HP-UX System Administrator's Guide: Configuration Management

each client can send and receive its own electronic mail.
Therefore if the hub goes down or becomes overloaded,
local mail traffic is unaffected (only mail to and from
computers outside of the workgroup is affected).
• Greater privacy for electronic mail users on the client
machines. Data is not stored in a central repository.
Disadvantages:
Each computer needs to run its own copy of the sendmail
daemon to “listen” for incoming mail.
•
• Electronic mail from and to the outside world must travel
through the hub, which could become a bottleneck if the
mail traffic is heavy.
If the hub is down, clients cannot send and receive mail to
and from computers outside of the work group.
Fully Distributed
Each computer in the workgroup independently sends and receives its own electronic
mail.
Advantages: There is no hub computer to contend with in this setup.
Every computer, whether local to the workgroup or not,
•
can send and receive electronic mail directly with every
other computer in the network that also supports electronic
mail.
• Greater privacy for electronic mail users on the individual
machines. Data is not stored in a central repository.
Disadvantages: Because each computer (from an electronic mail perspective)
is connected directly to the outside world, there is an
increased data security risk.
•
• Each computer needs to run its own copy of the sendmail
daemon to “listen” for incoming mail.
Selecting a Topography
The topography you use depends on your needs. Here are some things to consider
when choosing your electronic mail network topography:
Security By using a topography with a hub computer you
can better protect work that is being done on
machines within your workgroup or
organization. The single point of entry to your
internal network (a gateway computer) is a lot
easier to defend against unauthorized entry.
124 Configuring Mail