🚀 go-pugleaf

HELP!!!!!

I need advice on integrating some form of PC email with our well
established Unix network.  I have a fire-walled system with a single
point of connection to the Internet.  We have a largish head office
network and WAN links to a number of remote sites.  There is a rough
diagram of our setup at the end of this message.

All email is currently based on SMTP.  There is a single MX which
points to the firewall bastion host, which receives all email from out
of domain.  The bastion delivers incoming email to the appropriate
sub-domain mailserver based on either an alias lookup or extraction
of the appropriate sub-domain from the recipient address.

Individual workstations do not run SMTP daemons - all email is delivered
on the appropriate mailserver and mail spool directories are exported to
the workstations via NFS.

Outgoing email is first delivered to the sub-domain mailhost.  If the
recipient is local to the sub-domain, it is dropped into the appropriate
mailbox without further processing.  Otherwise, the sender address is
rewritten to remove the hostname and the email is sent on the the bastion
host.  At the bastion, email for other interior sub-domains is passed
to the appropriate mailserver.  Otherwise, the sender address is again
rewritten to remove the subdomain and the email is delivered to the
SMTP daemon at the external site.

This is a highly Unix-centric organisation, but we have a small NetWare
PC network set up as an appendage to the head office Unix network.  The
PCs are partitioned onto their own wire to prevent sniffing and other
mischief.  The sub-domain gateway router blocks all traffic to or from
the PC sub-net.  PC users wishing to telnet or ftp out of domain must
first log in to a workstation on the Unix net.  There is currently no
email to or from the PCs - it is all handled on the workstations with
standard Unix mail tools.  This works well for us.

We are a small, mostly independent group within a very large government
department.  Unfortunately, it has been decreed from on high that we
must have email contact between certain key people and the departmental
string-pullers, who want to ship spreadsheets and such things to each
other.

The departmental IT people don't want to know about Unix or other
nasty stuff like that and are suggesting a direct connection to allow
X.400 direct to our NetWare server.  I want to retain the current
security model, however, and I have no intention of permitting
external connections deep into the guts of our network, so their wire
must therefore come in through our gateway router (this is the
connection marked "Departmental Email" in the diagram).  I don't
want to break the current hierarchical email system, either.  I also
expect to have to support PC networks at the remote sites at some time
in the future.  I do *not* want to have my email system driven by the
NetWare box(es).

What I need, I guess, is a sendmail replacement for each of the mail
servers.  It needs to be SMTP, X.400 and, preferably, MIME capable and
be highly configurable so that I can still do all my address rewriting
and maintain mailing lists and email-news gateways.  I would prefer to
continue to spool all email onto the mail servers (I am running the
SoftNet NetWare emulator on the Unix box), but if the PC email has to
go onto the NetWare server I won't lose too much sleep over it.

I am happy to look at either commercial or free software.  Suggestions
and comments will be most gratefully received.  I am also interested
in comments and suggestions on PC mail agents - CC:mail, MSmail, etc.
Please email and I will summarise if there is any interest.

Many thanks,
Craig




          Internet <------------+   +------------> Departmental Email
                                |   |              ==================
                                |   |              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                              +-+---+-+
                              | CISCO |
                              +-+---+-+
                                |   |     (Remote LANs)
         +----------------------+   +---------------------+
         |                      |                         |
   +-----+----+             +---+---+                 +---+---+
   | Bastion/ |             | CISCO |                 | CISCO |
   | Gateway  |             +---+---+                 +---+---+
   +----------+                 |                         |  xyz.ips.oz.au
                                |                +--------+--------+
                                |                |                 |
                                |          +-----+-----+        +--+--+
                                |          | Gateway/  |        | W/S | .... 
                                |          |  Mailhost |        +-----+
                                |          +-----------+
                                |
                                +  ho.ips.oz.au
                       +--------+--------+
                       |                 |
                 +-----+-----+        +--+--+
                 | Gateway/  |        | W/S | .... 
                 |  Mailhost |        +-----+
                 +-----+-----+
                       |
                       |  pc.ho.ips.oz.au
            +----------+----------+
            |                     |
       +----+----+             +--+--+
       | NetWare |             | PCs | ....
       | Server  |             +-----+
       +---------+
      =============
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

-- 
Internet: craigb@ips.oz.au		UUCP: uunet!ips.oz.au!craigb