Setting up mail server
 

Hi,

I am running RH9 on an old pc which is used as my web server. I am now trying to set up a mailserver using Sendmail and am encountering difficulties. Here is where I have got to so far:

I edited the sendmail.mc file...

first I edited the line ...dnl define('SMART_HOST','smtp.your.provider')...where it says 'smtp.you.provider' I have been told to use the fully qualified domain name of the mail server you want to use...so, to use an example, if my web server is www naughtynuns.com then presumably the mail server on my local machine would be smtp.naughtynuns.com...am I right? I presume this has nothing to do with my ISP who simply provides my internet connection.

second I commented out the line DAEMON_OPTIONS('port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl...since I belive this will allow me to receive incoming mail from the internet.

Next, I did the m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf thingy to update my config file.

Now according t the theory I should be able to send mail to gslater@naughtynuns.com, but so far alas not. Does anyone know whereI have gone wrong?

BTW, I have already trawled the forums but this has only raised more questions eg:
- You will have to ensure that the MX records point to your machine somewhere....what are these MX records?
- You will need to update your hosts file...my hosts file currently only has one entry which still says 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain...should I have more entries for my mail server?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

This doesn't exactly answer your question, but it may help
 

If I were you, and I was a few years back, I would use qmail instead of sendmail... It is much easier to work with, more secure, and just as powerful.. There is no downside that I can think of, and tremendous upside for almost any application, including a high volume/activee mail server with many users. http://www.qmail.org

There are rpm's for almost every linux distro.. just check www.rpmseek.com, and the configuration files should all be located in /var/qmail/control/ directory. They are very straight forward.. for example, to set remote concurrency, you just create a file named 'concurrencyremote' and type the value '100' (for example) and that's it... restart qmail. All of the config files work like this, and all are read when qmail is restarted.

Anyway, I hope this helps.. I have several books dedicated to Sendmail, and only 1 book for qmail (which I didn't really need as the book is available freely online). Take a look at it if you are still having problems, and I think you will be very pleasantly suprised.

Best of Luck.

Thanks I may try that...I just used sendmail because thats already available in RH9.