[LI] e-smith Server and Gateway: A small review

[Dakshinamurthy Karra <kd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings,

I am very much impressed with this software that I cannot resist posting
this message to the list.

What is e-smith Server and Gateway
----------------------------------
e-smith Server and Gateway is a Redhat 6.0 based distribution, which
allows a dedicated system to work as a proxy/mail/web server and also as
a gateway to the Internet.

e-smith Server seems to have successfully achieved their goal: Ease of
use in setting up Linux as a server.

What is so impressive about it
------------------------------
e-smith Server and Gateway is *really* easy to install and configure.
Just pop-in the CD and floppy, reboot. After a few warnings and typing
accept and proceed the software is installed on the system. Reboot the
machine and we landup with a console.

e-smith provides four stock-configurations:
	Server and Gateway - Dedicated: For direct link to Internet
		Acts as a gateway (masq) to the internet
	Server and Gateway - Dialup
		Same as above, but on dialup links
	Server only - Dedicated
		masq is not configured.
	Server only - No internet connection
		Just what it says.

Configuration is straight forward from the console.

Using e-smith
-------------

Most of the operations are performed from a web browser (frames need to
be supported). Just connect to <e-smith-ipaddress>/e-smith-manager and
login as admin( password default). From here new users can be created
and configuration can be modified. The best thing I found is that once a
user is created, the entry is added to the LDAP directory.

The following services are installed and configured by e-smith:

1. Web server (apache)
2. Web proxy (squid)
3. Masquerading
4. LDAP directory services (OpenLDAP)
5. QMail (Mail MTA)
6. Popper (POP3 service)

First impressions
-----------------

I still did not experiment with all the features. However, e-smith seems
to have brought in the ease of use for using Linux as a server box.

Availability
------------

e-smith website can be accessed from: http://www.e-smith.org and
http://www.e-smith.com.
The GZipped ISO image is 89MB.

I have downloaded and created a CD of e-smith 3.1. If anyone at
Bangalore wants to make a copy they can contact me.

Regards
KD
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