Switching…

As you might have noticed in the sidebar I’ve started writing the document that should enable you to create your own ISP in a box. The same way I have done it. Your new box will be able to host interactive website with Apache, PHP and MySQL, and function as a full blown secure mailserver for you and anyone you would like to give access. I’ve got hte basc server running on my internal network, the last thing to do is to setup the TLS part of the mail server with certificates to enable secure emailing and SSL access. Read prior post on other things done. The document is still in the early stages but feel free to read and comment on it.

I’ve been trying to get Postfix with IMAP folders working on my Mac mini for some time now. I even got to the point where I was willing to spend money on the Postfix Enabler just to get it working. But yesterday I found out why this isn’t going to work for me, it’s all about user authentication and management. It seems that Postfix and UW IMAP (the IMAP implementation from the Univesity of Washington) are build with Apple’s idea of user management. Which means that each user of my mail server must be created as an actual user on the Mac mini and can not be authorized or managed by a seperate administration.

I found this out while having a talk with Bernard Teo from CutEdgeSystems.com on if the postfix enabler supported virtual domains. Bernard was and is one of the fastest email responders I ever encountered when asking support on a piece of software, he responded within 5 minutes. He explained that, despite claims in several forums that it wouldn’t work, I could configure virtual domains with the Postfix enabler as long as each user on each domain had a seperate mailbox and that was not what I was looking for. I want mailboxes for as many users as it takes while having just one user enabled on my Mac. It’s going to be a web server for many small domains and I want to be able to handle the e-mail traffic for all those domains with a minimum of hassle like I have on my current Debian servers.

I now will start looking for the best place to get the source code for Postfix with installation and configuration help. I guess that now I’m going to compile it I will use all the other features I wanted to use from the beginning like MySQL support and for the Courier IMAP server , which in turn would mean that I can provide web based email services using SquirrelMail.

Wish me luck…

I’ve got my Mac now for more than a week and I’m delighted by the ease of use and the smooth transition from the PC world. My PC has been off for two days in a row now, which has been the longest period since years. I’ve found that most tasks can be done intuitivly but somehow you end up doing it the Microsoft way as you’ve always done, which will still work but it won’t be the most efficient way of doing things on the Mac.

As being new to the world of Apple one of the things you learn is following all the Apple news/rumour sites. One of them (MacWorld.com) is starting a series of features on Tiger (10.4) Tips and Tricks. Which are helpfull in discovering those things that make life with a Mac even better.

Another site worth mentioning on for tips and tricks on Tiger (OSX 10.4) is MacosxHints.com which maintains a list of all tips and tricks they found usefull on Tiger.

Well, here’s my first post on this new blog software, called WordPress, I installed today on my server. I hope to use it well to store information on what I’ve learned to switch from Sun and Windows to the wonderfull world of Mac OSX