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I have my own email server, running in a VM under Xen. I want to setup another Xen VM with a web mail system, to let my users access their mail from a web browser.

I want to use Debian Stable, which right now is Debian 5.0 Lenny, for the VM. I also want all my software to be free, open source software.

What is the best webmail system? It seems that the most popular one is Squirrelmail. Should I just use that? Are there any other webmail systems out there that might be better/more secure?

My plan is to configure the webmail to use secure IMAP (over SSH, on port 993) to talk to the mail server. This is so that, if someone manages to crack the webmail server, they will have less of an easy time to attack the mail server. But I guess the main worry would be if an attacker just modifies the webmail system to collect passwords, so perhaps this is pointless and I should just have the webmail talk to the mail server over plain IMAP. (Hmmm, mental note: must post a question about intrusion detection.)

Any other advice on setting up a webmail system would be gratefully accepted.

steveha
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7 Answers7

13
aptitude install roundcube

http://packages.debian.org/lenny-backports/roundcube

ThorstenS
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1

I'm using squirrelmail. It's pretty small and easy to configure.

The "best" solution depends on your needs and personal taste ;-)

aptitude install squirrelmail

and here the website of the project: http://squirrelmail.org/

grub
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1

I remember researching this a little some years ago.

If you use Courier for your MTA, which means maildir storage, you could use SqWebMail. This is not SquirrelMail, it is Courier's own webmail client. The advantage of SqWebMail is that you don't need to turn IMAP on because it plays directly in the maildir storage. However, it's really quite a plain client. I eventually got tired of it.

What I use now is caleld IlohaMail. It connects using IMAP and is quite bandwidth friendly. It's not as fancy as RoundCube or SquirrelMail, but it may still appeal to you.

staticsan
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0

I'm agree with roundcubemail proposal but I advice you to install manually (for instance follows instruction on http://qmailrocks.thibs.com/roundcubemail.php)

0

SquirrelMail is popular - Not sure about "best".

The term "best" is subjective and depends on what feature(s) are important to YOU.

That being said... yes... Squirrelmail is very popular.

http://www.squirrelmail.org

You can also install it easily using aptitude:

aptitude install squirrelmail

I'm sure everyone on here has their "favorites" so perhaps a little post as to WHY people like their choice is appropriate.

I know a lot of people like Squirrelmail because its popular, has a lot of community support, and the look/feel is quite customizable.

Chris S
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KPWINC
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0

The two that come to mind are Zimbra ( http://www.zimbra.com/downloads/os-downloads.html ) which already has binaries for Debain 5. Also there is Horde, which I have admin'ed to and I really liked. There is an outline for Horde for Debain 4 ( http://howto.landure.fr/gnu-linux/debian-4-0-etch-en/install-horde-groupware-webmail-edition-on-debian-4-0-etch )

Both are very full featured but Zimbra seems to have a very large and active group of people behind it where Horde was a a bit of a pain to configure (this was 4 years ago though).

Hope this helps.

user25842
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you can try on following link for small setup it work well

http://www.howtoforge.com/set-up-a-full-featured-mail-server-with-iredos-mysql-postfix-dovecot-clamav-spamassassin-roundcube-squirrelmail

Rajat
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