March 27, 2004

A Home Server

My suggestions for new desktop computer features are almost always ignored because I'm considered a "lunatic fringe" user. Wellll ... I think this guy just might be a leetle bit further out on the fringe than I. Time to catch up!

Posted by PyeCat at March 27, 2004 07:43 PM
Comments

What's rather perturbing is that the guy doesn't sound at all "on the fringe" to me...

Posted by: Thinky at March 30, 2004 07:17 PM

It was the 500GB of storage and the personal mail server that really got to me. Actually running your own mail server, with all the attendant security updates and other things that you have to do ... ouch.

Posted by: PyeCat at March 31, 2004 04:51 AM

Is it that awful to do, on Windows or Linux? I've been running Eudora's mail server on a machine at work for over five years, and security has been one of the simplest features to maintain.

And 500GB is pretty cheap, these days. I have over 200GB sitting on my desktop right now.

Posted by: Thinky at March 31, 2004 01:34 PM

With all the things you have to do these days to avoid being a spam source ...

All the patches that happen to the various SMTP services ...

Everything you have to do to any machine -- Windows, Linux -- that has open ports directly on the Internet to keep it secure ...

Yeah, it seems difficult to me. Perhaps I would go too far with the fretting and the worrying.

Posted by: PyeCat at April 1, 2004 02:03 AM

I'm really surprised it's that difficult on Windows or Linux -- is it the OS security that's problematic, or the server application itself? It's just been so simple on my machine at work; the application lets me directly control relays, user authentication, filters, all that good stuff.

We originally were running a freeware version when we got hijacked by a spammer. Since we upgraded to the professional version (with relay control) five years ago, there have been zero successful security violations. Although they do keep trying -- it's amusing to watch the server logs. *g*

Mail serving is such a basic function, there's gotta be an equivalent for other platforms.

Posted by: Thinky at April 1, 2004 02:58 AM