.

You'll definitely need a static external IP address as most servers will treat email from dynamic ip addresses as being spam.

Finally, have you got a backup system worked out? At the very minimum you'll need to RAID the hard drives to protect against disk failure. (Linux software raid is excellent and is very powerful and flexible). You should also look at some sort of backup storage (be it usb disks, tape drive, online storage or whatever).

All the above software will run very well on Ubuntu, or any other distribution infact. Personally, I might be tempted to go with Debian, as it's a bit more stable that ubuntu. It's still an 'apt' based system, so should be familiar.

And on a more general note, I don't want to dissuade you from doing this but be prepared to support this sort of system for quite a while, especially if you haven't really set one up before. There's a million and one subtle ways in which the system will break, and you can guarantee that the users will find them. Unfortunately the howto's will only get you so far. You've got to test everything VERY thoroughly before you let users onto it, and especially before it starts being used for real. You can't have breakages that affect business.

[leonhook]

thank you very much for the advice, will have to look into this and have a think a bit more about it, i have a back up system worked out so thats not a problem, will have a look at exim and cyrus as i can get help if needed. the main problem is being able to support the system all day as i have a full time job and won't be able to rush out and help if something goes wrong, so might have to rethink that. but once again many thanks for the info and will look into this and have a play with debian and the other programs you have mentioned.


thank you