[Mailman-Users] Mailman

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Jeffrey Goldberg writes:
 > On May 1, 2009, at 2:37 PM, Mike Hughes wrote:
 > 
 > > I have a mailing list that has been running under Mailman. Another  
 > > fellow has been hosting the mailing list for me. I would like to  
 > > begin doing so myself. I have a computer available for the task.  
 > > What Linux version will work best?
 > 
 > Use whatever version of Linux (or other Unix) you are most comfortable  
 > administering.  Because it will be an Internet facing server, you (or  
 > someone) will have to keep up with security updates.  Note that you  
 > can run Mailman on OS X, which you appear to have some familiarity  
 > with.  Any modern Unix-like system will do, but choose something that  
 > you will be able to maintain.

Note that most "modern Unix-like systems" provide a Mailman package.
However, they all make changes to its configuration.  If you have a
user group for your system of choice, and know that some of the
members run Mailman from the package, you should consider using the
system's package.  It will "fit in" to the system better, in some
sense.  However, generic resources like the Mailman INSTALL document
will not apply to your setup in that case, so you do become dependent
on help from those specialized to the system you use.

OTOH, if you expect that you will be getting most help from this list
and random friends off the 'net, you probably should install Mailman
from source.  It's not hard, there's an excellent FAQ, and a couple
dozen people giving pretty much 24x7 coverage on this list.

The MTA should be installed from the system's package.  I find both
sendmail and exim to be arcane.  Postfix is plenty powerful and
relatively straightforward to configure.  (All three are excellent
products, of course.)  All are available for your OS of choice.

 > Your server will need
 > 
 >   A static public IP address.
 >   Proper DNS PTR and A records (getting the proper PTR records can be  
 > a frustrating experience).
 >   DNS MX record

What he said.  Also, you may need to open some doors to the server
through your firewall, ports 80 (for the web interfaces) and 25 (SMTP,
for mail).