Re: Email on the Iseries or not

[David Gibbs <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nathan Andelin wrote:
> When you enter the world of email hosting, be aware
> that your server seemingly automatically becomes the
> target of malicious spam related attacks, daily.  Also
> watch out for people wanting to use your server for
> mail relay.

This one major argument for NOT using the iSeries as a mail server.

Internet attacks (spam, viruses, etc) are mutating & changing on a daily
basis.  Having a (relatively) simple linux system doing your mail
serving provides you with a number of benefits...

1. A wide range of FREE (and well supported) tools to defend against
spam, viruses, etc.  midrange.com uses SpamAssassin and greylisting for
anti-spam & Clamav for antivirus.  Both tools are open source, quite
robust, and well maintained.

2. Generally speaking, an iSeries is going to be a mission critical
system and should *NOT* be exposed to the harsh environment of the
Internet.  Using a simple linux system as your gateway to the internet
protects important resources.  Even if you don't expose critical
information to the internet, the resource drain could cause you serious
problems.  Additionally, if something goes horribly wrong with your
linux system, you have the option of just shutting it off to stop
whatever is happening.  Few organizations can just 'shut off' their iSeries.

Even if you wanted to use Domino or the iSeries as the back end email
server ... I would still recommend putting a mail server firewall system
in front of it to protect critical resources.

david