[COLUG] Mail server advice

[Tom Hanlon]

On 23 Jan 2008, at 09:46, Aaron Howard wrote:

> On Jan 22, 2008 11:38 PM, Tom Hanlon <tom at functionalmedia.com> wrote:
>> I would like to get my RHCE cert this year and I assume passing
>> knowledge of sendmail , postfix, Cyrus, Courrier, Dovecot and the
>> like are involved.
>
> When I got mine (and this was YEARS ago for RH 6.x-7.x) sendmail was
> involved.  None of those other things you mentioned.  I hope they've
> moved on to Postfix as it seems most everyone else has...but I don't
> know what they're testing for anymore as I let all my certs expire
> since they only served two purposes: (1) to get my foot in doors where
> I might not otherwise; and, (2) to put a bunch of letters after my
> name.
>
> #2 is obviously unimportant.  #1 became less so when I realized I got
> 99-100% of my business from relationships I maintained with people and
> the quality of the work I did.  The certs are good mostly if you are
> pursuing opportunities with people who don't know you and/or have no
> trustworthy references to vouch for you.

Aaron,

I hear and echo your opinions and concerns about Certifications. I  
could use
  a few letters after my name. Actually I do a lot of technical  
training so the exercise
in certification, if I ever get around to it , would help me advise  
students who have
questions. It would also open the door for me to become a RHAT  
trainer should I
ever be so inclined.

So RHCE for the sake of the CERT.. heck no. As a way to force me to  
study and
learn !! Oh Yeah. As a way to have something to discuss when students
ask me about various certs ? Oh Yeah !!

You are correct . Finding work is all about people and networking.

--
Tom

>
> All that being said, I still liked getting my RHCE and was glad I did.
>  I still say it's one of the most meaningful certs out there...behind
> only CCIE and CISSP imho...and I'm not that sure because I never got
> those two.
>
> Also, I'll echo Angelo to an extent...I've setup a few mail servers
> (actually one is just a front-end spam-catcher to an Exchange server)
> using Postfix, MailScanner + SpamAssassin + ClamAV, SPF, Rules du
> Jour, and MailWatch with great results.  It takes some rule tweaking
> to get the scoring just right to catch all spam properly and you might
> have to whitelist some folks who tend to send "spammy" e-mails or who
> have AOL accounts; but it works really well after a few weeks.
>
> Then again, I hear grey-listing works wonders and have considered
> implementing it on a few systems.  If I were setting up a new system,
> I'd probably add that to the mix.
>
> One last thing: yes, I think mail config can be a lot of fun.
> Frustrating, but fun.  Stay away from sendmail.  It's a great MTA but
> there are great MTAs out there that don't require a PhD in quantum
> theory to understand their configuration.
>
> Now go have fun.
>
> -Aaron
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