Mailing Lists Books

This is definitely a book for systems administrators. You won't learn the basics about sendmail, or get an introduction. This book is for folks who generally know sendmail, but are having specific issues with it.

The first chapter has a lot of very specific fixes for a bunch of operating system specific issues. After that the solutions become a bit more general.

The two standout chapters are chapter four, on relaying, and chapter six on spam filtering. Both of these have great introductions and in-depth techincal descriptions, with effective graphics, covering the topics.

I recommend this book for systems administrators and for people actively using with sendmail.

The first killer application of the Internet was email. For over twenty years, the most common program used to handle this was sendmail, written by Eric Allman. Over this time, sendmail has become a fully fledged language, with a very inelegant syntax. To learn how this, you need the book "Sendmail" by Costales and Allman.

The basic problem is that twenty years of ever increasing complexity in mail handling has created concomitant complexity in sendmail. For system adminstrators, the sendmail configuration files are probably the most complicated things they have to understand and maintain.

The rub is that most sysadmins have many duties, and little time to thoroughly read the above book. What is needed is a crib sheet, that lets you quickly solve very common sendmail configuration issues. Wherein the need for this book. Hunt takes a pragmatic approach. He tells you enough to handle these common issues. Sometimes, this comes at a slight cost. For example, he never really fully explains the the sendmail class notation. For a rigorous explanation, you still need Allman's book. But as a practical matter, you probably not that curious about the notation anyway. Hunt's approach may solve your problems quicker!

An interesting aspect of this Cookbook is that it shows the recent evolution of sendmail, as seen in the subtitle at the top of the cover, "Spam-Fighting". Sysadmins who dealt with sendmail from 5 years ago or earlier will recall nothing pertaining to antispam techniques.

But just as email was the first killer application, the second killer application was the browser, starting in 1992-3. The third killer application was spam, often viewed via the second application. In the last 5 years, spam has grown amazingly. So much so that it has been debated on the floors of the US Parliament! It has gotten to the point that some alarmists are even claiming that this third killer app might be crippling the first app!

Well, this Cookbook has several sections, including an entire chapter, focussed on various antispam techniques, like procmail parsing, or hooking up to Real Time Block Lists like spamhaus.org. The efficacy of such methods may vary widely, but you do get a choice. Though none of these currently appear to offer a truly effective countermeasure. You are still getting tons of spam, aren't you?

Perhaps some genius in the not too distant future can help us!

Great book, exactly what I needed. I'm pretty good with Sendmail, but there is nothing like just looking up an issue and following through a solution. I would recommend this to anyone who works with Sendmail!

This book has something about sendmail for everyone.
I know sendmail very well, and have used it for years.

But even I and sendmail gurus I work with learned a lot.

this is a great book.

Working with sendmail can be very challenging at times; while the documentation for it is very complete, finding real-life use-cases can be tough and messing up a configuration is very easy. Fortunately the sendmail authors and community adopted the m4 language to help make building and managing sendmail configurations less painful (I remember having bad dreams about sendmail configuration language when I started learning it). Even with m4, understanding what goes where when and why in a sendmail configuration file can be a real challenge.

O'Reilly helped we mere mortals out tremendously with the publication of "Sendmail: The Definitive Guide," a book that helped demystify and clarify many of sendmail's inner-workings and configuration options. Even with this book, it was still hard to answer real-life use case questions, like how to enable SMTP AUTH for sendmail, how do I use LDAP with sendmail, how do I use sendmail to accept email for multiple domains in a virtual hosting environment, how do I use blackhole list services?

Enter "Sendmail Cookbook." This clear, easy to read, well-indexed book contains a wealth of useful recipies that make previously difficult to figure out tasks quite easy. The book is organized in typical Cookbook fashion; each chapter or section stands on it's own, and if it does require knowledge of other sendmail configuration topics, the section includes cross-references to other relevant recipies and references to appropriate sections in the "Sendmail: The Definitive Guide" book, which is a nice additional feature.

This cookbook starts with recipies that step the reader through building and installing sendmail, with sections on configuring the build so that sendmail compiles with SSL/STARTTLS support, LDAP support, and SASL support. Chapters that follow deal with everything from enabling and configuring SMTP AUTH, to securing sendmail itself, to controlling spam. Recipies use m4 whenever possible and only dip into the sendmail configuration language when necessary, another feature I found very impressive.

I own quite a few O'Reilly books; this is one of a small number that I enjoy just picking up and flipping to a random page and reading; I always find something that I either didn't know or had forgotten. I wish I had this book seven years ago when I was struggling to learn the basics of sendmail configuration and administration; I might have more hair left if I had! I highly recommend this book to anyone who works with sendmail, be that daily administration or occassional troubleshooting.

This book is for a practicing gaffer or cinematographer; it's full of technical jargon and has no glossy pictures...so if this sounds interesting then give it a shot...there is nothing like it out there.

This book is an invaluable archive of the thoughts and ideas of the great contemporary geniuses of world cinema. If you want to create great images you want to read and reference this work.

I'm a beginning professional filmmaker and this is a great resource for me right now, but even if I were a veteran I could still learn quite a few things from the CML crew.

This book contains advice & stories related to the field of professional cinematography as told through the words or real practicing cinematographers.
A very nice collection covering a wide range of situations and problems [AKA: challenges!] that today's directors of photography may come into contact on a daily basis.
Highly recommended reading!
Also see the other books from the same author: Geoff Boyle.

As the author/collator of this book I obviously think it's good :-)

However, this doesn't mean it's not true!

The book is the collected wisdom of a hundred or so full time working Directors of Photography and their crews.

It's a collection of edited conversations between them.

There is real working knowledge here, practical advice, not theory.

Excellent Reference Manual. This will stay on my bookshelf for easy referencing at all times.

This is an amazing resource for ideas. It should be on every bookseller's bookshelf. I keep it handy for when I am hungry for creative ideas.

Like all of Nat Bodian's books, it's top quality and full of great information, packed with 59 chapters in 400 pages. While it is pre-Internet, you will be hard-pressed to find a more thorough treatment of the direct marketing topic.

This book is in the same league with John Kremer's "Book Marketing Made Easier" (bookmarket.com) and E Haldeman-Julius's "First Hundred Million" (100millionbooks.net). Both are PACKED with ideas, the latter also packed with proven sales numbers for what titles did and did not sell. Both are also out of print unfortunately. Kremer's book can be picked up used and is well worth the money. The other is available in digital format but is largely unavailable except for hundreds of dollars, if you can find it.

If you have a chance to pick up any of Bodian's books, do it! I love them.

I have not been able to find this book due to the fact that it is no longer in print. I'm a business consultant and have a client looking for a copy of this book. If anyone has an extra copy that they'd like to sell, please email me. Is there an updated version coming out soon?

Thank you, Judi Munson New Dimensions Consulting

I consider this book to be the bible on mailing list services and how to start a business from your home. The book is very thorough and takes you step-by-step through the history of the US Postal System, shows you how mail is processed, and reviews hardware and software which is necessary to begin your own business. It also includes detailed testimonials from successful mailing list service providers, some who started at home and grew into large companies. There is also an abundance of marketing strategies that are insightful. Be aware: the book is very outdated (386 vs 486 system, 9600 baud rate modems, 500Mb hard drives) and the US Postal System has been massively changed since the book was printed in 1993. I want an updated version---how about it Linda Rohrbough. Without a doubt, this book is a must-buy for those interested in starting their own mailing list service!

Ed Burnett does a great job in giving a very practical education on list usage. He illustrates many fundamentals but also shows some tricks used by the old masters at Sears catalog, Lands End and other premier catalogers. An example of this is how to use the last digit of the zip code in order to create a random sample that does not introduce bias into your mailing. This is a short cut that can be very useful when your mail plans have changed and you need to reduce your mail quantity at the last minute, without biasing the distribution.

This is a great reference book to have on your book shelf and can be applied to online lists and newsletters as effectively as it ever has been in traditional snail mail.

This latest compilation of humor from Ray Owens is one of those books that you cannot put down until you have read every page. Without question, this is one of the funniest books available. If you enjoy laughing until it hurts, this is one book you should not be without.

Well done Ray - your dry wit and unrelenting quest to bring all humanity a little closer with the universal language of laughter is truly commendable!

PS: please cross endorsement check "Not Negotiable"

Normally, joke books get dull by the 10th page. But Ray breaks it up with his Judi and Amanpreet mail and sheer mean flames. Funny, in a sort of self-absorbed kind of way. The jokes are good, though, and the last couple of part (buy the book to see for yourself) is worth the price of the book. Memorize the last 10 pages and you can do a stand up routine.

This book is such fun easy reading and the way it is "Kinda Divided" up in segments it is great for picking up and putting down whenever you have a minute. Or when you need a "Quicky" and have very little time. No it is not very everyone - it is not for the young or for the adults that do not know that it is OK to laugh at outselves and for others that are equally as bad off (mentally). I think of Ray as an unknown friend (after all he did autograph my book!) You are Great Ray! Keep up the good work.

If you get a queasy stomach when you hear the word "damn" then you should really go away now. If you, on the other hand, have a sarcastic, no-holds-barred sense of humor, you will love this book. These aren't knock-knock or 'gross' jokes. Look forward to Li'l Johnny and the like, but the real value here is seeing the true life morons that contact Ray, and the entertainingly truthful replies back. You'll meet Judi, who's so blonde it comes through in her words. Amanpreet, who likes his coffee black, like his lizards (or so the rumor goes). And many, many more. GET THIS BOOK.

Ray Owens is a funny guy, and this book is proof! No matter what your age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or choice of Internet Provider, he'll be sure to insult you at least once and make you laugh histerically a million times. It does contain a lot of adult humor, so keep that in mind. Definitely recommended for anyone with a sense of humor, and the ability to take cracks with a grain of salt. Also recommended for those who hate AOL or morons, since there are many idiotic letters from said individuals. Happy reading!

I've got all three books in the field, and this is a good book. Unfortunately, although Kyle's book was co-written by the author of the software, I believe that "The Book of Postfix: State-of-the-Art Message Transport" by Ralf Hildebrandt is a better choice.

I wasn't looking for esoteric information on how to administer Sendmail. I was looking for a book on Postfix and that's what the author provided. I got the book based a lot on the quality of O'Reilly books and the editor's reputation. Andy Oram is a top notch editor. I recommend this book to any Linux or UNIX person wanting to substitute Postfix for sendmail. Postfix is a drop in replacement for systems configured for sendmail but Postfix is not a monlithic program with lots of vulnerabilities. The author expalins that perfectly.

After over a month of trying to get my first email server up and running using the try a setting, see what happens method, I finally gave up and bought this book. Now I'm in business.

Everywhere I read, people claimed the easiest to configure MTA was postfix, so that is why I began to use it. True, the documention on the website is helpful and so are the included examples, but if you don't have the concepts down, that is useless.

Thats where this great book comes in. This book isn't just a paper copy of the online docs, unlike most other computer books. It explains what stuff is, does, and what it means. I can read the config file just fine, I just don't know what the settings do. For example, the online docs showed how to setup masquerading and examples, but never told me what that meant. From a newbie standpoint, the masquerade meant the same thing as an alias. Well, those words mean the same thing. I need the vocabulary from the book to help me understand. Conanical is a common work in computer land? Maybe in Silicon Valley but not in NJ.

A glowing chapter is DNS and e-mail which more than pays for the entire book. Not only to I understand DNS better, I can setup a backup mail system. Another great thing is the author shows you an entire setup zone file in one chunk, instead of line by line explanations and never showing you the whole thing put together. DNS and Bind book anyone? For shame.

Also, The Hosting Multiple Domains is a fantastic chapter.

Anyways, if you are lost and feeling like and idiot like I was, get this book. Thanks Mr. Dent for a fantastic book that is clear and easy to understand.

PostFix is a replacement mail server, MTA, for Unix based systems that
formerly used Sendmail or other variants. PostFix was written to be a
drop in replacement for Sendmail but with it's own variations on control
files.

This book outlines most of the common issues in dealing with setting up
PostFix. The author takes the reader through the design concerns outlined
by the author of the program, Wietse Venema, who wrote the forward of the
book.

Sendmail has been a staple of the mail delivery world but it has a well
deserved reputation for being hard to setup, administer and understand.
The O'Reilly book on Sendmail is at least 3 times as large as this book.
There is alot to learn about its' macro language and using M4 to build
control files. Sendmail is a very hard program for a beginner to
understand and configure properly.

The author spends the first few chapters discussing how a mail server is
supposed to work; how the DNS system interacts with the mail system. There
are well laid out block diagrams to show the flow of email through a
system. Any SysAdmin who has spent time administering a mail system can
probably skip the first few chapters. Those who are new to running a mail
server should find the begining chapters enlightening.

PostFix mostly uses easy to read control files that don't require processing.
The program can be set up to use the Unix standard mbox delivery format or
the newer maildir format. The book explains the pros and cons of the 2
storage formats both from the MTA perspective and the pop or imap
interface.

Most of the more common configuration tweaks used in securing a Sendmail
system also apply to a PostFix installation. They are just easier to set
up in PostFix with the examples provided.

The book has a section devoted to setting up secure mail relay using the
Cyrus SASL libraries. It details setting up the password database via the
Unix standard or shadow format, SASL, LDAP PAM or MYSQL formats. The
author discusses ways to further secure the connection by using TLS
connections to ensure passwords are not compromised.

PostFix has some built in anti-spam tools. The book has a chapter devoted
to to pros and cons of the various approaches. Examples of "reasonable"
and "paranoid" approaches for setting up PostFix are provided. A simpler
apporoach than jumping directly into Spam Assassin or other
spam pre-processors

Mailing lists are another feature that PostFix can manage. The book has
examples of various simple ways of setting up mailing lists short of
installing a separate program like MajorDomo. This is a handy feature.

There are Appendixes intended to walk a user through the compiling process
which will help users not familiar with using Make. There is a listing of
the PostFix parameter commands and what they all mean.

PostFix the Definitive Guide is a well written, easy to read step by step
instruction book for using the PostFix mail server. Using this book as a
reference, an experienced SysAdmin should make the transition from
Sendmail to PostFix without much trouble. For someone new to the world of
MTA's, the book should answer most of the questions associated with
getting a PostFix mail server up and running.

This is another O'Reilly book that should be on a SysAdmin's bookshelf.

If you're looking for a comprehensive guide on setting up a Postfix mail server, then this isn't the book for you. For those that are already familiar with setting up MTAs, the information provided in "The Definitive Guide" is probably enough, but this book only covers a subset of the Postfix configuration parameters and does not provide the step-by-step instructions that many people may be expecting.

No Direct Marketer's library is complete without Bob Stone's book. While I have been in the industry for some time, I often think to myself "What would Bob do?" This book has had major influence on my career. The concepts apply to my field (Internet marketing) and they also could be applied to traditional marketers as well. Great book!

This edition is one of the best texts on direct marketing. A classic text that everyone involved in direct marketing should read, this edition includes a lot more material on digital forms of direct marketing than the previous versions. These digital forms include marketing via the Internet; from banners and buttons to e-mail, online merchandising and website navigation and many other concerns. The text covers every form of direct marketing in detail as well as many case studies to show how they were used or are being used successfully.

I expected it to be much more current, I expected less paragraghs and quite a bit more job descriptions (that did not exist in 2001) AND print-outs of the day-to-day life of Direct Marketing.

What I had was a SOLID, YET dated introduction to the field as it entered the new millenia vs. the primer that I could hold on to that I was seeking.

Don't get me wrong, these authors are legendary and some of the most qualified to write a text for academia on Direct Marketing.

It is just between the 2001 and 2006 editions I wished that someone else
wrote a equally qualified text that would have been assigned instead of or in addition to this text.

If you have never been involved in Direct Marketing this is a great overview of most of the relevant issues and opportunities. The text is accurate and concise. Maybe the only (small) flaw with this text book is that it looks at too broad a spectrum of media and is a little too shallow on the core of all direct marketing: database setup and modelling. But then again that may just be too tedious for someone just wanting a quick overview of the field.

I really hate to give what is a basically negative review to ANY O'Reilly book. However, the focus of this volume -- entirely on four free UNIX mailing list packages -- falls short in two ways: 1. With the exception of LISTSERV, it totally neglects the commercial sphere of mailing list software. Not liking commercial packages is okay; pretending they don't exist, or that there might not be excellent reasons to use one is not. I run two mid-size lists for a non-profit on a commercial web-based service (Onelist, recently become E-list) and felt the omission of this option (even if I do pay for these by including their ads) would be a disservice for anyone just getting started with mailing lists. Just as there are plenty of users for whom Windows is just fine (Linux is not for everyone -- yet), not everyone who runs mailing lists needs to use UNIX freeware. 2. I would like to have seen some sample FAQs. In my experience, running a mailing list is NOT a technical problem, it is a people problem. There is too little in the book addressing that aspect. If you are a sysadmin or ISP deciding which mailing list software you need to provide for free, and how to install it, this is the book for you.

I needed to get a listserver up and running in two weeks... I knew perl and linux... O'Reilly came to the rescue.

Managing Mailing Lists helped me choose the right MLM, install it, and configure it with little to no hassle. I would like to have seen the book focus on majordomo solely, since the others probably have software manuals and are supported by their vendors. But the info was adequate, and the other chapters on LISTSERV, ListProc, and SmartList helped thicken the book up so that it fits nicely on my O'Reilly bookshelf..

The book had quite a few typos, some contradictions, and even some misprints that downright hosed up performance and functionality. But once I got through the installation, I was able to go back and easily spot the errors, as the book does a good job explaining the what's and why's of its code. (if the editor reads this, please contact me for a list of corrections for the next edition)

As far as I know it's the only book on majordomo. With a step by step approach (a simple method I wish more books would follow these days) and great hints and tips (BTW, excellent loop-check script incl.) this book gets a 4/5 from me. Typos on critical info/code knocks a point. Second ed. should remedy that... *-)

I don't know about the other MLMs described in this book, but if you must administer a Majordomo mailing list, this book is essential. You should also subscribe to the majordomo users list and the list moderator's list (if that applies to you) at GreatCircle.com too, but for having the information you need about how to set up the config files and the users etc for generating digests and so on, this book is quite useful. However, it has some shortcomings - not much information about setting up web archives, or dealing with MIME, etc. And there is nothing at all about Mailman, the other heavyweight mailing list manager. Perhaps an update is due that covers Mailman?

I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody trying to set up a mailing list. This would be more appropriate in the hands of some manager who just wants a quick rundown on how e-mail works and then hire someone to set up a mailing list for him/her.

Through all the pages of the text, this book didn't provide any useful information on setting up mailing lists. The author is vague and never focuses on any mailing list manager program, instead he just gives little facts on all different ones. One cannot possibly set up a mailing list from the info in this book.

Often the book would raise questions and leave them unanswered. He would describe certain problems with mailing lists (i.e. malicious attacks, susceptibility to human errors), but it was up to you and a lot of web surfing to find out how to solve these problems.

Not the kind of text I would expect O'Reilly to print.

I bought this book because I needed to familiarize myself with ListProc, Listserve and Majordomo, all 3 of which are used at my University. I got just what I needed. This book covers everything you need to know about these, plus it has some extras which help round out the book. I became convinced that SmartList was useful for my home system, and have installed it, and I also enjoyed some of the articles posted in the book.

My only coplaint about this book was the lack of clarity regarding email headers (which came up pretty often throughout). I supposed I should have read the intro chapter more closely. Still, it really wasn't hard to follow along the book. I enjoyed this book much and can't wait to see the Second Edition. :)