Chapter 11. Using Postfix as an ISP Mail Server

With the increasing popularity of the Internet, providing e-mail accounts has become a large industry. Home users are requesting new e-mail accounts at an astounding rate. Some homes have separate e-mail accounts for every member of the family (yes, even the pets). Although most big businesses have already jumped onto the Internet bandwagon, still hundreds of small businesses and organizations are waiting to take the plunge into the Internet world. With all of the demand for e-mail accounts, it's no wonder that the demand on Internet service providers (ISPs) has increased. Many new ISPs are appearing every week. ISPs can provide simple e-mail services for people and businesses that can't afford direct connections to the Internet.

This chapter describes how to use Postfix to set up a commercial-quality ISP mail server on a Unix platform. This mail server can service both individual customers who dial in to a single e-mail account, as well as small-to-medium-sized corporate customers who have their own local mail servers that dial in to the ISP and retrieve mail for their entire corporate domain.