Re: Linux Mail Server serving Win 95 clients

[Eric L. Green <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]

On Wed, 22 Apr 1998, Ping Lau wrote:
> I am new to Linux.  I have managed to set up Samba & IP Masq on my Linux
> box.  Now I am trying to setup the Linux box as mail server.  I have 10
> email accounts with a local ISP.  What I want to acheive is to have my
> Linux box dial my ISP & login to each of the 10 mail accounts to retrieve &
> send mails.  My question is do I need both the SMTP & POP3 servers for
> Linux?  If yes, where can I get them?  Lastly, where can I get the step by
> step instructions to set them up?  Thanks.

The SMTP and POP3 servers come built-in with Linux. All that you need to
do to create POP3 mailboxes is create the user using the normal Red Hat
create user function (on the "X" desktop) or using "adduser" at the root
pound sign. You might change their shell in /etc/passwd from /bin/bash to
/usr/bin/passwd too while you're at it (so they can telnet in and change
their password but cannot otherwise get into the server). 

Fetching the mail from the remote server is going to be the kicker. You'll
need to set up a 'cron' job to call 'fetchmail' to do that. Here's my cron
table:

[root@pamslnx]# crontab -u exec -l
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (crontab installed on Thu Jan 15 15:21:33 1998)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $)
0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * fetchmail

What this does is go poll my mailbox every ten minutes, using the file
".fetchmailrc" in my home directory for the user name and password on my
ISP. My .fetchmailrc has lines like this:
 poll [EMAIL PROTECTED] protocol pop3 username exec password asdf
to exec
 poll [EMAIL PROTECTED] protocol pop3 username anothername
password anotherpassword to localusername

(note: don't wrap the lines above)

Try 'man crontab' and 'man fetchmail' for more info. 

If you are going to use the local host as the SMTP server (so that clients
can send mail even if the Internet link is down), consult the Red Hat 5.0
manual for how to turn on SMTP relaying for your local clients. 

Eric Lee Green   [EMAIL PROTECTED]          Executive Consultants
Systems Specialist               Educational Administration Solutions
 "We believe Windows 95 is a walking antitrust violation" -- Bryan Sparks


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