A potential client has asked me to make a proposal to set up an online business that would revolve around setting up client EMail accounts. Although I'm a fair Perl/PHP programmer and understand most of the fundamentals of how webservers operate, my specific technical knowledge in this area is almost zero. I know he'll need his own server, and while the basic tutorials I've read on setting up a mailserver seem pretty straightforward, I expect I'll need to learn quite a bit about server supervisory issues to prevent hijacks/SPAM and other similar problems.
Fortunately, the client's initial needs are limited. He wants this to be a "demonstration of concept" sort of thing, so it will be limited to about 1,000 customers with EMail mailboxes and we'll probably keep it smaller than that to start. I would appreciate any advice on what to look for in hiring a dedicated server, and where to learn more about the day-to-day probelms. Thanks!
