Help with Email from Unix

Email from Unix and SMTP servers

[megha11]

I have a HP Unix box that I need to setup for emailing out to the world. What do I need to setup? Do I need an SMTP server pointing to an ISP? If yes briefly how does the SMTP server work?
Thanks for your help.

[kenta]

Reading your post I'm not sure if it's clear if you want to:
1) Setup an SMTP server on the HP machine to then use it to send e-mails. If this is the case you'll need to install some type of mail server (like Sendmail) or see if there's already one installed. Try typing "telnet 127.0.0.1 25" and see if it comes back with a like that starts with "220". If you get the 220 you've got some kind of mail server already running.

2) Setup a client to use an exisiting SMTP Server. If you have an SMTP server you can point it to your own machine... or like any other e-mail client you could try using or ISP's or other SMTP server that's available by configuring the client. That pretty much varies from client to client.