[clue-tech] Mail server questions

[Matt Gushee]

So, I'm preparing to revive my long-dormant Web site(s), which also 
means my e-mail server. I'm moving from a shared hosting service to a 
virtual private server, which of course means I will be responsible for 
all my own e-mail functionality. Yes, I know, I could just use GMail. 
Don't wanna do it. I have my reasons.

Anyway, I have the following questions:

  1) I fairly often need to access e-mail when I'm out and about, but
     still like to use Thunderbird (or some other desktop program) at
     home as my primary client. So what I'm thinking about doing is:

     * Run a POP3 server.
     * Use a Webmail application, probably RoundCube, for remote
       access, but set it to not delete messages on the server.
     * Keep my current desktop setup, with Thunderbird downloading
       and deleting everything.

     Has anybody done it this way? Did it work well for you? Any pitfalls
     I should know about?

     (BTW, I am also considering IMAP, but I'm leery of leaving mail on
      the server because I am starting with a low-priced service plan
      that doesn't provide a huge amount of disk space).

  2) I'm planning to use Postfix for SMTP, but am not sure about
     POP/IMAP. Recommendations?

  3) And of course a spam question: a significant amount of the spam I
     get is spoofing one of my two domain names. Now, I think it should
     be pretty easy to detect those, since I know my own mail server's
     IP address, and nothing originating from any other host should
     claim to be from my domain. Any reason I shouldn't send the spoofed
     messages straight to /dev/null?

  4) Finally, how should I go about testing my setup before going live? I
     just want to have a reasonable degree of certainty that my e-mail
     (especially incoming) won't be interrupted when I switch over the
     DNS/MX records.

Thanks for any input!

-- 
Matt Gushee