Install a Mailserver from the beguining
 

Hi!
I have a lite question of mine, How do i install a e-maíl server that will both be able to send and to get messages??? Please i need help!!!!! I tryed to install QMail (by the howto in linux.com) but i didn't succed... how do i do??? I'm running RedHat 7.2 and I'm tending to ceap it that way...

Please!!!!

//Sven
:Pengy: power!!!!

Well, there's sendmail, which is part of the RH7.2 install if you selected it. Don't let the name fool you, its the sending and receiving transport agent. Sendmail is pretty much what the entire Unix world is based off of, and its a grumpy pain when it doesnt work, but it almost always does, so that's why no one fiddles with others.

Qmail is supposed to be more secure than anything else out there, but its a bit of a headache to set-up, takes different requirements depending on the mail load you expect, and sticks things in weird locations: for instance everything that is an executable binary in the *nix world is usually in /bin, but for some reason the author of Qmail stuck everything in /var because he felt that was more secure...

Yeah, whatever. If you throw in the first RedHat CD, mount it, and look in the RPMS directory, there should be one for sendmail. Then again, I've always found it hard to install RH 'without' sendmail, so you might want to try this:

ps aux | grep sendmail

If you get back any line other than:

grep sendmail,

you have it, and have it running. In order to have your machine working as a mail-server though, you're going to have to have a domain and a static IP (okay, there are work-arounds for a dynamic IP, but lets not get into those). You will also have to have Nameservice for this domain with the MTA from the DNS record pointed at your IP and the domain entry in your /etc/hosts file as that's what a default Sendmail install will read in order to know what to route mail for.

Sorry if that sounded kinda mickey mouse there mate, I kind of respond from the ground up, just in case you're starting from scratch.

Cheers,

Finegan

Dear Finegan

You mentioned there are work-arounds to get mail server running with dynamic IP, can you please elaborate more on that for me.

My problem is that I registered my domain name with pointing service, which works well for http but my mailserver (sendmail) is not working, can you please help me on that ?

Also please tell me how to create users on sendmail and how to send/receive mails using it ?

Thanks !

Salman

My 0.02
 

Just though I would throw in my two cents. When I was setting up my mail server, I tried all kinds of stuff, sendmail, qmail, postfix, etc. I couldn't get anything to work. Then I saw something mentioned(maybe here somewhere?) that I decided to try. A little known mail server called eXtremail. I figured what the heck it couldn't hurt to try. Well, I have been using eXtremail for a year and I am very happy with it. It has a few odd quirks but once you get around those it is great. It was a piece of cake to setup and I can send !!AND!! receive mail. Take a look at www.extremail.com and see what you think. You can also see the message boards at www.extremail.org .

Okay, so do you have a dynamic IP, or do you just get your IP through DHCP. Basically, does your IP ever change? If not, there are only two things sendmail needs in order to not go bazoo:

1. a correct entry for your machine in /etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 blah blah blah same everywhere
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx mydomain.com

(where the x's are your IP)

2. a proper set-up of /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Things like telnet, apache, ssh, will respond in some way to any request aimed at the machine. Sendmail, however, requires to know what domain it is answering for, and has to be able to do name look-up on incoming mail in order to check that the incoming mail doesn't have a bogus account as the sender.

Honestly, if sendmail isn't working despite all of this... RPM -R the puppy (or is that -r), and re-install it.... It could just be some bad voodoo.

Acounts... go by users on your system. If you have a user named bob, by default you have a bob@mydomain.com. If you want to add accounts without adding users, you can add lines to /etc/aliases, like (hm... I don't have a redhat machine around anymore, and on my Slackware box its /etc/mail/aliases... shouldn't be hard to find)

webmaster: bob

there webmaster@mydomain.com will immediately get re-directed to bob. Also, you can stylize bob's mail account, with whatever your mailer client of choice is, to mail OUT as webmaster@mydomain.com, but only when you want it to.

In order to get sendmail working, and not to downplay the previous suggestion, but I've never had sendmail not work out of the box. (damn, look at all those double negatives), give us a better idea of your set-up. What's your connection acquired from? DHCP, static, pppoe? DSL, Cable, dial-up, carrier pigeon, T-1? And is your box the one with the line hooked directly up to it, or is there an itermediary like one of those DSL/Cable routers from Linksys or something?

-Cheers

Finegan

Ok Finegan, it's been awhile since any talk on here, but I am hoping to pick up where that guy left off...

I have a DSL line, I aquire my IP through DHCP, my computer is connected directly to the wall. I have no *.com name just a regular avg joe with a DSL connection. I basically want to be able to send/recieve any size email I want, nothing major, just if I want to email a 3GB file to my neighbor, I want to be able to. That's all. Is there a way to set up a send/recieve mail server?

I am ready for further instructions. Oh and the ultra simple (mickey mouse) explanations are great.

Thanks

why should file size matter? have you come across a problem?? you should just find a decent smtp server like qmail or sendmail and read it's documentation and go from there. i've only got experience of sendmail, and by default sendmail should acutally be fully configured already to send stuff from the local computer. obiviosuly a *.com name is irrelevant for sending, but there;s no way you can recieve email reliably on a dnamic IP without one from dynu.com or something.

Yeah, I can send anysize. The problem is in the recieving end, I don't know how to recieve anything. I am not sure what dynu.com is but I will check it out.

Yeah, I can send anysize. The problem is in the recieving end, I don't know how to recieve anything. I am not sure what dynu.com is but I will check it out.

Oh and the file size matters because my ISP email and ANY other email I have found limits me. I am not allowed to send/recieve files of ANY (large) size. Usually limited to around 2mb.

yes well obiovusly the file size is their decision as it's their precious server space you'd be using up...

Cool! I didn't even know things like that were available. Thanks for the link! Now I guess I will respond a little later with a little more info (*.dynu.com).

oh there's dozens. you should find one you like. their linux client is so simple to use. other people prefer nodns.org i think... there's so many to choose from.

Cool, now I have one, it masterc.no-ip.org...

Now what?

Besides just using it to receive mail, can I use it to set up a webpage?

anyone? Thanks.

Ok, I have been trying to configure qpopper to use to get my mail...

with no success..

I am stuck, anyone?