questions about a mail server
 

So, I'm just starting out here, and am wondering if I can have my own mail server. I dont have a static ip though. Instead, I went to a place called no-ip.com where I can update my ip address, and it gives me a whatever.sytes.net name. Can I run a mail server with a whatever.sytes.net name? would my email address be like DKY@whatever.sytes.net? Is that at all possible?

Sure is, not a problem. I did it for quite some time til I decided to register my own domain. It's all the same though, just remember your domain is (for example):
dky.no-ip.org The whole thing, even though you are 'sbu-domaining' from their domain, that's your full domain name. So applications seem to think that the dky.no-ip.org is subdomain so you might run into problems there. But Postfix worked fine with it, and of course, I always suggest using Postfix ;)

Cool

okay, one other question. Why do you suggest postfix over others, and is there a tutorial on setting up postfix on RH9, or is it easy enough for someone who's been so Winoze oriented all his life, lol.

;)

Tutorial you ask, and I shall provide:
Old Skool: http://www.redhat.com/support/resour...FAQ/book1.html
Newer:
http://www-dt.e-technik.uni-dortmund.de/~ma/postfix/
And probably the one I'd suggest following is included with the Postfix source itself. Unless you are going RPM in which case you might find some on your distro's site... Lemme check...
Well here's a 10 second line on it ;) :
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...witchmail.html

You can also (and if you are into this type of thing I suggest looking into it, it's a great tool for more than just a mail server):
www.webmin.com

Cool

Hey wait a minute, that's 2 things! ;)

My usual lines
Postfix is considered more secure out of the box than Sendmail. For several people (myself included, but obviously not everyone) it was easier to setup than Qmail but still is able to conform to the more secure Maildir way of delivering mail.
Postfix is also benchmarked around the net compared to Sendmail and others and was considered faster than some (specifically Sendmail).
It's a complete drop in replacement for sendmail, is well documented and is MUCH more easier for one to understand and setup.

Other things I occasionally mention
Postfix's site looks cleaner than Sendmails. Postfix comes as the default MTA on Mandrake (which I consider to be a massive "selling point" for it). Postfix is MUCH more versatile than it's competition. And most importantly:
I always vote on the underdog ;) Sendmail is what everyone considers the "de facto" in mail handling (not everyone, but generalizing is occasionally OK ;) ). However it's flawed in too many ways to count, is too hard to setup for most newbies (heck even a lot of guru's!) and certainly does not play well with others.

:)

Cool

Anyone here use qmail? It's said to be the 2nd most popular MTA in the world... 2nd to what..? I *hope* not sendmail!!! :eek: Anyway I always used Exim and Postfix.... hows qmail?

I found somewhere that postfix comes with the RH 9 install. and if you go to the main menu/system tools/more system tools/mail transport agen switcher, you can switch from sendmail to postfix. Which I did, but now what? LOL, I'm still looking for how to get started with it. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. If not, I'll figure it out I'm sure.

Thanks for the help Master C

Now you um, send mail and recieve it :D

Check /etc/postfix/main.cf and edit the settings to your needs. Follow some of those guides up there or just check the postfix.org website for info if you get confused. If nothing makes sense, post up a few pieces of what doesn't make sense and I'll see if I can help

Cool

Tried it, was able to send but never got it configured to recieve. Error messages didn't quite make sense to me, and neither did the config files for it. I am sure it's just because I'm used to Postfix and basically "stuck in my ways" ;)

It definitely is well documented on that lifewithqmail.org site, great tool for that mail system. Also, I love Maildir's and was VERY happy to catch onto that early on and setup Postfix from the get go with em.

Cool

yeah I heard it was confusing :o

It certainly felt solid though, and I was very impressed with it's logging.

Cool

On the RedHat site, there's this
If I knew where that HOWTO was, I wouldnt be at the RedHat site, now would I.....That's funny!!! LOL

:D
http://www.redhat.com/support/resour...news/mail.html

Cool

In the main.cf, I dont understand this part
what is host? how do i figure it out.

Your hostname is just the name you've assigned to your computer, no more, no less.

You can view your current hostname with:
hostname
;)

If you want to change it, search the boards, I'm always a little off and rusty when it comes to that in other distros, but look in:
/etc/sysconfig/hosts
Or somewhere nearby ;)

You can also temporarily change it with:
hostname newhostname
Where newhostname is then new name you'd like.

But yeah, that's it. Then, the nice part is that you can configure your internal network to recognize that machine by that name within /etc/hosts (don't worry if you dont' understand me ;) I'm rambling :D ).

Anyway...

Cool