[H-GEN] web based email server

[Raymond Smith]

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Hi Johann,

On Mon, 29 Jan 2001, Johann Kwiatkowski wrote:
>         a simple question, can anyone recommend a web based email
> server? I am currently running redhat 6.2, but I'm not too fussed if I
> need to change distro's as I am thinking of rearranging things soon
> anyway,

This topic was discussed recently on the SAGE-AU mailing list. I've
included the summary in this mail.

HTH,

Raymond

----- cut -----

>From samj at faredge.com.au Tue Jan 30 11:35:37 2001
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 04:00:01 +1100
From: Sam Johnston <samj at faredge.com.au>
To: sage-au at sage-au.org.au
Subject: [SAGE-AU] SUMMARY: Webmail
Resent-Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 11:33:13 +1000 (EST)
Resent-From: Raymond Smith <rms at ooc.com.au>
Resent-To: raymond at humbug.org.au
Resent-Subject: [SAGE-AU] SUMMARY: Webmail

Thanks to everyone who replied - it seems there's a lot more products out
there than I thought! I was after a free one, mainly so I have the source
for tweaking, so that narrows it down somewhat. I've had at least a quick
look at each of these.

  - Twig looks impressive in that it does contacts, schedules, todos, etc.
but that is beyond the requirements for this job so I was more interested
in a nice friendly interface.

  - IMP looked good too, but the newer version is in heavy development and
has some of the nice features I was after.

  - Squirrelmail on the other hand has gone into PR3 and should be released
'stable' shortly. I'm running PR3 and am having no problems whatsoever. It
has a plugin interface too, and a handful of reasonably useful plugins
written for it already. I installed a spell checker, quicksave (so you
don't lose messages you're composing when you switch views), password
forget for making the username/password fields random thus confusing
netscape/ie into forgetting saved passwords, and an ldap client for
pre-filling a users' preferences when they first log on. It has an
attractive interface and talks LDAP. Folder handling functions are good and
it is very configurable (field orders, themes, message highlighting, etc).

It runs with PHP4, and I've got it sitting on a debian box running apache
1.3.14, mod_ssl and mod_php with little effort. the install is (almost) as
simple as extracting the tarball, and the command line configuration tool
is simple yet powerful.

If this is not what you need then no doubt you'll find something more
interesting below.

  - samj

================
Communigate Pro
http://www.stalker.com/

MailStudio
http://3rsoft.com
================
...along the same line, I am evaluating MailStudio... appreciate any
comments. It runs on Linux, Solaris.. etc

here are the links
www.mailstudio.com
www.3rsoft.com
================
http://www.cru.fr/http-mail/

If you go to the above URL they will have a review of most web mail agents.

At uow we use IMHO which is a module for Roxen WebServer's. It is OK
however it has a few bugs..

http://www.its.monash.edu.au/services/flt/projects/requirements.shtml

Has a series of mailers they looked at.

Hope it helps
================
IMP does LDAP as well.

Check out twig and squirrelmail as well.

[A small plug - the e-smith server and gateway version 4.1 out Real Soon
Now will come with IMP installed and configured, with SSL, straight out of
the box.]
================
Very impressed with obsidian systems offer..

Called OCSweb at http://www.obsidian.co.za/

and it comes at the right price.. (free)
================
TWIG is quite good, based on IMAP and PHP. http://twig.screwdriver.net/
================
I've currently got squirrelmail installed on a server that I am
running for a friend of mine. Just requires PHP4 and Imap.

Have also heard good reviews on Imp and Basilix
================
Have to say Squirrelmail makes me happy.

Works well, nice and fast, no stuffing around with compiling in
IMAP support to PHP4, it just uses sockets and they wrote their own
IMAP stuff.

I used to use Horde/IMP at home, and the setup and stuff annoyed heck out
of me.
IT also makes use of a sql database if you want, for address books and stuff..
Useless unless you can use it for something else really...

Squirellmail was easy and seems to be nice and stable.
Dunno about LDAP address books, I don't use them, so it wasn't
a condition of me testing the software :)
================
What about Neomail (http://neomail.sourceforge.net/), I used it, but did not
install/configure it. It looks good.
================
I'm using Horde/Imp - and it's good.  As you are probably aware it's based on
PHP and IMAP.  I'm not sure about LDAP address books, but it is pretty easy to
add features, I have made a number of significant changes to my 'webmail' site
to support virtual domains and the like.

One thing you may wish to do is either run it over SSL or make some changes to
the system so that your users log in using a non-unix password.  Just for added
security.
================
You didn't specify if you'll consider commercial products. Most of the
good free ones have already been suggested. On the commercial side you
can look into:

         software.com Webedge
         iPlanet Messaging Server 4.15p3

If you want to run (cringe) Windows NT there's Infinite Interchange.
================
Likewise Squirrelmail (http://www.squirrelmail.org/) which is also
IMAP and PHP3.  Doesn't do LDAP at the moment, but has a good
pluggin system, so I can't see it being too hard to add.
================
Well, we use imp, and LDAP based address books. See the webmail at
www.ekit.com (you'll need to create a free account).



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