After looking around I looked at two programs to provide webmail services to my clients. I intalled both SquirrelMail and NeoMail. Both programs were easy to install with SquirrelMail being the easiest. I have a client who has about 35 email accounts that they want to use on the server and would like email access. After evaluating the programs, I went with NeoMail. Here are my comments for what their worth.


SquirrelMail
SquirrelMail is great if you want to offer only Web-based email services. Since it is PHP, it is quick and responsive and takes up very little space (both in terms of disk and memory usage). The setup is very straightfoward -- I had it installed in 15 minutes and it worked the first time. Also, since it is PHP, editing the HTML layout should be trivial as well. :cool:

One drawback for my usage is that SquirrelMail uses IMAP not POP3. There is a POP3 plugin, but I did not try it. The problem with using IMAP is that it prevents the synchronization between clients using their POP3 accounts via Outlook, Eudora or another mail agent and the web-based email.

Also, if you provide both POP3 accounts and SquirrelMail accounts, you essentially double your storage requirements for email. This is undesirable both in terms of server management and ease of use. If a client deletes an email in outlook, it should also be deleted on the server. Perhaps by using the POP3 plugin, SquirrelMail could be synchronized with POP3. :confused:

SquirrelMail's plugin system is a welcomed feature as it allows for exapansion and customization of the web mail interface; however, there is not a lot of developer documentation, so you would have to dig through the SquirrelMail code before making significant changes.

=====edited====
After reading others post, I realized the synchronization problems were with the Outlook and IMAP configurations, not with IMAP. Anyway, as mentioned below, POP3 is still generally preferred over IMAP. By default, SquirrelMail uses IMAP but POP3 is avaiable.


:D Hightlights:Easy to Install, Minimal Resource Usage, Plugins

:( Drawbacks: IMAP instead of POP3, Scalability

Cost: Free

You can visit the SquirrelMail homepage at:
http://www.squirrelmail.org/index.php

NeoMail
NeoMail is a PERL based program that directly interfaces with the POP3 mailserver. The program is responsive and requires minimal memory requirements. PERL is a moderately scalable system and could be converter to mod_perl if necessary. NeoMails use of POP3 makes synchronization between POP3 email clients and the web interface automatic. This is nice because if a person traveling logs in and deletes a message, their inbox does not fill up back home. Also, this minimizes storage requirements.

NeoMail's default interface is more polished than SquirrelMail's and uses somewhat intuitive icons for basic functions. Navigation, reply and reading messages is simple and well designed. NeoMail also supports PINE integration for you command line junkies, thus providing synchronization between the PINE mailbox system and the web mail interface. Simple features like a delete all option give NeoMail an edge over SquirrelMail.

NeoMail also supports address book importing features for Microsoft Outlook Express and Netscape (I believe SquirrelMail has a plugin to do similar things.). However, the Outlook Express plugin does not work with Outlook 2000. I did not try the Netscape import filter or the Outlook Express import utility directly. I did however manage to convert my Outlook 2000 address book to the format required by NeoMail. ;)

NeoMail's main drawbacks are its installation procedure. First, NeoMail runs as root, which means you must disable cgi-wrap for the domain or directory you instal NeoMail. To disable cgi-wrap, you must edit Apache's config file, httpd.conf. There are specific instruction on how to do this, but it makes the installation more difficult.

Running scripts as root opens certain security problems as well. Potential exploits of the application would be run as root -- though the author of the program has provided a good list of why the program is secure, you never know when a new exploit will be found. :eek:

Also, the installation setup script uses some terminology that is not quite correct. Using terms like ServerRoot, make me think of the Apache's server root, when what is really needed is the path to where you want to run NeoMail. Also, the program askes for directory paths relative to 'ServerRoot' and then you define 'ServerRoot' -- somewhat backwards to me. Also, many of the defaults are not correct.

Aside from setup issues and running as root, NeoMail is a polished program that is continouly being improved. A migration to mod_perl would be welcomed. Its intergration with the POP3 mail spool makes it great as a secondary email access system for users typcially using their email clients.

:DHighlights: Tight POP3 Integration, PINE Integration, Polished Interface, Easy Navigation

:(Drawbacks: Cumbersome setup, runs as root

Cost: Free

NeoMail
http://neomail.sourceforge.net

Followup
I have been using both programs for two weeks now. I am getting ready to launch NeoMail for one of my clients -- I will post the results when they come in.

i have been running Squirrelmail for about 4 months now. when i had my programmer load Squirrelmail onto my RaQ4r i did not mention or even know about the extra plugins that you mentioned. on my server SM works with POP3 client software just fine. when i download a message with Outlook 2000 it pulls it off of the server and SM. if i delete a message in SM it is gone from the server and can't be downloaded with Outlook. the only draw back that i found with SM is that other domains on my server can't send mail through SM unless SM is loaded seperately on their domain.

Hey, i have been using SM for a long time now and i find it very good, I have it setup to use the usernames and passwords for the people who have accounts on my server, thru only having one mail, so if you remove a email from the SM you dont get it when you check using outlook etc, as for this IMAP, i DONT use IMAP, i have it disabled, well it will old take local access as there is a securty hole in the RAQ3s and IMAP. (the hole is any one with an account can gain shell access via IMAP)

So SM good all round i think.

just my 2p :)

Luke Antins

netastic
Please take a look at this post......
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=13416

I am trying to set up neomail in as its own virtual site and use it for webmail for the entire server. Please give me any feedback on this ... I think this would solve your problem as well.

Aloha,
any of you people try this ?
http://www.horde.org/imp/
I used it on a vserver seems very good
just curious as I am setting up my own server and am looking at a websolution

I believe imp serves a slightly different purpose. If you notice the login screen asks for a server -- this means you can access your mail from any pop3 or imap compliant server. I often see these things at internet kiosk at airports, conference, hotels etc. NeoMail and SM are dedicated to your machine.

I've never ran SM, but I do have some experince with Neomail. Running at root is a major secuirty risk, and even more of a risk of other users have axxs to alter its source. One of my personal favorites of webmail interfaces is Postaci (http://www.trlinux.com/), which has a notepad, a place to keep your favorites, and some other cool features....

Originally posted by huck
I believe imp serves a slightly different purpose. If you notice the login screen asks for a server -- this means you can access your mail from any pop3 or imap compliant server. I often see these things at internet kiosk at airports, conference, hotels etc. NeoMail and SM are dedicated to your machine.

thought you could dedicate imp to a machine also ???

will have to check it out I guess

Other users should not be able to modify the neomail source code -- it is owned by root, so they would have to become root to do any writes. If they got root, neomail would be a low target.

I think running scripts as root is a problem despite what the author of the program says. There are always exploits and if you exploit a cgi-bin that runs as root, then you've hit a jackpot. I will be looking into running neomail as a special neomail user that has access to the appropriate mail utilities but is restricted to other root files. I am not sure why neomail needs to be root other than to have full access to the mail spool. A special user group would solve this problem.