Re: related to mail servers, mta and mda
On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 08:53:11PM -0400, H.S. wrote:
> This is a beginner's (no experience with setting up mail servers) query
> about MTA's and MUA's. I am trying to see if I can setup an mta or a
> related application on my Debian machine which is being run as a router
> for my home lan such that it can send email to an external email
> address. It does not need to receive any public email at all.
>
> I have already tried heirloom and I can send email to my gmail account
> if I put my gmail log in info in my mail's conf file.
>
> Now I am wondering if I can allow outgoing email (need to have port 25
> open?) with no need nor requirement to receive any in coming email from
> the WAN without having to use a particular email's log in info. The idea
> is that email from that machine (and perhaps from lan machines) may be
> sent to any valid email address with reply-to address changed to a fixed
> email address.
I'd suggest that you use exim and use your isp's mail server as a
smarthost. When you install exim, the debconf questions will give you
this choice. You'll need the hostname of your isp's smarthost. Local
mail will be delivered locally, non-local mail will be sent to the
smarthost (with address rewriting so that it appears to the receiver as
coming from your public mail name (e.g. hs@example.com, rather than
hs@myhome). If you want to receive public mail, you'd use something
like fetchmail.
Unless you're running a firewall, you'll already have port 25 (all
ports) open. Installing an MTA will simply provide a server listening
to port 25. However, with the standard debconf smarthost, I don't think
it actually will be listening on your public IP, only on your localnet.
I'd further suggest that you install the doc-linux-howto (something like
that) package, probably in html format. You'll find lots of info,
including mail admin howto.
Doug.
Reply to: