Re: Why need an MTA in the defualt install ??

[Dave Sherohman <esper@sherohman.org>]

On Sat, Oct 13, 2001 at 02:55:46PM -0400, dman wrote:
> | Additionally, if the MTA is there for localhost reasons only, why can I 
> | connect to it from another machine on the network??  
> 
> I guess it listens to port 25 (SMTP) by default.  This can surely be
> disabled, or firewall rules can be added so connections to that port
> are ignored.

Indeed it can, in just two easy steps:

1)  Go into /etc/inetd.conf, comment out all lines that mention
"smtp" (there should only be one), and restart inetd
(/etc/init.d/inetd restart).

2)  `update-rc.d -f exim remove`

Step 1 prevents inetd from starting exim in response to port 25
connections and step 2 prevents exim from being run as a daemon.
Most programs that send local notifications will still work, since
they invoke sendmail (which, on a default debian install is a link to
exim) on the command line instead of connecting to port 25.

-- 
When we reduce our own liberties to stop terrorism, the terrorists
have already won. - reverius

Innocence is no protection when governments go bad. - Mr. Slippery