Re: [cobalt-users] Email for ISP on RAQ3?

["Steve Werby" <steve-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Alan" <alan@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
<snip>
> I'm thinking about becoming an ISP in my area and would like to use my
RAQ3
> for email and personal webpages.
</snip>
<snip>but email and any hosting will be up to me. I want to
> know if it is feasible to use the Raq in this situation, it seems ideal,
but
> I don't want to over load it with too many users. Besides disk space,
would
> there be any other limiting factors that I should be aware of using it as
> such?
<snip>

If you're not a skilled Linux admin and don't have one available a RaQ is a
good choice.  Otherwise you should consider using a dedicated email server
with decent RAM, RAID and a lot of disk space.  RaQs are tailored for web
hosting and a standard Linux server setup just to handle email will likely
be more secure, more reliable and handle a higher load for less money and
easier to secure since you could shut off most other services and if your
web server gets compromised your customers' email would still be safe.

<snip>
> I'm particularly worried that *if* I get a large number of customers, how
> would I keep all of them on one server? If I need to add another server
just
> for email how can this be done? Is the cobalt platform the correct place
to
> start, I want scalability, is it possible, and at what cost?
</snip>

You can easily configure sendmail to route email to be handled by a
different server.  I recommend asking your questions at an ISP mailing list.
Only a very small percentage of the subscribers here are probably in the ISP
business.  Try www.isp-consulting.com or one of their affiliated sites and
mailing lists.

--
Steve Werby
President, Befriend Internet Services LLC
http://www.befriend.com/