redhat 9 + sendmail + n00b(me)= help

having issues getting sendmail running

[pewpmaster]

alright... so i have redhat 9 installed... and the sendmail package that came with the rh disks... the service is running fine... and i've been reading around trying to find a good howto on setting up sendmail, but i've not found anything yet.

i've gone into the sendmail.mc and added some stuff that people recommended and i get nothing. the service starts up and everything fine, but i'm not sure what's going wrong...

if there is anyone that would be willing to talk one on one via an instant messenger or email or something to help me sort this out that would be great! unless someone wants to talk it through on here, that would be swell too

any help is welcome!

[jamie]

hi pewpmaster

welcome to webmasterworld :)

are you trying to set up sendmail for home use or on a server with virtual domains so that clients can log in, etc?

one of the problems i had when setting it up was to tell it not to listen on just the loopback interface 127.0.0.1. there is a line in sendmail.mc which you have to comment out by adding dnl to the start of the line. it starts DAEMON_OPTIONS('Port=smtp.....

then run the m4 command as it specifies at the top of the .mc file and restart sendmail.

it should now be able to use your network card to access the real world

maybe that helps?

[pewpmaster]

yeah i did that... it's a server, but it has no internal network.. it's just sitting on one IP and one domain hosting an httpd server and attempting the mail server deal... and i've done the commenting out the local 127.0.0.1 thing... it seems like it's running ok but i cannot connect to it from another computer and when i send out i get a relaying error(not sure if it's supposed to relay)... here is an example

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject:hsdlfaj
Sent:3/30/2004 8:40 AM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

'[e-mail]' on 3/30/2004 8:40 AM
550 5.7.1 ... Relaying denied

i just don't know where to start really with setting this up properly and finding a site that has a good straight forward setup is next to impossible

[nalin]

You might want to try postfix [postfix.org], it was designed as a sendmail replacement without the configuration and security implications of sendmail, and is popular enough that it is in up2date and likely on your redhat disks as well. Some of the most straightforward documentation I have found on it is maintained by the Gentoo team in their desktop guide [gentoo.org] (select chapter 6, it seems they redirect to the TOC on external links), it takes minimal configuration and tend to explain things rather then just giving random modifications (they also have a more extensive virtual mailhost guide and a qmail guide, but these would require much more adaptation for redhat).

To accept mail as a given domain name you simply change two of the postfix.conf variables to reflect your host.

If you stick with sendmail be very cautious to not create a relay - a server that accepts mail from third parties for third parties - mail servers misconfigured to allow this are one of the largest reasons spam is as prevailent as it is.

[jamie]

pewpmaster,

sendmail is set up by default not to allow relaying. so in order to allow it you must first authenticate yourself on the server (login and let it know who you are) before it will allow you to send messages.

have a look at pop-before-smtp.pl [popbsmtp.sourceforge.net] which is a small programme which allows you to login to sendmail, recognises who you are and then allows you a 15 minute window in which to send you messages. all this means is that in any email programme you have to receive before you send.

once you have pop-before-smtp installed you have to make some manual adjustments to the sendmail.cf file (not for the faint-hearted ;). but there are some good docs for that on the pop-before-smtp site, including the exact bit of text you have to add to the sendmail.cf

HTH :)

[kenta]

Are you trying to send mail from an OUTSIDE machine or directly from the server?

If you're going directly from the server using a local mail client you should be able to send mail. You might want to make sure /etc/mail/acess has your loopback (127.0.0.1) in there.

If you're trying to send from the outside you might want to look into a pop-auth type solution like Jaime mentioned. You definately don't want to open up your machine to the world as a relay.

[pewpmaster]

so what would you guys recommend for the best auth program?

cause i wanna run the mail server for people that are not on the server.. like remote users and people that are affiliated with the domain and whatnot...

[jamie]

pewpmaster,

try out the one in my previous post

we use it on a relatively busy production server and have never had a problem with it.

[pewpmaster]

will do... :)