There are one too many options when it comes to using a Unix Email Gateway. Some complicated to install and manage, and some do not provide all the needed features. Hands-down MailScanner is one of the best Anti-SPAM engines out there. But it does not have a built-in web GUI. There is one web GUI available for people who want to check out MailScanner in its true form, MailWatch. But even Mailwatch leaves a lot to be desired out of a SPAM interface and end-user interface. Before you Mailwatch fans flame me out, I will admit that Mailwatch has been the leading UI to work MailScanner, and I personally used it for a long time, i.e., before I laid my hands on MAILCLEANER.
MAILCLEANER is simply one of the best open-source SPAM gateways available out there. It is offered as a complete solution. Its an out-of-the-box solution, that can be used as a virtual image or installed on to a server. The author of MailCleaner does a good job of answering questions on the forums, though the updates are not as often as you would like them to be.
You can download the install set from the product’s main open-source site MailCleaner. If you can afford it, the author also has a commercial offering here.
As known universally, its never a good idea to expose your organization’s primary email server to the Internet directly. Yes, even if its just port 25. ‘cause if you ever become the victim of a comprise which results in a Denial-Of-Service of the server or the server crashes, then:
a) incoming email capability is lost (no incoming emails/communication, from clients, vendors, customers and prospects)
b) outgoing email capability is lost (no outgoing emails/communication to clients, vendors, customers and prospects)
c) all internal email communication is also lost.
A typical deployment scenario for this would be like below:
OR
Yes, MailCleaner can only be used as an incoming email/SPAM gateway, which is adequate and suffices most of the small/medium size business requirements.
Installation is pretty straight forward, pop the CD in and boot.
Selecting the highlighted option will erase all disks on your system and install Mailcleaner. The installation itself is completely automated, and requires no user interaction. Once the distribution is installed, you can login using the default credentials below:
user: root
passwd: def
As always it is highly advisable to change the default password immediately on login. You can change that using the command below:
# passwd
After you change the password, the first thing you want to do is change the keymap, ‘cause the default keymap for MailCleaner is French. This could get tricky ‘cause the “/” key is located above “7”. So if you wanted to type in a forward slash “/”, then you would type in “Shift +7”. Also the keys for “y” and “z” are interchanged, in the french layout.
To change the keymap you have to issue the command below (for US keymap):
# loadkeys /usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty/us.kmap.gz
remember to use “Shift+7” for “/” and “z” for “y” and “y” for “z”
To make this change permanent, you have to copy the file /etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz as below:
# cp /usr/shar/keymaps/i386/qwerty/us.kmap.gz /etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz
The default IP address of MailCleaner is as below:
to change the default IP and assign your own static IP (Yes, you should assign it a static address, assigning a DHCP is a bad bad idea), you have two options
i) run the ip_configurator script in the system as below:
# /root/bin/ip_configurator
ii)you have to edit /etc/network/interfaces file and change the entries. To do that type in the below command:
# nano /etc/network/interfaces
Now you are ready to run the MailCleaner install set. To start the installation type in the below command, and follow through the various prompts. Defaults will suffice for the most part. You may customize it if you choose:
# /root/mailcleaner_install.sh
Host ID has to be “1” if this is the first mailcleaner server in the network. And the final option
“process with an interactive installation (y/N): N
The answer should be “N” for first time installers, otherwise you will get errors and the installation will fail. After answering “N”, mailcleaner install script will go ahead and build a bunch of modules and dependencies. This will take a while depending on your system. One done. go ahead and visit the webpage of mailcleaner
/admin">/admin">http://<hostname>/admin
or
/admin">/admin">http://<IPaddressOfYourMailcleanerServer>/admin and login using the admin account and the password you configured in the previous install step
Configuration aspects of MailCleaner coming up soon…….
