Thus spake C Masters: > On Thursday 08 November 2001 15:08, Craig Dickson wrote: > > C Masters wrote: > > > I have several users on this box (2 room mates), each of us uses a > > > different method to read mail (KMail, Mozilla, Netscape), therefore > > > any system would have to be transparent to the other users. > > > > ... snip of details > > > > > Sounds like you want what I have. I have two Debian machines and a > > Windows box, and my wife and I both use them. Debian box #1 is a > > workstation and also runs our mail server and clients. Debian #2 is a > > low-powered machine for running proxy servers outside the firewall. > > That's my ~future~ hope. I'd like to be able to have one box setup to > handle all the admin responsibilities (server, firewall, etc.) in > addition to being a work-station, with other boxes strictly as ws's. > > > Here's what I have set up: > > > > Incoming mail: > > > > On Debian #1, fetchmail, running from per-user crontabs, retrieves > > our mail. (I want to change this to be a single system-wide fetchmail > > running as a daemon, but I haven't got round to it yet.) It gives the > > mail to exim, also running on Debian #1, which sends it to procmail > > for filing. Our firewall blocks the SMTP port, so I don't have to > > worry about anyone compromising my systems via some exim exploit, nor > > do I have to worry about being an open relay for spammers. > > Details on this setup would be ~greatly~ appreciated. I'd like to set > up fetchmail in daemon mode so that it runs continually, regardless of > whether anyone is currently logged on to this box. I've attempted to > set up exim, but that's more or less where my confidence evaporates. > > > Outgoing mail: > > > > Mail clients invoke exim to transmit. Exim is configured to consider > > itself an "internet site" (as I think the exim configuration tool put > > it), so all outgoing mail goes directly to the destination site, > > rather than being forwarded from our ISP's mail server. (In theory, > > some sites may reject mail coming from a home site on a DSL line, but > > that has never happened to us.) It could be reconfigured to be a > > "smart host" that forwards mail to our ISP's servers; it wouldn't > > affect the rest of our setup. I just don't have any reason to do it, > > and I'd rather not have to worry about the dependability or latency > > of someone else's SMTP server. > > I'm also on a DSL line that is always "up". I think I'd better stick to > using my ISP's smtp server. I take it that I would setup exim as a > smarthost then? Details also appreciated. > > > Internal mail: > > > > Debian #2 has ssmtp installed, which is just a simple mail forwarder > > that I configured to send all mail to exim on Debian #1. The only > > mail it sends, generally, is daemon errors mailed to root, which are > > re- addressed to my account at Debian #1. > > As I only have the one box, would I be able to include forwarding of > logs and/or internal mail between users in this setup? > > > Mail clients: > > > > All mail reading is done on Debian #1, either at the console, or from > > the Windows machine in a networked X session (the Windows box has the > > Cygwin Unix tools, including XFree86, installed). I also use ssh to > > connect to Debian #1 from work to read mail. And I have an IMAP > > server installed, though I don't really need it anymore; it was just > > a good way to get all our old mail out of Outlook Express's > > proprietary-format archive files and onto the Linux machine. > > > > So that's a quick description of the setup. If that sounds like what > > you want, feel free to ask for configuration details. > > > > Craig > > Consider this asking for configuration details. The manuals are > beginning to look like aramaic to me. > > C Masters Check out the fetchmailconf package - it gives you a pretty easy (graphical) walkthrough when your setting up the various accounts, and when you feel that you have it right, you just copy it over to /etc/fetchmailrc, and run fetchmail as a daemon. eximconf will also walk you through your setup of that config file, although it's not graphical and asks a few more obscure questions. As an aside, if you have an always on connection, try out the "internet site" config - I've had much better luck with letting exim do my mailings than my ISP - they dropped about a third of them for no reason. After the various mail daemons are up and running, fetchmail will pick up mail and deliver it your local mail spools, and if you like, you can have exim sort mail into folders (you can use procmail as well, although I've found that exim does it very nicely, and the config files are far less like aramaic). The only remaining issues then will be configuring your MUA's to use the mail spool as their default inbox, but that's usually fairly easy. Good luck, Steve -- Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. -- E. B. White
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