I'm trying to set up sendmail so I can receive e-mail directly, in addition to using my isp supplied e-mail.
My biggest concern is that I don't want people on the internet to be able to use my smtp server as a means to send mail to people with the result making it look like it me... I think that's called "relaying"...
Anyway... can anybody recommend any good books on setting up sendmail?
Thanks, Don
Don wrote:
I'm trying to set up sendmail so I can receive e-mail directly, in addition to using my isp supplied e-mail.
My biggest concern is that I don't want people on the internet to be able to use my smtp server as a means to send mail to people with the result making it look like it me... I think that's called "relaying"...
Anyway... can anybody recommend any good books on setting up sendmail?
I'm only aware of one book concerning sendmail which you probably do not want to use before you have sendmail running - namely the "bat book" by O'Reilly, which makes a good door stop to.
If this is your "first" mailserver, may I recommend to switch to postfix? It is a) much easier to setup (as it has a config file which *is* readable by a human) and b) doesn't have a security history like sendmail, which has only been beaten by wu-ftpd and openSSH :)
There's pretty much online documentation available at http://www.postfix.org/. Sendmail's a tough beast which's taming isn't for the faint at heart. Im not aware of any recommendable book on postfix though.
Postfix comes with fedora core and there even is a redhat-switch-mail-gnome interface to switch from sendmail to postfix on fedora.
Regards,
Ralph
Don wrote:
I'm trying to set up sendmail so I can receive e-mail directly, in addition to using my isp supplied e-mail.
The documentation that sits on the disks (and installs to /usr/share/doc/....) and the manpages (start at `man sendmail`).
First thing that comes to mind (if you need a book that you can throw out of the window) is O'Reilly (http://www.oreilly.com/). Then a long time nothing...
My biggest concern is that I don't want people on the internet to be able to use my smtp server as a means to send mail to people with the result making it look like it me... I think that's called "relaying"...
Anyway... can anybody recommend any good books on setting up sendmail?
Also look at stuf like procmail and fetchmail.
Thanks, Don
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On Wednesday, Nov 26th 2003 at 00:45 -0800, quoth Don:
=>I'm trying to set up sendmail so I can receive e-mail directly, in =>addition to using my isp supplied e-mail. => =>My biggest concern is that I don't want people on the internet to be =>able to use my smtp server as a means to send mail to people with the =>result making it look like it me... I think that's called "relaying"... => =>Anyway... can anybody recommend any good books on setting up sendmail?
The bat book from O'Reilly is a good reference but it's not the easiest thing to learn from.
An absolutelty excellent book to learn sendmail is called "Linux Sendmail Administration" by Craig Hunt. That book made learning sendmail fun.
[and I'm fun at parties too. :-)]
On 11/26/03 1:45 AM, "Don" dnrlinux@san.rr.com spoke thusly:
I'm trying to set up sendmail so I can receive e-mail directly, in addition to using my isp supplied e-mail.
My biggest concern is that I don't want people on the internet to be able to use my smtp server as a means to send mail to people with the result making it look like it me... I think that's called "relaying"...
Anyway... can anybody recommend any good books on setting up sendmail?
Like most people would say, O'Reily's 'Bat' book on Sendmail is really usefull, and it is in a reference sort of way. Their companion 'Sendmail Cookbook' is a must have too as it contains specific examples. As a new Sys Admin., I just jumped in to Sendmail. I had heard the arguments from others that sendmail sucked, was too hard, had security issues, etc. Try Postfix, Qmail, etc. instead. Well, Sendmail did have security issues--several years ago, in its infancy! Its sendmail.cf file is very difficult to configure. That¹s why everything is done in the sendmail.mc file where things are much more manageable! I have yet to experience any issues and have been up and running for two years now. My main issue really is trying to instead manage our companies spam problem. Anyway....
By default, Sendmail will not allow relaying. The sendmail.mc, usually in /etc/mail, has a line that starts:
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl
Like the note, in the file, above this line says: 'this causes Sendmail to only listen on the loopback address'. Commenting this line out will cause Sendmail to listen on all interfaces. (don't forget to run 'make' and restart your mail server)
A few helpful links would be:
Setting up a mail gateway: (this talks about a lot more than mail, but is relevant to getting your mail from an ISP as well. So you'll want to look at the mail stuff specifically) http://www.pcquest.com/archive/articledetail.asp?arid=25270
Setting up a mailserver: http://www.pcquest.com/content/linux/handson/101071103.asp
A really helpful link is Peter Harrison's website, (I suggest purchasing his book(s), it's only available in pdf format. The cost is only $5.00 (per book) and worth it! He has more info in the pdf than on his website. The pdf also has examples of the full config files.) Note: I'm not pushing his book, I just found it really helpful at times. http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/linux-hn/sendmail.htm
You can see what else he has at www.linuxhomenetworking.com.
Anyway, I hope this helps.
Craig D.
Don wrote:
I'm trying to set up sendmail so I can receive e-mail directly, in addition to using my isp supplied e-mail.
My biggest concern is that I don't want people on the internet to be able to use my smtp server as a means to send mail to people with the result making it look like it me... I think that's called "relaying"...
Anyway... can anybody recommend any good books on setting up sendmail?
This really shouldn't be all that difficult. If all you want to be able to do is to receive email from outside, what you basically want to do is go into the m4 config file on your server, and edit it to allow outside connections. That would be /etc/mail/sendmail.mc. Take the 127.0.0.1 restriction out of the DAEMON_OPTIONS line. Use make to rebuild sendmail.cf, and then restart sendmail.
Relaying will be turned off by default - you really have to try if you want to allow it.
Now - that may only be the beginning of your email issues - Do you own a domain name? Do you have the MX records pointing to your mail server? Do you have a static IP or are you on a dynamically allocated IP address? But the first stumbling block will be to get yourself set up to be able to receive email on your SMTP port if someone actually sends it there.
Oh - and you may need to change your firewall settings on the box too.
Thanks, Don
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Actually, Don, depending on your circumstances, working your way through the bat book might be a bit like taking a course in aeronautics when all you want to do is catch a flight from New York to London.
If you're providing mail services to clients on an internal network, you'll need a mail server -- sendmail, postfix, qmail, etc. If you're pretty much a bog standard singleton user with an account at an ISP and no network to support, you might decide running your own mail server doesn't offer much in return, apart from the sheer geekiness factor. (Also, consider what happens when you go out of town and power down the server.)
Before buying those books, check the support section of Red Hat's site for howto's on using sMandrake doesn't seem to be able to profit from its gendmail or postfix with their recent releases. (Just run a search.) Guidance for RH9, and RH8 I believe, applies without modification to Fedora.
If you own a domain, have a static IP address, and want your server to receive all mail addressed to that domain, you'll need to learn a smidgen or two about DNS, in particular, A records, MX records, and PTR records.
If you don't own a domain and have a dynamic IP address assignd by your ISP, you'll need to check out using one of the dynamic DNS services that allow you to emulate having a static IP.
Either way, you're mail server needs to have a static IP that's associated with a domain before it can receive your mail. (I suspect there's some convoluted way around that, but...)
Frankly, if you are a singleton user with a dynamic IP and no domain, you might simplify your life by using sendmail to route your outgoing mail to your ISP's mail server (this is called the "smart host" option; postfix and qmail let you do the same thing) and using fetchmail to pull your mail from your ISP's mail server. Or use fetchmail and just use your ISP's mail server for your outgoing mail. That way, you have zero concerns about being an unsuspecting mail relay.
billg
On Wed, 2003-11-26 at 09:38, Steven W. Orr wrote:
On Wednesday, Nov 26th 2003 at 00:45 -0800, quoth Don:
=>I'm trying to set up sendmail so I can receive e-mail directly, in =>addition to using my isp supplied e-mail.
Actually, Don, depending on your circumstances, working your way through the bat book might be a bit like taking a course in aeronautics when all you want to do is catch a flight from New York to London.
If you're providing mail services to clients on an internal network, you'll need a mail server -- sendmail, postfix, qmail, etc. If you're pretty much a bog standard singleton user with an account at an ISP and no network to support, you might decide running your own mail server doesn't offer much in return, apart from the sheer geekiness factor. (Also, consider what happens when you go out of town and power down the server.)
Before buying those books, check the support section of Red Hat's site for howto's on using sMandrake doesn't seem to be able to profit from its gendmail or postfix with their recent releases. (Just run a search.) Guidance for RH9, and RH8 I believe, applies without modification to Fedora.
If you own a domain, have a static IP address, and want your server to receive all mail addressed to that domain, you'll need to learn a smidgen or two about DNS, in particular, A records, MX records, and PTR records.
If you don't own a domain and have a dynamic IP address assignd by your ISP, you'll need to check out using one of the dynamic DNS services that allow you to emulate having a static IP.
Either way, you're mail server needs to have a static IP that's associated with a domain before it can receive your mail. (I suspect there's some convoluted way around that, but...)
Frankly, if you are a singleton user with a dynamic IP and no domain, you might simplify your life by using sendmail to route your outgoing mail to your ISP's mail server (this is called the "smart host" option; postfix and qmail let you do the same thing) and using fetchmail to pull your mail from your ISP's mail server. Or use fetchmail and just use your ISP's mail server for your outgoing mail. That way, you have zero concerns about being an unsuspecting mail relay.
Actually the combination of own domain and don't have a static IP address works fine with custom DynDns. The "bat book" does look a bit daunting I must admit but I bought it as a spur to getting behind the Linux GUI as well. A simple me@mydonain.net set-up should be fairly using the docs that are on the web. There is also a sendmail news group where you can ask. Regards Roger
Em Qua, 2003-11-26 às 15:41, bill_g escreveu:
you'll need a mail server -- sendmail, postfix, qmail, etc. If you're pretty much a bog standard singleton user with an account at an ISP and no network to support, you might decide running your own mail server doesn't offer much in return, apart from the sheer geekiness factor. (Also, consider what happens when you go out of town and power down the server.)
If you only have a dynamic ip, but want to use your own domain, I would recommend you http://www.everydns.net - Its a free DNS server, which works well. You can store both static and dynamic domains. In fact, I have SEVERAL domains which everydns responds to. And of these several domains, I have several machines which are dynamic ips. Including the one responsible for my emails, for years.
The problem: using a dynamic ip may put you in several SPAMMER lists, like it happens to me. Works perfectly for everyday use, though.
Em Qua, 2003-11-26 às 06:45, Don escreveu:
Anyway... can anybody recommend any good books on setting up sendmail?
There are some people here which can write a sendmail.cf by memory... I am not one of these.
I use postfix now, because of the simple fact that fedora comes with it, not sendmail or qmail (which I used to use). Its simple. It works. And its easy to set up. Take a look at it before deciding.
It works with me, and my adsl modem, just wonderfully.
Ou course sendmail will do, as qmail, but when postfix is already there...
On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, Alexandre Strube wrote:
I use postfix now, because of the simple fact that fedora comes with it, not sendmail or qmail (which I used to use). Its simple. It works. And its easy to set up. Take a look at it before deciding. Ou course sendmail will do, as qmail, but when postfix is already there...
Whre can I find out about Postfix, and getting Majordomo or Mailman to work with it? How secure is it?
******************************************************************************* Gilbert Sebenste ******** (My opinions only!) ****** Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University **** E-mail: gilbert@niu.edu *** web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu ** Work phone: 815-753-5492 * *******************************************************************************
sebenste@weather.admin.niu.edu (Gilbert Sebenste) writes:
On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, Alexandre Strube wrote:
I use postfix now, because of the simple fact that fedora comes with it, not sendmail or qmail (which I used to use). Its simple. It works. And its easy to set up. Take a look at it before deciding. Ou course sendmail will do, as qmail, but when postfix is already there...
Whre can I find out about Postfix, and getting Majordomo or Mailman to work with it? How secure is it?
http://www.postfix.org It works with both majordomo and mailman.
The author wrote satan, tcp wrappers, and Postfix is securely and safely written.
It is also easy to configure and runs "safely" out of the box.
If you need performance it also works well in that respect and has good out-of-the-box anti-spam features.
Simon
On Wed, 2003-11-26 at 20:24, Alexandre Strube wrote:
Em Qua, 2003-11-26 às 06:45, Don escreveu:
Anyway... can anybody recommend any good books on setting up sendmail?
There are some people here which can write a sendmail.cf by memory... I am not one of these.
I'm not either...but I can do it on the .mc file, 'cause it's so well documented. Let me save you some steps.
Sendmail, like the kind you find on RH9 or Fedora, is almost ready-to-go, other than a couple of 'fixes'. If you're box is "mail.mydomain.com" (for real, with a properly setup DNS in effect) then it's just a matter of re-writing the 'daemon' lines to indicate what your IP address is on the box. Edit sendmail.mc (NOT the .cf) and then run the command at the top of the .mc file, restart sendmail and you're in business.
Then, install spamassassin, mailman, and you're jammin. Really- no tricks. Just get your DNS set up right, and it's ready to go.
Now sure...if you have an AX.25 line, want to run some uucp stuff, or implement the 'clay tablet TCP/IP', you're gonna have to do other steps. But for 95% of the situation, you're set.
Options:
A lot of people have a mahine inside the NAT network to be the mailer. Not too much tougher- the firewall will have to pass port 25 traffic to that machine, that machine will have to have a name/ip that meshes with the local network, not the net, and you'll have to turn on the 'masquerading' lines (there's 2-3 of'em) and THEN you're set.
Just remember what I said: outside a local network, load it and go. The one line about 'daemons' is there to ensure you don't set up an open relay by mistake...but it's easy. And the upgrades are nice and uneventful, too.
If you get stuck, drop me a line...or use ICQ. :)
On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, Brian Fahrlander wrote:
Options: A lot of people have a mahine inside the NAT network to be themailer. Not too much tougher- the firewall will have to pass port 25 traffic to that machine, that machine will have to have a name/ip that meshes with the local network, not the net, and you'll have to turn on the 'masquerading' lines (there's 2-3 of'em) and THEN you're set.
If you are inside a dynamic DNS NAT isolated universe make sure that outgoing mail has a From:/Reply-To: line that works the way you expect it to for all your users.
At 02:45 11/26/2003, you wrote:
I'm trying to set up sendmail so I can receive e-mail directly, in addition to using my isp supplied e-mail.
My biggest concern is that I don't want people on the internet to be able to use my smtp server as a means to send mail to people with the result making it look like it me... I think that's called "relaying"...
No books necessary. My apologies for taking so long to respond, and I've seen that others responded earlier so hopefully this is still useful to you. I have written instructions for how to configure sendmail to accept mail from the outside and protect you from unauthorized relaying. I believe those instructions are pretty complete and pretty accurate, and about 200 people a month read them (given October and November stats):
http://www.simpaticus.com/linux/sendmail-smtp-auth-howto.html
Please let me know if you find those useful, and if there is anything else you would like them to include. I am already working on the next revision, which will show in a little more detail the difference between steps in various operating systems, and also how to setup a POP3/IMAP server package so that people can check mail as well. Note that checking mail is a ridiculously easy thing, but some people still ask that it specifically be included.
Feedback, comments, suggestions, questions... all welcome.
Hi, not entirely on topic, but I'm looking for some utilities to monitor/configure serial ports. We use a lot of Stallion boards under SCO, and got used to easyadm. Stallion have stated they have no intention of porting this to linux.
I'm looking for a package to run under Fedora or RHEL (we are likely to deploy both ) that allows configuration of both RFC2217 remote serial ports, onboard ttySx ports and Stallion EasyIO ports. It should show port usage (pin status, bps throughput, current settings) in either an Ncurses (preferable, we do most maintenance over 28k modems) or X. One combined tool would be great, but individual tools to do the same would be fine.
Googling etc has not come up with much in the way of serial tools. I usually use stty but this does not have the "point-n-click" effect I'm looking for - 3am with a factory stopage is no time to be deciphering those options anyway. statserial seems okay but I'd really prefer one centralised tool like what is availabe for SCO.
Does anyone have any leads for me?
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