Hey guy I have a spare server that is just collecting dust so i figured i'd start a project to make good use of it. I am looking to set up, for the first time, a mailing platform using open source software. I really have no direction and am just in the planning phase. However, just looking online each software has TONS of documentation so im sure upon reading the manuals i can get my questions answered in the technical aspect. But right now i am in the choosing phase. There are plenty of options to choose from and im sure some of you have been down this road and maybe can help me to save headaches or help choose one that is most forgiving for complete noobs (whatever that means) For MTA some people have suggested the following: Postfix (leaning towards this one since it has a lot of documentation, including that "big book") Exim (havent read anything on this; iirc this was mostly for very light mailing purposes?) Sendmail (they say this was hard to configure properly, and upon further googling it seems the same devs released a better mta called MeTA1, still this is all new to me dont know if one would be better than the other) As for Managers, the two main options are; MailMan PHPList Both seem to have features that some of the more commercial platforms use so im sure either one will be a good choice? This is where i hope someone will vouch for one or the other based on prior experience. For now thats about it. After finding the right combination it will probably take me a few days to take in all the info from the documentation then i'll start configuring it. Might be even longer since my linux skills are mediocre at best. But again, this is all fopr fun. Its only a project. But what im hoping for is that once its fine tuned i'll be able to turn it into a decent money maker. If it helps my intentions are to be able to send at least 1mil messages at functional speeds with headway for more if i please.
Let me rephrase that last part, that kind of volume would be handled by a premium dedicated server, not the one i initially plan to use. Right now I just want to set up my own personal, modified mailing platform. And later move it to another box. EDIT: Thanks for the input SG, i was hoping you'd chime. I think i read a thread where you said this was kind of how you started out, with some old servers lying around? That's kind of what got me into trying this. If you dont mind what would you recommend as far as list managers?
You said your target "speed" is 1 million messages but you didn't mention a time frame? 1 million an hour? day?
might have to do more reading but it seems there are better alternatives to phplist and/or MailMan If anyone can give share any recommendations that would be great. As for the MTA it seems Exim would offer more flexibility. Still having hard time deciding between it and postfix however.
TLD mainly. I don't want to be burning IP's. But I wouldn't want to be limited Would it be a completely different configuration if i tried making it useful for GI? Still i want to be targeting one of the big 4.
I suppose the first few features are good for GI and TLD. The ability to queue mail, the ability to select the ip that it sends on. Then you got rate limiting, bounce handling etc. If your going to be using OSS, then I also would say look into Exim.
Yeah I installed Exim on the server. Now I am just getting familiar with it. This is all completely new to me so it will take a while before anything major happens.
You're not going to get 1m/hour targeting the big 4... Unless you have some super shady squirrel warm up technique or amazingly responsive data that just loves your messages.
Also are you saying Exim itself won't be able to get me to 1m/hr? Either way that's fine. I'll just make use with what i can. Eventually I'll scale up. I might also just outsource the front end to a coding buddy of mine. But first i want to configure exim the best i can.
