[NTLUG:Discuss] mailserver

[Gregory A. Edwards]

bobby at wrennest.com wrote:
> 


> My point is that in what everyone calls a bloated OS I can have a mail
> system (people outside send mail in, people inside send mail to each
> other and people outside) set up in a short time and an operator who
> knows nothing about how the system works can do the day to day
> administration.
> 


> I don't mind complex systems. However, just in this example. I have had
> people tell me many times that if I wanted an email server I should
> install Sendmail,Postfix,Qmail... I have learned that these programs are
> MTAs. and that they are only one peice. Some mentioned Qpopper. I can
> guess what that does but how do I install the different pieces so they
> talk to each other? I assume they need to communicate. Is there any
> other piece I need. I keep asking about a system and I get answers about
> pieces of the system. Some have tried to cover all the parts but haven't
> mentioned the POP3 server. I have a domain running and am getting DNS
> service. I don't know if my internal DNS is configured correctly or if
> email depends on it.
> 
> The driving consideration in the Microsoft world is ease of use. So,
> everything else (security, speed, reliablity) fall somewhere down the
> list. I the Unix world not only is ease of use at the bottom of the
> list. Some programs seem to be built with difficulty as a primary
> consideration.
> 
> Surely it is possible to write reasonably easy to use software which is
> also reasonably secure. In the mean time I am ready to pay someone to
> come over here and get email services running on my Linux box. Any
> takers? Bid your price!


Bobby,

>From your frustration I assume you still don't have the answer your
looking for.  I'll take a shot if you don't mind.  I remember you trying
to get this resolved a couple months ago.  I see that you've gotten the
DNS part of the puzzle resolved?

Going from the assumption that your wanting to add mail service to your
network with mail service both internal and external:

The mail client is a don't care item as far as doing mail service from a
networked point of view.  That's a user issue, not a server issue.

I will suggest using sendmail because it is well supported and as
flexible as you want or need it to be.  That is the ONLY software that
you need to service mail.  Your mail server does have to rely on a
communications service (TCP/IP), domain resolution service (DNS), and a
physical transport service (ethernet/IDSN/DSL/analog) to talk to anybody
outside of the host machine.

Once sendmail is installed simply start it up as a deamon.  I think 100%
of the distributions have sendmail and install the startup (rc.d)
scripts correctly.  If you have a GUI admin tool (KDE, GNOME,
Control-panel, etc) you should be able to set sendmail to startup on
boot and forget it in a point and click environment.  The linuxconf tool
will also work and can be run in text mode.  You now have a mail server,
probably won't talk to anyone yet.

To talk to the world (or even other boxes on your local net) you have to
add the name of your mailserver host to DNS (mailhost.mynet.com).  You
need to identify the host as both an address (or CNAME) and an MX record
in your domain.  Now you can talk to the world.

Point your mail clients at mailhost.mynet.com and they're set.  Sendmail
will do IMAP, POPx so you don't have to be worrying about details here.

A couple of tidying up items need to generally be done so sendmail won't
choke on other mail servers out there.

In the sendmail.cw file add the alias names that you use for your host:

  localhost
  mailhost.mynet.com
  mailhost
  ns.mynet.com
  .
  .

In the sendmail.cf file you would want to tell the server a couple of
other details.  These will be found in the upper section of a stock
sendmail.cf file.  When you do an install your distrib should have
installed this and it should work out of the box.  If you don't have a
stock file get one to start from.

Look in the upper section and you'll see (mostly 2 character) macro
codes generally with a comment.  This is how mine is set:

---------------------------------------------------------------

# Alias for this host
Cw nas-inet.com
Cw localhost eagle.nas-inet.com
Fw/etc/mail/sendmail.cw 
# who I masquerade as (null for no masquerading)
DMnas-inet.com
# Smart host
DS
# Use this mailer to reach the Smart host
DNsmtp
# Central host for local mail
DHmailhost.nas-inet.com
# class L: names that should be delivered locally, even if we 
# have a relay
CLroot
# class E: names that should be exposed as from this host, even 
# if we masquerade
CEroot
# Trust users
Troot
Tdaemon
Tuucp

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I hope this helps.  If you want to do mailing list get either majordomo,
mailman, or the O'Reilly book on sendmail.

-- 
Greg Edwards
New Age Software, Inc.
http://www.nas-inet.com