As a “Unix like” operating system, OS X has a number of network and web serving features built in. However, the regular version has most of those features turned off by default. A simple click in System Preferences > Sharing > Personal Web sharing turns on the Apache web server but other features we we’d normally get with an internet account, like email serving aren’t readibly accessible.

For normal web site design that’s not a big deal. Your don’t really even need a webserver to view standard HTML pages. If you want to develop on OS X with PHP and MySQL, that’s not too difficult either. But getting an email server up and running can be a real pain.

Starting with Panther, OS X uses Postfix as its mail server. Earlier versions used Sendmail. I’ll let the uber-geeks argue the relative merits of either. I just want the (explitive deleted) thing to work. Why the explitive? I first got Postfix working by following a detailed set of instructions. It took hours of almost getting it right but I perservered and got the system running.

When I upgraded my hard drive and decided to move to Tiger, I went looking for a simpler, more Mac like way. Fortunately there is one. Postfix Enabler.

This is a ##Mac## program and after a simple installation it gets the mail server up and running. There are still a number of settings to configure, but the documentation adequately explains what goes where and why. Running your own mail server requires some care and knowledge.

Postfix Enabler lets you set up POP and IMAP accounts. It lets you use one machine as the mail server for a local network of mixed computers. It does need some special coniguring to work behind an Airport or other Wi-Fi base station or router. That is the prefered way to work as it adds an extra layer of security to your system. Advanced users can to turn on SMTP-AUTH, which allows the server to be accessed remotely. I don’t do that. There are other security protocols that Postfix Enabler lets you access through its brushed metal interface. But wait, there’s more ;-).

The developer, Bernard Teo has a more feature rich version MailServe that enables more customization and makes a Mac a full featured server. At $20 it seems a bargain but I don’t need what it does.

I’m not looking to use my Mac as a real mail server. I just want to be able to test the mail functions in content management systems I design sites on. So all I really do is send to myself. What a nerd, you say. Well, yeah. But it lets me make sure that things work before I send a site to its final home.

I’m told that having a built in mail server on a Powerbook or iBook is handy when traveling. It enables you to send and receive email even if your connection can’t hook up with a commercial server. I’ve never had that problem, so I’ve never bothered.

Postfix Enabler $10
Mac OS X 10.3 or higher including a Universal Binary
Publisher Cutedge – Mac@work

Value for money: 5
Ease of use: 4
Documentation: 4

Highly recommended

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 4th, 2006 at 12:37 am and is filed under Software Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.