Thinking of setting up a email server? Thinking of doing it without the huge cost of getting a Windows server? Scared of telling your boss that the Microsoft Exchange Software will cost several thousand of dollars and it doesn’t allow you to have 200 users? Worried that without the costly anti-virus and anti-spam system, your IT department will be swamped with tech calls from angry staff? Nervous about setting up a Linux system when you do not have any experience with Linux itself? Well, you are saved! Yes, there is Qmail Toaster available for you and me.

This package depositary supports a variety of features for anyone thinking of setting up a Linux Server. You just need to download CentOS or Fedora Core or Mandriva or SuSE Linux and install it. If you can’t install these distros, you shouldn’t be administrating an email server. And after you have installed the OS, you just need to follow a few simple instructions and you are done. If you are even lazier, they have a script for you too. So just run the script and you are ready to setup your first Linux email server. Isn’t it wonderful?

The features include having a anti-spam and anti-virus email scanning system (Spam Assassin and ClamAV), supports virtual domains, allows web-based email access and administration, supports industry wide authentication, allows mailing lists, supports POP access and security features for emails like SPF, DKIM and so on. And everything is based on the popular MTA Qmail, just only easier. Best of all, it’s free. Your boss will be impressed. You just need to make sure everything is working properly first before you try to impress him/her.

I have been using this software (SpamPal) for over 2 years now and it has gotten me what I need - a way to filter out the email spam. Well, yes, this is something my email host (that’s my ISP) should have done for me, but somehow they want like S$10 per month to do that. And I heard that the service is not reliable, with a lot of spam still being allowed through. So I went ahead and found this gem. It sits between your email server and email client. It then downloads the emails for you and then filters it according to blacklists (DNSBL lists) and whatever, and then tags any email found to be “spammy”. You can then use your email client to filter them out by setting up rules.

I have to say, Spam Pal really works. Sure, it is not prefect. But then, what is? I have never seen any “prefect” solution to the spam problem. Even my office’s supposedly “fool-proof” spam filter which cost like several thousand per year to setup, still lets spam in and worse, they block legitimate emails too. At least, Spam Pal is free, easily configurable and works with any email client (Outlook Express and all others) but only if you are using POP3 (Or IMAP) to retrieve your mails. It doesn’t work with Hotmail or other web-based email services.

So, if you are having problems with spam and your ISP won’t help (or charge you a head and a toe for it), then try Spam Pal. Just install it, do the necessary changes to your incoming email server settings and username, and let Spam Pal filter the spam for you. Of course, you then need to set up rules to send any tagged mails to a certain folder. That’s it. All done and you get the emails you need without the crap. It is for Windows only but supports a variety of languages.

Well, this is a question post by someone in the Digitalpoint forums and we get all sorts of answers like good source of backlinks and all the good stuff. Sure, perhaps some of them are true but we all know what the truth is, right? The real reason why there are so many directories is because the world is full of people like me. We think that everyone else is stupid enough to pay us a lot of money for us to link to them. And thus, we start directories, all in the hopes that there are rich millionaires willing to pay a fortune and even do the work of submission for us. We install a directory script, buy a nice little template and they pay, then write their own description and we in turn just click on the “approve” button and our paypal accounts will be full. Easy work. I mean, really, nearly every other sites requires a lot of hardwork to set it up and continue to build, but not directories. People will do the work for you and you get paid in the process.

And that’s why there are so many directories. And the crazy thing is that people tend to follow what others are doing. The craze now is owning a directory, and a lot of sites are integrating directories into their main site too. I mean, why not? It’s isn’t so tough to maintain a directory.

The best question is why are there so few good and worthwhile directories? Ironically, the answer is the same. The world is full of punks like me, and we feel faint when we need to do some real work. Hopefully, we will see a change in the web directory industry. As this market gets more mature and the crap directories die out and people get smarter, we could see the real importance of web directories. I don’t see any real improvement in Search Engines, nor will it happen in the near future, so at least directories still have a hope to be relevant in the Internet. But only time will tell.

Found a very interesting site, it’s called Quick Buck Crew Site. Well, what this little crazy site does is to expose websites that simply tries to make trick or cheat their customers of their hard earned money. We are talking about scammers here, who takes your money and then run off into the night. It has a blacklist of such sites which visitors can come and check whether someone (or a site) is a cheater or scammer. They have a QBC (Quick Buck Crew) Wall of Shame thingy you can look out for.

Please note that this site is an opinion of one person, not really a true blacklist at all. And most of the information is gathered from Digitalpoint forums. Although this forum is pretty big, it is still highly opinionated and can be rather one-sided so you should be careful. This kind of forum is full of scammers too. I myself don’t always trust what the crowd in Digitalpoint forums say, and you should always do your own research too.

Anyway, if you are planning to pay for a service, it is always better to do your own research and seek out the opinion of different groups of people. You should not depend on a certain type of people, especially if that “type” tends to be “follow the wind” kind. You will never get an accurate review. And if you read Digitalpoint forums carefully, you will realize that they tend to sway one side. Just check out the directories subforum. Just too full of ass-kissers and sheeps who simply just agrees everything with the crowd. Actually, it is kind of sad to see such people in a “technical” forum.

Being a generous person, I have created a list of free DNS host on the Internet. Anyone looking for a free DNS host should start looking from this list. This comes from my little research on my email server project which I have to either get DNS hosting from my ISP or use a third party DNS host. I choose to use a third party DNS hosting. Why? Because it is more responsive than the DNS hosting from my ISP. I really don’t trust my ISP, especially from the huge number of downtimes they keep having.

Anyway, most DNS host should be reliable. I have tried using several of them and none has failed me yet. Although I have to admit, I have only been using third party DNS hosting (not my webhost’s DNS) for a few months only. Still, I have seen claims of free DNS host having no downtime on their entire network. Not sure whether it is true or not, but I think it is credible enough, since DNS hosting is not really a resource hungry process. However, I have seen a few free DNS host shuting down but this is most likely a commercial decision than anything else.

Is it surprising that you see domain registrars offering webhosting/email hosting, but not many of them offer DNS hosting. I don’t know why. I think that all domain registrars should offer their customers the option of DNS hosting as this makes change of webhost a faster and smoother process. I know that DNS hosting is not really a big money making thing like webhosting and most people don’t care/know about DNS hosting at all, but hey, basics first baby, basics first.

Yes, I got bored and decided to write an article/guide/walkthrough of how to setup an email server. Well, actually recently I just setup one and I hope to use my experience to help others who are thinking of setting up an email server for their own use or for their company. It’s surprisingly easy to do but there are bits and pieces which need to be resolved first before the server can actually be considered properly setup.

In my opinion, setting up a mail server in your home is not a practical one. Especially if you rely on your emails for communication. It is better to get a “professional” email provider to host your mails for you. But what this is good is for experience. You will learn a lot from actually setting up the mail server then from reading what others do. You can see that there are a lot more than just building a server and installing a few pieces of software. Heck, I learned more in one week on DNS setup than what the learned from about 2 years of being a webmaster. I didn’t even know or cared about PTR or SPF records before, now I know why it is important.

So here it goes, my little article on how to setup an email server.

Please note that this little article is not exhaustive, there may be some holes or errors in it. So please if you find any mistakes or errors, tell me so that I can correct it. And if you have anything to add to this guide, you should also inform me.

Sender Policy Framework is a authentication system for emails. What this “framework” does it to “validate” the sending server domain name (as recorded at EHLO) and the email return address of that particular email (like me@domain.com). If both are the same or (the SPF record has the domain recorded as the sender), then the mail is accepted. It is to stop people from spoofing the return email address. The idea seems sound to me, because unless spammers have control over the mail server’s published DNS records, they can’t spoof it.

But is it really effective? In theory is it good but is it practical? Looking at the number of domains some webhost has under their belt, it would be almost impossible to keep track and to publish these records to their NameServers. Thus, I am sure that a lot of Webhosts and ISPs do not have SPF records and will not be doing it anytime soon. So unless there is a lot of support for SPF, mail administrators can’t be using SPF to authenticate mails because if they do, a lot of legitimate mails will be rejected or tagged as spam.

Microsoft’s Sender ID (actually taken from SPF) is a slight upgrade from Sender Policy Framework. However, it has lost so many supporters than it is no longer relevant and I believe it will soon fade into whatever hole Microsoft lives in, even worse than SPF itself.

Did someone say PTR records? Reverse DNS lookup? Yes, this will help and it is a good way to ensure that the mail server is what it claims itself to be. But again, is it practical? Doing reverse DNS is time consuming, and for organizations and ISPs with tons of emails, doing reverse DNS will probably make everything become like what you see in the Matrix Movies - “bullet” time. Yes, caching the requests will improve the speed for some, but for most (and less popular domain names), it is useless. However, it is my opinion that using reverse DNS lookup is the best way. Making sure that the SMTP server is what it claims to be and then using this information to confirm whether a server is sending spam provides a solid protection against spammers and spam relays.

From what I can see, a lot of servers still do not implement reverse DNS check for any SMTP request. Sad, but it looks like Spam will continue to work it’s way to you and me.

Well, not really true. What I mean is that I have taken a free theme and use it on this blog. So what do you guys think of it? It’s really a simple theme, without any bells and whistles. But it looks great right? I am a sucker for simple designs, and although it is not much different from our original theme (which was the default of Wordpress), I find it very suitable for our purposes. One important thing is that it is light weight, which is good for a site which is a shared host. Yes, yes, I am a cheapskate but hey, I don’t earn anything from this. I tried it with Internet Explorer and Firefox, both render the blog without any problems. If you are using Opera or other browsers, please check whether there are any rendering problems with your browser.

The only problem I see for this theme is that the title (logo) is way too top. It looks better if it is slightly lower than it is now. Perhaps I should get off my big fat ass and start doing something about the theme? Na, too lazy. I will definitely need more motivation than that. I will be adding Google adsense at the same time too. Any recommendations would be helpful.

If you have any comments about the new theme, please comment here. The author of this theme has some real skill in web design. Simple and elegant design is the best way to go and it never fails to impress (especially me). The designer is Azeem Azeez and the name of the theme is White As Milk, just like my ass.

I actually never expected myself to change the theme for this blog. But after reading some SEO blogs and forums which says that most blogs with the default themes are mostly “spblogs” which means Spam Blogs or useless blogs which are link farms! And in order to avoid people who thinks that this site is such, it is better to change the theme. So I did and here we are.

Yes, soon I will be going to be jobless and living on financial handouts from my government. Wait, they don’t give any financial handouts, those selfish greedy bastards! My company has some financial problems and will most likely be retrenching some workers. I, being one of the most useless and disposable ones, will most likely be retrenched and kicked out first. Well, I understand that part. It’s inevitable that such things happen, even if it is out of my control. We sometimes have to pay for the mistakes our bosses made. That’s what I call life. The only thing we can do is to get up and start all over again. I don’t expect to stay in one place all the time, neither do I expect what Singaporeans call it an “iron rice bowl”.

But now comes the most important part - what am I going to do with so much spare time in my hands? I am thinking of building a raft and sailing to the big open sea and fishing. What’s more relaxing than that eh? Spending hours in a raft, not doing anything but fishing (and getting bitten by mosquitoes) and then showing off my catch to others? Arggghhh…matey. I am also thinking of growing roses in my “garden”. Yes, I am living in an apartment but growing roses requires just a small area, sunlight(Singapore has a lot of that) and some skill with plants. I have that green touch which I am sure will help me succeed in getting the most beautiful roses. Maybe I can then sell them roses as a sideline? Think of the demand for Roses during Valentine’s Day!

Or I could just continue doing what I am doing now, just a lot more. I mean, I usually spend like 2-3 hours per day on my websites, but now, I can spend like the entire day building my sites! I wonder how will it look if I have that kind of time in my hands. What do you guys think? Should I go “pro” with my sites? Can I do it? Or will I be living on financial assistance for the rest of my life?

it has more of my webpages in supplemental than in the actual index. I kid you not. I was doing some research on the performance of my directory and I found out this interesting thing, the pages in the normal index (which supposedly includes the supplemental) is less than the number of pages in the supplemental index! I must really have pissed off a lot of Google Engineers and their war-hounds . Please take a look at the screenshots taken at around the same time.

Normal Search: 3230 results

Supplemental Index Search: 3240 results!

Nice huh? Who out there can say that they have more pages in supplemental than the pages in the normal index? Does it defy physics and whatever laws? Yes, it does but that doesn’t bother Google at all. I guess this is what I deserve for making fun of Google and their brilliant and innovative engineers who has worked so hard to make the Internet what it is today - no different from 5 years ago except now we have YouTube on Google Searches. So Woe to those who defy Google, for Google will hunt them down one at a time and destroy them with their Google Attack Bots. Coming up next will be the Google apocalypse when all our webservers belong to them. Oh, I think I just peed in my pants.