Creating an ISP web and mail server in your LAN

[sioxs]

Just a thought....
If you want to try and test without too much hassle easy configuration and management I would suggest using virualization environments (depending on how much physical RAM you have will determine how many instances you can run simultaineously)
You can always run them one at a time.
VMWare or Virtualbox are good solutions and install one of the pre-configured machines from TurnKey chances are you'll find what your looking for there.
As for server management I use Webmin on my Ubuntu Server 12.04 It comes as the default in TurnKey and is fairly user friendly to integate with other systems.
Between these solutions you can do what you want without touching your base host system - and use a ssh conection for everything. Perfect for testing. Later you can import to the cloud for deployment.
If you messed up just delete the .vmdk and start over
PS. Sharing information between machines is seamless with a bit of tweaking or you can just attach a flash drive to share information.
Hope this helps

sioxs
"we can't solve problems with the same kind of thinking we used when we created them"

[TheFu]

Just a thought....
If you want to try and test without too much hassle easy configuration and management I would suggest using virualization environments (depending on how much physical RAM you have will determine how many instances you can run simultaineously)
You can always run them one at a time.

I am a huge user of virtualization. If you are virtualizing servers, use KVM or Xen. VMware-Player or VirtualBox are better for desktop-on-desktop VMs, or just playing, but I've found the overhead for both to be too much for server-on-server VMs.

BTW, both my email gateway and email server are running on VMs ... KVM VMs. Many other VMs are also running on the same set of servers - also with KVM, but this is a completely different area than the root question. If you want a virtualbox VM to perform well: http://blog.jdpfu.com/2012/09/14/sol...-in-virtualbox will explain what you need in the setup and settings.

[sioxs]

I am a huge user of virtualization. If you are virtualizing servers, use KVM or Xen. VMware-Player or VirtualBox are better for desktop-on-desktop VMs, or just playing, but I've found the overhead for both to be too much for server-on-server VMs.

BTW, both my email gateway and email server are running on VMs ... KVM VMs. Many other VMs are also running on the same set of servers - also with KVM, but this is a completely different area than the root question. If you want a virtualbox VM to perform well: http://blog.jdpfu.com/2012/09/14/sol...-in-virtualbox will explain what you need in the setup and settings.

Your right it's a bit off topic but relevent if your wanting to just setup something for testing.
As far as running VM's I've yet to try KVM and now plan to include it on the todo list.Thx!
Load ballancing in Virtualbox can be accomplished using headless mode which disables X server functionality
the vrde=off switch disables any remote GUI's = Much faster less headroom required.
I usually run two as well; one headless 4 webservers and one I'm in the middle of rebuilding again this time running from raw disk partitions (3). It's a bit tricky to setup, special considerations have to be taken into account or you'll mess up your MBR and data but it seems to be working well so far. The load on the host running Kubuntu 12.04 x86 is around 20% of capacity.
Top says load average: 1.08, 1.03, 1.05 with servers running - I can live with that.
BTW: Thanks for the link always can use tweaking

Peace!
"We can't solve problems with the same kind of thinking we used when we created them"
BackTrak Live DVD.iso on USB via casper
Debian 6.7 Virtualbox from raw-disks w/full gnome desktop (testing)
Ubuntu Server 12.04 - standalone gateway encrypted LVM
Turnkey Virtualbox - headless -vrde=off
Kubuntu 12.04 - host workstation

[SAngeli]

Hi,
I made some research and reading but I am a bit confused on few things. Please if possible let me have some answers so that I can move on.
I checked with Joomla Administration under settings for mail server and I can choose among php, sendmail, SMTP. I do not know what WordPress uses.
What SMTP refers to? I know sendmail refers to the program named "sendmail". Does SMTP refers to postfix or sSMTP by any change?

Because I already have sSMTP installed, prior to this thread, I was trying to find out if I am able to send mail through my ISP SMTP but so far I am only able to do so with Google while I am unable to customize the From field.

I watched on YouTube a video on how to install and customize sendmail and postfix.
Which of the three listed (sendmail, postfix and sSMTP) would allow me to be compatible with CMS, php and to act as a SmartHost & to rewrite From-address?
I am not doing spam or other bad things. I just need to be able to send mail properly because my home server is behind a firewall and I cannot open IP addresses. So, it is for proper testing and web development.

I noticed that sSMTP is quite simple to setup, though I fail being able to rewrite (dynamically) the From-address and fail to send through my ISP. Only Googole works and I do not know why. Also in "ssmtp.conf" I do not know how to enable SSL rather than TLS?

thank you,
Spiro

[TheFu]

Hi,
I made some research and reading but I am a bit confused on few things. Please if possible let me have some answers so that I can move on.
I checked with Joomla Administration under settings for mail server and I can choose among php, sendmail, SMTP. I do not know what WordPress uses.
What SMTP refers to? I know sendmail refers to the program named "sendmail". Does SMTP refers to postfix or sSMTP by any change?

Because I already have sSMTP installed, prior to this thread, I was trying to find out if I am able to send mail through my ISP SMTP but so far I am only able to do so with Google while I am unable to customize the From field.

I watched on YouTube a video on how to install and customize sendmail and postfix.
Which of the three listed (sendmail, postfix and sSMTP) would allow me to be compatible with CMS, php and to act as a SmartHost & to rewrite From-address?
I am not doing spam or other bad things. I just need to be able to send mail properly because my home server is behind a firewall and I cannot open IP addresses. So, it is for proper testing and web development.

I noticed that sSMTP is quite simple to setup, though I fail being able to rewrite (dynamically) the From-address and fail to send through my ISP. Only Googole works and I do not know why. Also in "ssmtp.conf" I do not know how to enable SSL rather than TLS?

I've never heard of sSMTP before. You are on your own there. I know that both sendmail and postfix and exim support rewrite rules, but I have no idea if you can use gmail as a drop off.

SMTP is a protocol that every email server and client speaks. That is probably the correct answer for Joomla. Postfix will install a sendmail compatible program - it will act just like sendmail to the outside world, if you use it. Any program on any platform that wants to sent email will use SMTP.

If you cannot modify ports or open the router, then you are limited to the sort of email access (sending and receiving) that will be possible. It is completely up to your ISP, so YOU will need to learn and do the research to figure out what works and what doesn't. I think we already told you about this in the first few replies.

FROM addressing on all email servers is just a suggestion. The FROM means nothing. I can send messages from god@heaven.org using almost any email server. Your php scripts can connect directly to the remote SMTP server (be certain to look up the mx DNS record first) and send messages that way. No need to setup a local email server at all .... er ... provided your ISP doesn't block outbound SMTP ports.

I think you might just want to work on everything else and keep email local for testing. I **know** that Ruby on Rails can send emails through a gmail account and spoof the FROM address. We did that in a class a few days ago. I would be surprised if PHP couldn't do that too. There is probably 20 different plugins for every CMS to accomplish the same thing. More research needed? You probably want to ask CMS-specific questions on their support forums.

[SeijiSensei]

I still use sendmail because I know how to get it do pretty much everything I want it to. That said, you'll probably find more support here for Postfix since that is the Ubuntu default.

I've been running combination web/mail/DNS servers on a single machine for years, even back when my servers were i486 boxes. Unless you have very high traffic volumes, you won't have any problems doing this. Oh, and these servers all run PostgreSQL in the background, too.

For POP/IMAP I use dovecot. It has pretty much supplanted the UWashington imapd server that was once the norm.

[SAngeli]

Hi,
so far I made progresses learning about postfix and being able to get it to work as Smart Host.
I wish to ask few additional questions.

1. if I wish to have mixed delivery of main (locally on localhost and Smart Host) is this possible? If so, where would I set this up so that if I send a mail to @localhost it would be delivered locally anf if I send a mail to user_xx@gmail.com it will be delivered via Smart Host?

2. so far I installed postfix and Postfixc Admin. In order to also manage mail locally with the use of a web interface, what do I need to install?
So far, I understood I have to install Dovecot (for POP3 and IMAP) and I would prefer Roundcube as webmail. Is this all?

3. Is it possible to have a complete string "atp-get install" listing all packages needed, starting from scratch, for setting up a mail server with Smart Host and local mail + web?
Also please consider including in the list spamassassing and clamAV. Beside the fact that MySQL is already installed (as part of LAMP) do I also need any additional MySQL components to install? I read it is needed to manage user accounts and e-mail forwarding or can it be avoided?

4. Integration betweeb the mail server and Webmin is done automatically or is there anything needed to be done manually or install additiona packages?

Thanks to this post I am better learning how to complete mail server installation.
Spiro

[SeijiSensei]

1. if I wish to have mixed delivery of main (locally on localhost and Smart Host) is this possible? If so, where would I set this up so that if I send a mail to @localhost it would be delivered locally anf if I send a mail to user_xx@gmail.com it will be delivered via Smart Host?

Usually that doesn't require any particular configuration. Mail to user@localhost should be delivered locally, while mail to any domain not supported by your server should be forwarded through the relay host. Is that not happening now? If not, read this.

[SAngeli]

Hi,
I have not tried yet as I have not completed pop3 configuration. I will let you know.
Please, if possible, would it be possible to answer also the other questions?
I am finishing to learn/setup this test server so that later I can perform a fresh new full install with all my notes so that I can see if I have properly learned and also to have a clean install.
Thanks,
Spiro

[EmmEight]

The first thing I would do is set your server up with a static IP address, and instal OpenSSH.

That is usually my 1st two steps.

If you want remote access from away from your LAN you can forward port 22 on your router/gateway to the static IP of your server.

Then you can use proftpd or openftp to get your started with FTP access

I am kind of interested to see what you use for a mail server/client. I am in the same situation.