Is it safe to completely turn off services such as Dovecot / Courier if I am using an external service for mail?

I'm not using any local mail services on my server - instead, I'm opting to use an external email host such as fusemail or rackspace (or other external mail service)

It seems my firewall blocks attacks trying to login to my local mail server. Since I'm not using local mail, would it make sense just to turn it off completely?

Thanks in advance!

Yep and Exim, it probably won't stop the requests but if they ain't running, they can't be exploited.

chrishirst, big thanks!

I really appreciate it!