I'm rather new to Redhat 8.0, and I'd like to run a mail server on my linux box. I've got my apache webserver running and up. I need I guess either a reference or a "quick newbie guide" to editing the proper files to direct mail to my domain mail.timelessness.net and basically set it up for pop3 access so users can download their email from it through their desired email client.

Any help would be wonderful. Sorry for so many questions. I highly appreciate any help or a simple point in the right direction.

Thank you! ~

Howzit

try this site it has how to for everything www.tldp.org also I would use the postfix as mail server a little easier to setup and has less security probs compared with sendmail.

chow

i've switched over to postfix from sendmail, very nice.

you might want to check that out, the postfix config files are very well commented and although it can be a pain to set up, it's much easier than setting up sendmail.

my setup here is postfix+uw-imap+squirrelmail+apache(with mod_ssl and mod_php)+spamassassin

yes i could use some help setting up a mail server

You need to have your domains MX record pointing to your address


[david@zeus david]$ dig MX linuxquestions.org

; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> MX linuxquestions.org
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 3453
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 7

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;linuxquestions.org. IN MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
linuxquestions.org. 900 IN MX 15 mx.linuxquestions.org.
linuxquestions.org. 900 IN MX 20 backup-mx.choiceone.net.
linuxquestions.org. 900 IN MX 10 mail.linuxquestions.org.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
linuxquestions.org. 879 IN NS ns1.linuxquestions.org.
linuxquestions.org. 879 IN NS ns2.choiceone.net.
linuxquestions.org. 879 IN NS ns3.choiceone.net.
linuxquestions.org. 879 IN NS ns1.choiceone.net.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mx.linuxquestions.org. 879 IN A 64.246.34.13
backup-mx.choiceone.net. 1152 IN A 64.65.234.98
mail.linuxquestions.org. 900 IN A 64.179.4.146



You would set this up with the company you have your DNS from. If you have your own DNS server registered you must set it up there..



[david@zeus david]$ dig @ns1.linuxquestions.org MX linuxquestions.org
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;linuxquestions.org. IN MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
linuxquestions.org. 900 IN MX 15 mx.linuxquestions.org.
linuxquestions.org. 900 IN MX 20 backup-mx.choiceone.net.
linuxquestions.org. 900 IN MX 10 mail.linuxquestions.org.

;; Query time: 232 msec
;; SERVER: 64.246.34.171#53(ns1.linuxquestions.org)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 10 16:01:38 2003
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 235





Once that's setup people can connect to your mail server by the domain name.


You must setup the firewall to allow access to smtp, pop and whatever else you are going to use. You setup the mail server to listen on the external interface. Start the pop3 service and the mail server.

here is yours

dig MX timelessness.net

; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> MX timelessness.net
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 58937
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 3

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;timelessness.net. IN MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
timelessness.net. 15 IN MX 10 timelessness.net.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
timelessness.net. 172730 IN NS ns1.dns2go.com.
timelessness.net. 172730 IN NS ns2.dns2go.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
timelessness.net. 15 IN A 24.160.231.145
ns1.dns2go.com. 148335 IN A 63.64.164.8
ns2.dns2go.com. 148335 IN A 63.149.6.93

;; Query time: 345 msec
;; SERVER: 209.63.0.2#53(209.63.0.2)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 10 16:13:03 2003
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 160




it's set to

MX 10 timelessness.net


if you want it to be mail.timeless.net you need to change it. If they are going to be the same computer then it should not matter. just use

username@timelessness.net







postfix can be configured to accept either one. the mydestinations settings is going to need to contain all of the domain names to accept.

THANK YOU!

Sorry it took me a while to reply, I've not been up to par. I just got this. I'm going to go read the docs and such right now. Thanks alot for the help thus far, I will now feel free to ask if I have any further problems.

I want user addresses to be anything@timelessness.net. I use an application called dns2go to update DNS with my new ip. This way I don't need to run my own DNS server and I don't have to worry for the tables to update to be backup when my IP changes, etc. It seems to work well, thus far.

I'll post my results here. Thanks again!