Paging net techies.

In order to ramp up my anti spam efforts I am considering using one of
my old boxes as a mail server and moving the load there. I can do this
in *nix or windows and I ain't really bothered which although *nix seems
the more sensible but I would like suggestions as to free software to do
it with. Also some ideas about tools to allow me to remote manage via
my house net and avoid switch boxes for monitors and keyboards and shit.

 

http://www.sendmail.org/
http://spamassassin.apache.org/
http://www.openssh.com/

D.

 

Spamassassin for spam, clamav for antivirus, VNC for GUI remote
control, Putty for SSH.

 

I recommend SpamAssassin also. You'll need a modern version of perl, and
will likely want to keep on top of the updates (which I don't have time
for lately).

 

In order to ramp up my anti spam efforts

I removed almost all of my spam using GMail.

My mail server simply forwards all of my mail to my GMail account and then I
POP3 to it all on GMail, minus the spam.

Easy and free.

 

Load? From spam filtering? What on earth are you doing with it?

Install VMWare Server, create a virtual machine, whack Linux (eg. Fedora
7) on it with SpamAssassin and its ilk, manage via virtual console or
SSH (Putty). Nail the priority down so it won't chew up CPU when you've
got better things to do and you'll save a PC's worth of juice on your
leccy bill compared to powering up another machine.

 

Filtering sorting and sending out three or four copies of the original
spam that I get in to various reporting agencies with tools that are not
designed to deal with thousands a day. It don't help when I want a
slice of the processor time for watching streaming porn with either.

<googles>

That looks like a plan.

It starts coming apart here. I don't need 99% of spamassassin. In fact
if I am honest about all I need are simple filters[1], forwarding and a
bit of database. I could probably do most of it with awk or sed and
sendmail.

Is this the name of a windows application?

Hmmm. It actually sounds basic enough for me to do it. What is the
catch?

[1] I don't really need anything more than header filtering for
99.something% of all the spam I get as it is to non-existent users and
is automatically[2] spam and can go straight to spamcop with no further
ado. Simple filters such as if "Barclays" in the reply field make
identifying the secondary destinations a breeze also. Not complicated
at all and the word Bayesian never need come into it.


[2] Stuff to my live accounts is low enough volume that a white list and
a mark one eyeball is good enough.

 

No, it's the part of VMWare Server that allows you to attach to the
console of the virtual machine. The VM can run headless pretty much all
the time, but if you need GUI access, you can fire up the console app
and you have a window on your desktop that's equivalent to sitting at
the console of a real machine.

So long as you have enough memory in the host machine (the one running
VMWare, rather than the guest VM running inside VMWare) there isn't one,
really. I used to have two machines running in my flat, one windows box
for media stuff and a headless linux box behind the sofa running as a
server for email, websites, etc. A month or so ago I created a VM,
installed Fedora and migrated settings/data/IPs/etc over from the linux
box to the linux VM. Exactly the same functionality, lower electricity
bill.

The only downer is when the host OS needs a reboot for some reason. I
run it on Windows, so patch tuesday can be a bit of a bugger.
Fortunately it's possible to pause the VM, so I pop the console up,
click the pause button, reboot the host, click the play button, and the
VM comes up exactly where it left off, even with all TCP sessions open
so no remote users get booted off.

Virtualisation. It's /so/ zeitgeisty it hurts.

 

why not run the windows in a vm too then? host it on a debian that never
needs rebooting ever[1].

[1] well, openbsd would be better, but vmware only runs on windows xp/2000
or linux

 

Because, cunningly, I don't have an install CD for a version of XP that
matches the serial for that box. I'd also rather have Windows able to
talk natively to all the hardware and not use an abstraction layer, as I
occasionally plug some odd (read: el-cheapo freeview dongle) hardware
into it and I dread to think what Debian would make of that.

For something which doesn't require fancy hardware support, a VM is
great, hence why I have a self-contained linux box running as the guest.

 

There are quite a few mail-appliance linux distros about which simplify
the whole thing. I haven't played with any of them being an old-school
unix wierdy-beardy type with a mail servers thats been up and running
for the last 15 years but google for 'linux mail appliance' or some
variant on that and have a play.

Some of them even have point 'n drool web front ends[1].

Phil.

[1] Burn the heretic! If command-line was good enough for the
Elizabethans it's good enough for me!

 

Indeed it does. Especially as VMWare themselves have a number of
pre-made mail appliance images that you can play with.

You can disable it...

Or linux. It's the VMWare app for managing VMWare sessions.

If you want a permanent hardware firewall with anti-spam & antivirus
capability (albeit with an annual cost for the anti-virus license) you
could do a lot worse than Astaro linux..

Phil.

 

Youi'll want to leave the machine on all the time so you'll want low
power consumption and low/zero noise.

The NSLU2 can be hacked to run everything you'll need.
'Unsling it to a 512Mb flash drive (No moving parts)
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Main/HomePage
or
http://wiki.arslinux.com/Unslung_on_the_NSLU2
then
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/HowTo/SetUpAnEmailServer2

 

P2V converter. Make a VM out of your physical computer.

Ah.

 

You ain't ever installed Vm have you? I can tell you know. it is not
quite the easy peasy piece of piss that oggers implies.

Frankly, having been to the Fedora web site and wasted 4 hours of my
life in the early hours of this morning doing battle with what they
probably feel is a logical and easily usable layout and format I am
inclined to say that set against the difficulties they put before you
anything would be better than that particular piece of freeware.

The decision remains to be made whether to press on down that route and
use the knowledge gained thus far or start afresh with another distro of
unknown embuggeration quotient.

 

and thus it starts.

 

Huh?

Run the setup program, bit of rebooting, create the virtual machine.
tis a portion of piddle.

Double huh?

I just go to

ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/
linux/releases/7/Fedora/i386/iso

Grab the DVD Iso, mount it under vmware and shazam.. let's install!

 

Well yes in a sense, If you ignore the fact that you have to go through
two separate yet very similar registration processes somewhere on a web
site that does not make navigation as simple as "here is the link you
need to do this very thing" just to get the unlock key and the links to
these two different pages are only to be found after very careful
reading of lots of stuff that I really didn't want to be arsed to read
when all I wanted was to use the free software I had just downloaded.

Mind you the minute I saw the words perl and python in the literature I
knew it was all hung together by folks with no grasp of reality even
when functioning without the aid of mind altering drugs.

It was no real surprise either that it didn't seem very happy that I
hadn't got XP Server as my os and consequently didn't install chunks but
it will later if I install M$ MIIS and turn it on. Whatever that is.

Somewhere, I haven't managed to relocate it yet, I recall seeing dire
warnings about repartioning disks before proceeding with one or other of
the stages. Having had experience of cocking up this kind of shit
before I am eager to get it right and frustrated at being unable to
locate the article again.

Maybe if, as I suspect you lot do, you have M$ Enterprise Newsletter in
your book of the month club subscription it is easier but it is a
fucking nightmare for some old codger with only the barest understanding
of how windows hangs together and rather dated *nix skills waiting to
have the dust shaken off.

I haven't seen any way of being able to mount it directly from the hard
drive file but they do offer lots of advice as to how to first burn it
to an autoboot DVD or collection of CD's. DVD, yes I have loads of
those but my bought and paid for DVD writing software is not reinstalled
on this machine and in order to install it I have to refit some hardware
and before I do that I have to upgrade the power supply and that takes
money.

Fedora do suggest a number of DVD writing programmes, all of them
requiring money to use.

Maybe if you have done it a few times it looks easy but for the first
time round the loop it is huge, disjointed and really rather confusing.

I am not finished with it yet but I am disappointed that the
Freeware/linux community still seem to be trying the best they possibly
can to shoot themselves in both feet by making it just plain fucking
fiddle arse unnecessary hard to get a solution running without fuss.

 

What are you waffling about, old man? Perl? Python?

Just download the VMWare Server installer, register for a key (if you
need one, I can't remember, but either way it's free), install, reboot,
create a VM, download the linux distro install dvd image, mount that as
the cd drive, and from there on it's exactly like installing on a real
machine.

XP Server? Whatchoo talkin bout willis?

Eh? Repartitioning disks? The VM host uses simple files as virtual disk
images, and the VM guest OS sees those as physical disks. There's no
repartitioning of your host machine required.

VM > Settings > CD-ROM (and if you're using Fedora, set the CD-ROM
virtual device node to be SCSI, not IDE) > Use ISO image. Then tell it
where the ISO image is and bob's your mother's brother.

If you're on MSN, and I can find some free time that tallies with yours,
I'll happily walk you through setting up your first VM. Everything after
that is just like using a real machine, but without the arse ache of
real hardware.

 

Done all that.

Not sure how to do this other than to a disk.

Dunno. I use Windows, I don't know **** all about it nor do I want to
but the implication on the VM website is that you need full on XP to get
anything approaching full functionality.

Maybe it was Fedora, I had to do a lot of browsing I didn't want to be
doing to get at the basic information.

I'll check this out.

Time is something I am not too sure about. I suppose this is as good a
time as any to get this of my chest but I have to tell the group
something rather embarrassing about myself and what is happening with me
right now. Demeaning I know but as of Friday I have a job. I will
understand if you all stop talking to me and stuff and won't hold it
against you but I felt is was right thing for me to do.