Hi all,
Christian, nice logo ;-).

I wonder if I could get advice & help?

I just had an Exchange 5.5/NT4 mailserver die. It's only pupose was the holder of the MX record. We actually use Lotus Domino internally & Exchange just transferred the mail over to the Lotus server.

I did not set up any of this & I am actually a Mac/windoze person so in an attempt to try to get away from M$ products I have installed Redhat 9 to replace the Exchange box.

So, what is the best mail server to use to fwd the messages & what is the absolute easiest way to get it configured securely & quickly?

Thanks alot

Phillip

If you're looking for a Linux replacement for Exchange, there's 1 that I know of. Well, 2, if you consider the secured appliance. Allow me to explain:

Bynari (www.bynari.net) makes a linux replacement for MS Exchange called "Insight Server" that was designed mainly to run on RedHat and Debian GNU/Linux.

Another company, Immunix (www.immunix.com) takes Insight Server and hardens it into a "Secure Appliance." Setup and configuration is a snap (via a web interface) - from booting from the CD-ROM to a working server is literally 10 minutes.

The reason I know this much about both products is because I'm a certified partner/reseller for each company. Mind you, I won't make any money by suggesting that you look at them (or even if you decide to go with one of them.) The reason I decided to sign up with each company in a partnership is because I've used both products, and find both of them to be outstanding performers.

There is one other MS Exchange equivelant that runs on Linux, but it's not a standalone product, meaning it's part of another solution. (Contact me privately if you would like further information on it.)

I hope some of this has answered your question. Keep in mind there are other Linux applications that claim to be on the same par with Exchange, but do your homework and read the reviews. I've tried about 14 other applications and finally settled on these two for Exchange replacements based on performance and security.

But for a simple mail forwarder like he needs, wouldn't sendmail, postfix, exim, or any other free mail daemon do the trick? He didn't say he needed any collaborative functions of Exchange.

I'm not poo-poo'ing your suggestion, TheOgre, mind you, I'm just trying to broaden his options.

Actually, if he's going to just be forwarding mail, a firewall/natd rule (portforwarding) might just be easier, if it's just a matter of routing the mail from one IP to another inside the network. I probably read the thread wrong - I've been up for going on 53 hours straight now, so I apologize if I went off on a tangent.

Yes, a simple qmail/postfix solution would work if he needed to forward the actual mail to another system internally...

Time to get some sleep now before I do something stupid in my zombie state... like rm -rf /* or cat /* > /dev/null or something similar...

Hello,

Thank you Phillip on the comment concerning the Apple! Your X disk is super too

You mentioned that the Exchange server was just holding an MX record... that implies it was a DNS server, and pointing to something else. If that is the case, just aim your MX record somewhere else, and your email should function again.

SENDMAIL is a behind the scenes mail management facility. It is not a front end. Being a Mac guy... think of Eudora connecting to SENDMAIL when you are transmitting an email message.

How is your internet addressing setup? That will determine how the new setup needs to be made.

Christian

Thanks everyone for the great information...

Christian,
Our setup here is contolled by our parent company, it goes as such:
Internet router: "mail.blahblah.com" allows mail traffic into the network to the mailserver's internal address "10.xxx.xxx.50" (exchange/now redhat)
which passes the mail on to the Lotus Domino server's internal address "10.xxx.xxx.51"
Domino handles all the outgoing mail which is working fine.
I just need a quick easy way to get something setup on redhat to do what exchange was doing so that I dont have to reinstall & reconfigure NT/Exch 5.5

:cheesy: Did I mention that I'm getting desperate & willing to pay someone?
Well, as a matter of fact I am

Hello PhillipC,

Man, if I wasn't tied up in the new consulting position, I would take you up on your offer.

IN order to go any further, I would need to know HOW that linux box is being used. How was the exchange server being used? Was it simply doing a "forward all email to this box on the Lotus server"?

If all you have is one email address being sent to everyone (such as sales@yourcompany.com being sent an equal copy to bob, karen, tim, and larry ==> this means sales replicates to the rest) then all you need is a .forward file on the server, and sendmail configured properly.

If you have all email being sent there (bob@yourcompany, karen@yourcompany, tim@yourcompany), then you might have to make accounts on the linux box, and then a bunch of .forward files.

But without getting more information, one cannot guess which path to take. It might be time to go private and work this off-list. I am available at cyberdoc@astro.gmtc.net

Christian