HMailServer
Encyclopedia
hMailServer is a free email server for Windows created by Martin Knafve. It runs as a Windows service and includes administration tools for management and backup. It has support for IMAP, POP3, and SMTP email protocols. It uses database engines (MySQL
, MS SQL
or PostgreSQL
) to store configuration and index data but the actual email messages are stored on disk in a raw MIME
format. It has active support and development forums.
Common features such as multiple-domain support, aliases, catch-all and basic mailing lists are present. Users can be authenticated both against the local hMailServer user system and against an external Active Directory. Using a voting system on the hMailServer web site, the hMailServer users decide which features should be implemented in the software.
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
, MS SQL
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
or PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...
) to store configuration and index data but the actual email messages are stored on disk in a raw MIME
MIME
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is an Internet standard that extends the format of email to support:* Text in character sets other than ASCII* Non-text attachments* Message bodies with multiple parts...
format. It has active support and development forums.
Common features such as multiple-domain support, aliases, catch-all and basic mailing lists are present. Users can be authenticated both against the local hMailServer user system and against an external Active Directory. Using a voting system on the hMailServer web site, the hMailServer users decide which features should be implemented in the software.
AntiSpam
hMailServer offers a number of different AntiSpam mechanisms:- Host based DNS Blacklisting (DNSBLDNSBLA DNSBL is a list of IP addresses published through the Internet Domain Name Service either as a zone file that can be used by DNS server software, or as a live DNS zone that can be queried in real-time...
) - URL based DNS blacklisting (SURBLSURBLSURBLs are lists of Uniform Resource Identifier hosts, typically web site domains, that appear in unsolicited messages. SURBLs can be used to search incoming e-mail message bodies for similar sites to help evaluate whether the messages are unsolicited...
) - GreylistingGreylistingGreylisting is a method of defending e-mail users against spam. A mail transfer agent using greylisting will "temporarily reject" any email from a sender it does not recognize. If the mail is legitimate the originating server will, after a delay, try again and, if sufficient time has elapsed, the...
(must retry sending for the message to succeed) - SPFSender Policy FrameworkSender Policy Framework is an email validation system designed to prevent email spam by detecting email spoofing, a common vulnerability, by verifying sender IP addresses. SPF allows administrators to specify which hosts are allowed to send mail from a given domain by creating a specific SPF...
- Built in SpamAssassinSpamAssassinSpamAssassin is a computer program released under the Apache License 2.0 used for e-mail spam filtering based on content-matching rules. It is now part of the Apache Foundation....
integration - DKIM (in version 5.1)
AntiVirus
hMailServer has built in support for ClamWin/ClamAV. It's possible to execute any command line virus scanner.Other features
- Domain and account signatures (for legal and advertising footers)
- Server side rules (rules for individual accounts available in v5)
- Retrieval of messages from external POP3 accounts
- Quotas on domain, mailbox, and individual message sizes
- Plus addressing (using + to make a virtual alias for an account specific to a task, as seen in GmailGmailGmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
) - Attachment blocking (based on attachment extension)
- Custom SMTP routes for specific domains (can be used to set up MX backup, forwarding and more)
- API (it's possible to write hMailServer scripts using VBScript and JScript)
- Built-in support for SSL
Integration
- ClamAVClam AntiVirusClam AntiVirus is a free, cross-platform antivirus software tool-kit able to detect many types of malicious software, including viruses. One of its main uses is on mail servers as a server-side email virus scanner. The application was developed for Unix and has third party versions available for...
anti-virus software - SquirrelMailSquirrelMailSquirrelMail is an Open Source project that provides both a web-based email application and an IMAP proxy server.The webmail portion of the project was started by Nathan and Luke Ehresman in 1999 and is written in the PHP scripting language...
for webmail, (requires IISInternet Information ServicesInternet Information Services – formerly called Internet Information Server – is a web server application and set of feature extension modules created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows. It is the most used web server after Apache HTTP Server. IIS 7.5 supports HTTP, HTTPS,...
or ApacheApache HTTP ServerThe Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache , is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million website milestone...
); spell-checking available - SpamAssassinSpamAssassinSpamAssassin is a computer program released under the Apache License 2.0 used for e-mail spam filtering based on content-matching rules. It is now part of the Apache Foundation....
spam filtering