Help configuring email server...

[linux at bizniche.com]

Brian Densmore <DensmoreB at ctbsonline.com> wrote on 10/07/2004, 03:33:19
PM:
> So what happened with your mail server? Get it working?

It's nearly there!  I decided to give exim one more shot, and then move
to sendmail if I still can't get it going.  Following the advise in
several emails, I found a few errors and corrected them.  Earlier, for
a test, I setup an account in fetchmail to see where _that_ mail would
end up, and after correcting my errors, it those messages (from the
pop3 account fetchmail was pulling down) ended up in my inbox. (Viewed
in mutt.)  That was encouraging.  New mails to that account also end up
in my inbox.  So...SOMETHING is working right. 

I still can't get local mail (mail -s "testing" mdg) or mail sent
straight to mdg at mdg.homelinux.org to get to my inbox though. 

The other issues, that I figured I would deal with last, is that reading
through the exim logs, I find that some test mails I sent from the
mdg at mdg.homelinux.org account are rejected by the recipient server, and
it tells me to stop using a dhcp host, and to use my isp's smarthost. 

Also, this domain is a dyndns.org domain, and it lets me setup an MX
host for this domain.  I assume it would be mdg.homelinux.org. 

So...great help so far.  I'm not quitting this time...I'm getting this
thing going if it kills me.

Here is a question that I've wondered about.   I see great benefit by
using fetchmail and some spam filters together.  I have a few pop3
accounts that I check via thunderbird.  It seems like I could have my
little linux email server checking these for me, filtering the spam,
and making the emails availble in an IMAP format (which I prefer.) 
Knowing that...Can I also _send_ from each of these accounts, through
my linux server?  That is...if fetchmail is pulling mail from
mdg at domain1.com and mgraham at otherdomain.com, and I'm reading them
trough an IMAP setup in thunderbird...can I respond to these mails and
have them come from mdg at domain1.com and msgraham at otherdomain.com
respectively?  It seems like they'd always come from
mdg at mdg.homelinux.org.  Right?

Matt



> > Hey everyone:
> > 
> > For some reason, understanding how to run a for-fun email server is
> > beyond me.  So, I'm trying to get this configured one step at a time. 
> > I find some tutorials online that say..."Yeah, just setup exim,
> > fetchmail, squirrelmail, courier-imap, and spamassassin and you're
> > almost there!"  That sounds like a lot to me.  So...I'm 
> > starting small.
> >  First things first, I want to get exim working with courier-imap.  
> > 
> > Here is my setup, then I will show the errors I'm getting:
> > 
> > Debain Testing
> > exim
> > courier-imap
> > Timewarner cable
> > mdg.homelinux.org pointing from dyndns.org to my server.  
> > 
> > Here is a snip of my exim conf. (the parts that seem relevant)
> > =====
> > host_accept_relay = 127.0.0.1 : ::::1
> > host_auth_accept_relay = *
> > local_delivery:
> >   driver = appendfile
> >   group = mail
> >   mode = 0660
> >   mode_fail_narrower = false
> >   envelope_to_add = true
> >   return_path_add = true
> >   #file = /var/mail/${local_part}
> >   directory=${home}/Maildir
> >   maildir_format = true
> >   prefix=""
> > ===================
> > 
> > My /etc/login.defs file has:
> > QMAIL_DIR    Maildir/
> > #MAIL_DIR             
> > MAIL_FILE    Maildir/
> > 
> > ==================
> > 
> > And my /etc/pam.d file has:
> > session optional pam_mail.so standard noenv dir=~/Maildir
> > 
> > ===================
> > 
> > In my home dir, I have a .forward with:
> > ~/Maildir
> > 
> > I also have a folder called Maildir with mdg:mail ownership.
> > 
> > ====================
> > 
> > Now, when I log into mutt, and send a test mail somewhere, it 
> > works just
> > fine.  Comes from mdg at mdg.homelinux.org.  When I try to mail back, I
> > get this header:
> >  ----- Message header follows -----
> > 
> > Received: by 10.11.98.52 with SMTP id v52mr399875cwb;
> >        Mon, 04 Oct 2004 08:47:12 -0700 (PDT)
> > Received: by 10.11.98.53 with HTTP; Mon, 4 Oct 2004 08:47:12 
> > -0700 (PDT)
> > Message-ID: 
> > Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 10:47:12 -0500
> > From: Matt Graham 
> > Reply-To: Matt Graham 
> > To: Matt Graham 
> > Subject: Re: Testing
> > In-Reply-To: 
> > Mime-Version: 1.0
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> > References: 
> > ========================
> > 
> > 
> > And I see this in my exim log:
> > 
> > 
> > 2004-10-05 13:08:02 Start queue run: pid=5976
> > 2004-10-05 13:08:02 1CEnRF-0001Pe-00 == ~/Maildir/@mdg.homelinux.org
> >  directing defer (-41): retry time not reached
> > 2004-10-05 13:08:02 1CEXlE-000104-00 == ~/Maildir/@mdg.homelinux.org
> >  directing defer (-41): retry time not reached
> > 2004-10-05 13:08:02 1CEXfM-0000zL-00 == ~/Maildir/@mdg.homelinux.org
> >  directing defer (-41): retry time not reached
> > 2004-10-05 13:08:02 1CEXIh-0000xp-00 == ~/Maildir/@mdg.homelinux.org
> >  directing defer (-41): retry time not reached
> > 2004-10-05 13:08:02 1CEXIg-0000xp-00 == ~/Maildir/@mdg.homelinux.org
> >  directing defer (-41): retry time not reached
> > 2004-10-05 13:08:02 1CEXcW-0000zA-00 == ~/Maildir/@mdg.homelinux.org
> >  directing defer (-41): retry time not reached
> > 2004-10-05 13:08:02 End queue run: pid=5976
> > 
> > ========================