Using Sendmail
 

I'm trying to figure out how to send outgoing mail using Sendmail. I'm currently using Slackware 8.0 and have the sendmail daemon running.

What I need to know, do I have to setup anything to use Sendmail?
Does it work right from the start once it's installed?

I have already setup Fetchmail to retrieve my ISP email and I can read the mail using Mutt. Then I wrote an email message and sent it to myself to see if Sendmail is working but I haven't gotten the message yet.

Any ideas/suggestions on getting this to work?

Thnx.

There are any number of reasons that might account for sendmail to fail in sending the outbound message. Any activity or error messages are usually reported in /var/log/messages file. You can use the "tail" command to view the last several lines of the file. The messages reported there could indicate your problem. If the daemon is running then it should be responding on port 25 to accept the mail. If it is from the localhost or destined to a local mailbox then it should handle the mail without any internal problems. Other mail, problems could be relaying denied, etc. If it is a firewall as well, make sure port 25 is available.

Also, there is a possiblity that even a properly configured sendmail server could still fail if your ISP network is port filtering on port 25 or if you are using a dialup account, the receiving server could refuse to handle it because of the reverse IP assignment. If you suspect either of these then your setup is doomed to start with. Both of these are antispam measures in use by some ISP and network management. If your server logs indicate all is well, but the message remains in the mail queue without being sent, these become more possible.

Please advise on any messages that you don't understand or possible problems.

Good luck!

The following is what I received in a returned email to my local mailbox, using Fetchmail:

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
username@swbell.com
(reason: 553 5.1.8 <bittabrotha@GhostDawg.SWBell>... Domain of sender
address
+bittabrotha@GhostDawg.SWBell does not exist)

Swbell is my dialup ISP.

The message here would indicate to me the address was not even correct. I would expect a top level domain after the SWBELL, like .com or .net or something. Also, is GhostDawg the name of your ISP's mail server? Or is that your local server? If it is your local server, then try using the IP address after the @ symbol. If it is Bell's server then use a fully qualified domain name.

You might try using a free account like yahoo.com or something. I have a yahoo account just for this purpose of testing sendmail servers. Yahoo will even let you configure to view all the headers, so you can see what your server is doing.

Thnx for the help...I'm go have to do some more reading up on Sendmail...but will keep the forum informed.

Anymore ideas/suggestions?

I'm using swbell.net as the mail server, so what should my hostname be? username.swbell.com? This part got my confused. Should I take the Ghostdawg part out?

Then the host or server that is running the sendmail is GhostDawg and you are connected on the swbell.net system. I would suggest a hostname of GhostDawg.swbell.net. This is for SMTP operations only in regard to the real world. Edit the /etc/hosts file and identify the local IP address like this

127.0.0.1 Localhost
192.168.1.2 GhostDawg.swbell.net GhostDawg

If you are not on a local network sending mail from another workstation then the file edits above should not be required. If you are, then the workstation also needs to be added using the same domain name. This is what sendmail will use to determine if the mail should be relayed or if it is incoming mail or if it is local delivery. Setup the same config in your workstation as well. Sendmail should send mail to anywhere if the mail originated locally on the host. Otherwise, it is considered relaying and it has to be configured to know what to relay.

There is also a mini HOWTO in the /usr/doc/Linux-mini-HOWTOs called Snedmail+UUCP that you might find helpfull in answering many questions.

Let me know if I am even anwering in the right direction.