can anyone in plain english tell me how to set up a mail server for linux? i have tried using sendmail... i can send my self email from my own server...and it works like that but only with "mail"... i have configured /etc/hosts, about 4 other mail configuration files like i was told to in all the howtos and man pages... i try to send my self an email from another machine and it doesnt work at all...

anyone know of a good site that explains it so that a moron could undertsand it? if anyone has had trouble with it in the past but has now got it figured out, i would like to hear from you...

thanks

cant recommend an "easy" site when it comes to sendmail.The nicest way I got any mail server to work was to setup a free domain at dyndns.org or simular,and have it point to your computer.Then you adjust your hostname to match that of your new domain name.Once your account is active anybody can send you email to your computer.

You say when you attempt to send a message to yourself on the mail server from another box it fails - what is the error message returned when the send fails? Is there any useful info in the logs on the mail server to show that your other box(es) are connecting to it?

I've heard that sendmail can be very complicated to configure and was recommended to use qmail (direct replacement for sendmail) instead. Maybe that will make it easier for you. http://www.qmail.org

Regards,

Simon

PS. I haven't yet tried to set up qmail so can't guarantee it's easier.

To test your mailer from another system, try using telnet following the instructions at http://www.daemonnews.org/199905/telnet.html. This shows how to send an email using an interactive session in telnet.

Edited the link and removed the period.