I have just purchased a VPS to setup a small private webmail service. I do have to option to install a control panel like lxadmin or webmin to manage my server but I would rather do it all manually as I actually learn from it better. I need some guidance with this to make sure I have not missed anything out, or do anthing wrong.

Firstly, Sendmail is installed onto the VPS a default I will remove it with yum (yum remove sendmail). Next, I will install the following services with yum ( yum -y install httpd php mysql mysql-server php-mysql exim ): Apache 2, PHP, MySQL, Exim. I am familiar with these services so setting them up shouldn't be a problem.

Here comes to n00b part... I become stuck when talking about Bind. My knowledge of Bind is zero! Am I right in saying that I will need Bind installed? If so, Can anyone recommend and easy walk-through?

The webmail script I will be using can either use PHP mail() or SMTP. For low usage and for ease of use, is using PHP the right option? Also, are there any other services which I should consider using (I do not need pop or imap support)?

Thanks for your support.