OK. A key question in considering your options is whether the site itself
will be connected to the Internet 24/7 or just on demand. Since you talk
about a "dialup account with an ISP", I assume the second. If the site
itself is not always connected, it cannot receive e-mail directly (or at
least not with any confidence of timely and reliable delivery). Hence, you
need an always-connected relay site to hold your mail.
There are several ways to do this, many of them depending for their
feasibility on details you have not provided. (E.g.: Does the site have its
own domain? WHo controls its authoritative DNS servers?) The one your ISP
seems to be expecting is the simplest -- it holds the site's mail, and the
site collects it when connected, probably via POP3 or IMAP.
You say the ISP "provides email addresses like
"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"." I have to guess as to what you mean by "like"
in this description. Do you mean that
(a) the site has its own domain name, some_domain.org
(b) the ISP will accept mail to any userid at some_domain.org
and store all of it in a single mail account
- OR -
(a) as above but
(c) the ISP will accept mail to any userid at some_domain.org
and store it in individual mail accounts, each of
the pattern [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- OR -
something yet different ?
If you mean the first, the Red Hat server can use fetchmail to download the
mail from the ISP, each time it connects, and procmail to sort it into user
accounts. The individual PCs can then run any POP3 or IMAP client (I'm not a
Windows expert, so look elsewhere for application names) to download or
access the mail on the RH server.
If you mean the second, each userid on the RH server that corresponds to a
userid on the ISP's mail relay can individually use fetchmail to download
its mail whenever the server is connected. Or the individual PCs can use
POP3 or IMAP clients to download or access the mail directly from the ISP's
mail server.
I can think of a few more possibilities (e.g., the ISP might download the
mail via SMTP, not POP3, and act as an MX backup), but they would be unusual
ways for an ISP to offer the sort of service you describe.
One thing you do not mention is whether you have the RH server set up to
firewall/route the client PCs. This limits my uncerstanding of what you mean
by "[t]he above is already working ...." From a Win9x client, can you
connect to the Internet *through* the RH server or not? Probably not; I
think off-the-shelf RH kernels route, but I don't think they
firewall/Masquerade, and your setup probably needs this. You may need to
compile a custom kernel with additional routing/firewalling functionality
included to let this RH server do everything you probably want. Only
guessing here, though.
One bit of terminology clarification -- "mail server" means any of several
things. In this context, its best meaning is a server that runs programs to
receive and send mail both externally and internally. To receive in the
setup you describe, you probably need a POP3 or IMAP *client* (e.g.,
fetchmail) running on the server. To send mail out from the site, you need
an MTA like sendmail (or exim or smtpd or qmail or ...). To download mail
from the server to the client PCs, you need a POP3 or IMAP *server* (e.g.,
pop3d, imapd). In context, the combined functionality of those 3 apps makes
for a "mail server".
At 03:15 PM 6/28/00 +0100, Hart, Neil wrote:
>Hello
>
>I'm very new to Linux, but would consider myself fairly expert at Windows
>(but not networks). Nevertheless, I'm very confused!
>
>I'm trying to make a mail server for a friend of mine, who runs a charity,
>with about a dozen staff (each with a PC). Each member of staff, wants to
>have their own internet email address, correctly routed to their own PC, as
>well as 'internal' email.
>The existing configuration at the charities office, is a Windows 95/98 peer
>to peer network (10-base-t... I think), with shared folders and printers.
>
>The set-up I want to use, is as follows...
>
>* A dialup account with an ISP, who provides email addresses like
>"[EMAIL PROTECTED]".
>* An old Compaq server with built-in network card.
>* Red Hat 6.0.
>* An external 56K modem
>
>The above is already working and connected to my Win98 machine, at home.
>"Working" means that I can 'ping' each machine from the other and I can open
>a 'terminal' session, to the Linux box, from the Windows PC. I can also
>dial out from Linux and connect to an ISP.
>
>This is where I get stuck. I thought that I needed something like
>'sendmail', but I'm beginning to learn that this is a Mail Transport Agent
>and not a Mail Server. I'm not entirely clear of the difference, and I
>certainly don't know where to go from here (i.e. I haven't got a clue!).
--
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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