Web based E-Mail

[Peter Verhagen]

I here Courier Imap is a really good "all in one" solution (although I don't
use it myself) http://courier.sourceforge.net/.

I've set up the St. Albert Public Library's web based email running on
Sendmail - http://www.sendmail.org, Apache - http://httpd.apache.org/, that
is already compiled in OpenBSD - http://www.openbsd.org/.

>From their ports collection I've installed wu-imap (not the safest imap
server in the world, but easy to install) - http://www.washington.edu/imap/,
PHP - http://www.php.net as the server side scripting language, and
Squirrelmail - http://www.squirrelmail.org/ as the web-based front end to
email.
Should you choose a similar setup to SAPL's, make sure you reasonable
hardware for your machine. I Originally had it running on a Compaq Pentium
90 SCSI - and the whole setup was really slow. At the beginning of this year
I built a stardard workstation PC - leftover parts from a web server
upgrade: Athlon 800, 512Megs of RAM & 7200rpm hard drive - what a Difference
in speed!!!

One of the nice things about IMAP is that bit of text and attachments is
stored on the email server itself, and if an attachment contains a virus you
can delete the message and the attachment without it ever reaching your
workstations. Of course, keep the browsers up to date and you shouldn't have
to worry too much HTML/Javascript/vbs embedded viruses.

Security - things you could do: If you have any server/service at all, place
it on it's own subnet or "DMZ", even out on the internet, its better there
that than having a breach of your web server as it sits on your own internal
network. Research or pick a "secure" OS, even lock down your favorite.
Disable services you won't use, because those are the services likely broken
into.

You could also offer email access over https (http secure, port 443)
although there would be extra steps involved and perhaps some money for a
SSL certificate.

Have fun!

Peter Verhagen
Systems Administrator
St. Albert Public Library

> We are currently using Pine for staff email for most of our staff.  We
> are  considering moving to Web-based email for all of our staff, and I
> just  wanted to see if other libraries who have made that transition
> have  encountered any problems or issues that we should be aware of.
> We are  especially concerned about the risk of viruses and the security
> risks  involved in allowing staff to access the Web-based email from
> outside of  the library.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric Holt
> Manager, Computer and Network Services
> Central Arkansas Library System