Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Web based email

[Aragond]

Question 1;
I've noticed that quite a few hosts don't offer some form of web-based email. Is there a good reason for this? Is webmail a security risk? Alternatively, are there free PHP webmail options available?

Question 2;
I am also keen to tie my PHP in to my email (email newsletter to some friends, no, not Spam) -- are there security holes inherent in doing this? Is there somewhere I should be looking to find out how to avoid them?

Thanks, folks.

[AdY]

Answer 1: Security is a big word. Each opened port could be exploited, if it's this way. So YES, providing web based email MAY be insecure. And yes, there are plenty of GOOD webmail options - SquirrelMail is the popular
Answer 2: you gotta have a sys admin...and upgrade everything. But i really don't think you will have any big problems. IMO

[Rich2k]

Well considering web based email still works on port 80 it wouldn't be any additional security risk to the server (if the script is programmed correctly).

As the webmail would be internal to that server it would work off localhost which means you don't need to open up additional email ports just for webmail.

[AdY]

Originally posted by Rich2k
Well considering web based email still works on port 80 it wouldn't be any additional security risk to the server (if the script is programmed correctly).

As the webmail would be internal to that server it would work off localhost which means you don't need to open up additional email ports just for webmail.

My mistake, sorry. You're right - anyway, 25 and 110 will be opened for pop3 and smtp - but that's not about webamil.