postfix vs sendmail

[mohdfarah]

salam
I want to know which is more secure sendmail or postfix ,and if i have mail server that running with sendmail is it possible to run it with to convert it with postfix without losing user account which alrady exist ?and are the able to see there mail box which created by sendmail

[daverj]

I use postfix for the following reasons:
1) more secure than sendmail
2) it is modular
3) much, much easier to configure and maintain. None of that m4 macro crap
4) sendmail still does not support maildir mailboxes (to the best of my knowledge)

daverj

[wintersm]

Postfix is definatly better more secure and eaiser to configure, cant say about converting over as i have only used postfix for my mail servers, never sendmail..

[mohdfarah]

thk ,one more question?
is it possible to run it with squirrelmail ?and is there security problem with it ?

[wintersm]

Yes - works with squirrelmail - I suggest too, that you look for a IMAP server and a spam/virus scanning system to tie the lot together..

I use - postfix, cyrus-imapd, squirrelmail & Maia Mailguard, also have it all tied together with a postfix database and web-cyr-adm (but that gets more adavanced)..

[ccrvic]

Postfix is definatly better more secure and eaiser to configure

...And I would take the exact opposite tack. Sendmail is vey easy to configure. Postfix - well, I've never configured it successfully.

cant say about converting over as i have only used postfix for my mail servers, never sendmail..

I've used sendmail for all my production servers. I tried Postfix, but couldn't get it going in the way I wanted, so I switched back to sendmail. And everything was easy.

Vic.

[freddy94]

Dear mohdfarah,

salam

The answer to the question about which is more secure, sendmail or postfix, depends on a number of factors. Both of these MTA's have numerous configuration options, so there really isn't a simple, single answer to the question. It all depends on your configuration. Plus, the MTA will have to interact with other components on the network (firewall, router, etc.), so the answer is even more complicated.

With that said, I currently prefer postfix. I have run many versions of sendmail and postfix over the years. I find the configuration of postfix to be more straightforward. The availablity of many other software components (as others have mentioned) is a big plus for postfix.

As for the conversion from sendmail to postfix, there is no utility that I'm aware of. However, your users would connect to a POP3, IMAP, or similar server to read their email. So the trick is to get postfix to store incoming smtp messages in the same format (mbox, maildir, etc.).

Here is a thread that might be useful:

http://groups.google.com/group/maili...05bb83f27aa859

YMMV...Fred

[a thing]

Postfix is easier to configure. However, it still isn't easy to configure!

[mohdfarah]

but i heard that sendmail has vulnerability to some attack like DoS ? is it

[JB80]

I'm going to throw my 2 cents in here for what it's worth (probably not much). Which is more secure? The edge would have to go to postfix for the moment, however, the security problems that sendmail has had, have been blown way out of proportion. When postfix has as much time and use under it's belt as sendmail has had, we'll see just how well it stacks up. As for the configuration, sendmail is a "configure it once, and leave it the hell alone" application, whereas postfix might be easier up front but you'll be spending a ton of time in vi trying to figure out the 12,000 options you need to make it behave like sendmail does out of the box.

[ccrvic]

but i heard that sendmail has vulnerability to some attack like DoS ? is it

*Any* application that accepts connections is vulnerable to DoS. But it's very unlikely that you will become the target of a mailbomb - and if you do, your MTA (whether sendmail of postfix)will typically just slow down (while it does its stuff), rather than falling over.

The one mailer I really would avoid, though, is Exim. I've set up an exim mailer this week, and it was not exactly the world's most pleasant experience.

Vic.

[ccrvic]

As for the configuration, sendmail is a "configure it once, and leave it the hell alone" application

Errr - my sendmail config changes frequently. It really is very, very simple as long as you use the .mc file, rather than the .cf...

Vic.