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Re: Mail & News Reader



on Mon, Apr 02, 2001 at 07:54:59AM +0200, Axel Schlicht (axel.schlicht@mail.isis.de) wrote:

> With a new ISDN card installed I can now - finally - switch over to
> Linux for email and news retrieval.
> 
> I need a program / programs able to to the following:
> - retrieve email / newsgroups automatically or (definitely preferred)
>   whenever I fell like retrieving them.
> - consecutively contact serveral mail servers and news servers, some of
>   them requiring autentification.
> - sort incoming e-mail (and , hopefully) usenet news into several
>   directories according to the mailing list / sublist they came from,
>   sender or any other ciriterion.
> - keep Japanese, Korean and other asian emails on the respective server
>   as I don't know how to read AND answer them using Linux. If anybody
>   knows a solution to this, please share it with me.
> 
> I do not want to use netscape or any other monster with severely limited
> abilities.

There's also Mozilla....  Or emacs/xemacs, both of which provide access
to mail and news.  I don't care for Mozilla, but am going to take a look
at emacs/xemacs for a while.

> As far as I know I should have the following to receive and send emails
> and participate in usenet newsgroups:
> - ISDN for Linux
> - a mail retrieval program : fetchmail ?

Yes.

> - a mail transport agent (MTA) : procmail ? exim ?

Exim is a transfer agent.  Postfix is another reasonable alternative.

> - a mail reader : tin, mutt ?

Mutt.  Hands down.

> - a news reader ?

I use tin, slrn is roughly comperable.  Neither really agrees with me.
Mutt has a patch which allows it to be used as a newsreader.  This is
now debianized, though not included in the main Debian archive.   I'll
probably have it installed in the next couple of days.

> Am I correct so far. Would you accept the suggestions above (suggestions
> I once received from unix users).
> 
> As far as I know, Debian prefers exim as an MTA. Should I stick to this
> or use procmail?

Procmail is an MDA, mail delivery agent.  You use this to filter your
email.  It's a bitch to set up and learn, but very powerful.  This is a
different role than an MTA.  Essentially:


   Sender
     |                  {Net}        {Net}
     |                 
 +-------+    +--------+    +-------+    +-------+    +-------+
 |  MUA  |===>|  MTA   |===>| POP   |===>| Fetch-|===>| Proc- |
 | (mutt)|    | (exim) |    | server|    | mail  |    | mail  |
 +-------+    +--------+    +-------+    +-------+    +-------+
                                                          |     
                                                          |     
                                                       Recipient



Veil Gluck!

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>    http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?       There is no K5 cabal
  http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/         http://www.kuro5hin.org

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