Re: [vox-tech] MTA
On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 02:18:24PM -0700, Nick Schmalenberger wrote: > On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 08:43:28AM -0500, Chanoch (Ken) Bloom wrote: > > On Thu, 2010-04-29 at 01:04 -0700, Richard Harke wrote: > > > Not the MTA Charlie got stuck on. I'm running Debian and every recent > > > (and maybe not so recent) install has installed exim4 as a Mail Transfer > > > Agent. But is not clear that this is doing anything for me. I normally do > > > email > > > through my ISP or in some cases through gmail. When I take my laptop > > > out for coffee, it takes a really long time to decide to skip the MTA > > > startup > > > because it doesn't have internet access. Is there any reason I can't or > > > shouldn't > > > disable it? > > > > AFAICT, nothing important *depends* on an MTA, but several potentially > > important pieces of software recommend it, including at and cron which > > use it to notify of the output of their jobs. > > > > The best thing to do is probably to install a lightweight non-daemon > > mailer like esmtp-run so that programs that need it can still have > > access to a sendmail command. > > > Yes, exactly. I really like ssmtp for this, and its also > available in debian with Provides: mail-transport-agent so it > fills the requirement of other packages that need to send mail. > Nick Schmalenberger While configuring exim is not a trivial task, the debian configuration scripts work well, and automate much of the process (all of it for basic many configurations). Run the following as root. dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config brian -- Brian E. Lavender http://www.brie.com/brian/ "All too often, developers spend a majority of their time integrating disparate technologies, manually tracking state, struggling to understand JSF, wrestling with Hibernate exceptions, and constantly redeploying applications, rather than on the logic pertaining to the business at hand." - Seam Overview ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] MTA
On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 08:43:28AM -0500, Chanoch (Ken) Bloom wrote: > On Thu, 2010-04-29 at 01:04 -0700, Richard Harke wrote: > > Not the MTA Charlie got stuck on. I'm running Debian and every recent > > (and maybe not so recent) install has installed exim4 as a Mail Transfer > > Agent. But is not clear that this is doing anything for me. I normally do > > email > > through my ISP or in some cases through gmail. When I take my laptop > > out for coffee, it takes a really long time to decide to skip the MTA > > startup > > because it doesn't have internet access. Is there any reason I can't or > > shouldn't > > disable it? > > AFAICT, nothing important *depends* on an MTA, but several potentially > important pieces of software recommend it, including at and cron which > use it to notify of the output of their jobs. > > The best thing to do is probably to install a lightweight non-daemon > mailer like esmtp-run so that programs that need it can still have > access to a sendmail command. > Yes, exactly. I really like ssmtp for this, and its also available in debian with Provides: mail-transport-agent so it fills the requirement of other packages that need to send mail. Nick Schmalenberger ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] MTA
Quoting Chanoch (Ken) Bloom (kbl...@gmail.com): > On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 09:50:56AM -0700, Rick Moen wrote: > > Quoting Chanoch (Ken) Bloom (kbl...@gmail.com): > > > > > The best thing to do is probably to install a lightweight non-daemon > > > mailer like esmtp-run so that programs that need it can still have > > > access to a sendmail command. > > > > Note that esmtp is no longer being maintained, but may still be useful > > nonetheless. I maintain a list of similar software, here: > > http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Mail/nullmailers.html > > esmtp is the most capable in terms of outgoing encryption and > authentication (It's been a while, so I don't exactly remember the > details), so it's a good match for Google's SMTP servers which require > those. Those details are highlighted on my page. ;-> ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] MTA
On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 09:50:56AM -0700, Rick Moen wrote: > Quoting Chanoch (Ken) Bloom (kbl...@gmail.com): > > > The best thing to do is probably to install a lightweight non-daemon > > mailer like esmtp-run so that programs that need it can still have > > access to a sendmail command. > > Note that esmtp is no longer being maintained, but may still be useful > nonetheless. I maintain a list of similar software, here: > http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Mail/nullmailers.html esmtp is the most capable in terms of outgoing encryption and authentication (It's been a while, so I don't exactly remember the details), so it's a good match for Google's SMTP servers which require those. --Ken -- Chanoch (Ken) Bloom. PhD candidate. Linguistic Cognition Laboratory. Department of Computer Science. Illinois Institute of Technology. http://www.iit.edu/~kbloom1/ ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] MTA
Quoting Chanoch (Ken) Bloom (kbl...@gmail.com): > The best thing to do is probably to install a lightweight non-daemon > mailer like esmtp-run so that programs that need it can still have > access to a sendmail command. Note that esmtp is no longer being maintained, but may still be useful nonetheless. I maintain a list of similar software, here: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Mail/nullmailers.html -- Rick Moen Well, my terminal's locked up, and I ain't got any mail, r...@linuxmafia.com And I can't recall the last time my program didn't fail; McQ! (4x80)I've got stacks in my structs, I've got arrays in my queues, I've got the: Segmentation violation -- Core dumped blues. ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] MTA
On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 01:04:56AM -0700, Richard Harke wrote: >Not the MTA Charlie got stuck on. I'm running Debian and every recent >(and maybe not so recent) install has installed exim4 as a Mail >Transfer >Agent. But is not clear that this is doing anything for me. I normally >do email >through my ISP or in some cases through gmail. When I take my laptop >out for coffee, it takes a really long time to decide to skip the MTA >startup >because it doesn't have internet access. Is there any reason I can't or >shouldn't >disable it? If cron sends you email. The default config for Exim on Debian is to listen to localhost. -- Brian E. Lavender http://www.brie.com/brian/ "All too often, developers spend a majority of their time integrating disparate technologies, manually tracking state, struggling to understand JSF, wrestling with Hibernate exceptions, and constantly redeploying applications, rather than on the logic pertaining to the business at hand." - Seam Overview ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] MTA
On Thu, 2010-04-29 at 01:04 -0700, Richard Harke wrote: > Not the MTA Charlie got stuck on. I'm running Debian and every recent > (and maybe not so recent) install has installed exim4 as a Mail Transfer > Agent. But is not clear that this is doing anything for me. I normally do > email > through my ISP or in some cases through gmail. When I take my laptop > out for coffee, it takes a really long time to decide to skip the MTA startup > because it doesn't have internet access. Is there any reason I can't or > shouldn't > disable it? AFAICT, nothing important *depends* on an MTA, but several potentially important pieces of software recommend it, including at and cron which use it to notify of the output of their jobs. The best thing to do is probably to install a lightweight non-daemon mailer like esmtp-run so that programs that need it can still have access to a sendmail command. ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] MTA + ... (was: more security questions (DNS & security thread)
Hey Cylar, Glad you got Apache back up. On Mon, 22 Aug 2005, Cylar Z wrote: [snip] > As to sendmail, am I to understand that to run it > "locally," I'd turn the daemon back on, but close the > SMTP port on the iptables firewall? I'm not sure how mail transports work locally. I *think* you can turn off that port altogether because of the way mail transports work, but you may have to open it up locally (127.0.0.1 a.k.a localhost). Try the former and see if you can e-mail from a user account to another user account; if you can't, then open up 127.0.0.1:25 > Assuming your > answer to that is "yes," do I also safely assume that > it's the same way with other services that are to be > run "locally?" I think that's what you said but I want > to be absolutely sure, before I risk opening any holes > in my security perimeter that could be exploited. Well, there's two ways, right?: 1. Make the daemon listen on 127.0.0.1 only. 2. Make the daemon listen on 0.0.0.0 (any IP), but block it off from non-127.0.0.1 IPs using the firewall. #1 is more elegant over #2, I think. But why not combine the best of both methods: 3. Make the daemon listen on 127.0.0.1 only, AND block it off from non-127.0.0.1 IPs using the firewall. So do #3 if you can. To get daemons to listen on 127.0.0.1 only, you'll need to configure each daemon to listen on 127.0.0.1 only; but some daemons may not have that option. And blocking off non-127.0.0.1 IPs is done through the firewall. Sendmail is a special case because I don't think it needs to open up ANY port to transport mails on the same computer; I think it's necessary only when transporting mails over the network to open up port 25. But again, I'm not sure about that so try it out. (Or maybe someone here knows the answer?) > Second, I'm interested in adding a mail server that > actually can communicate with the outside world. I've > been hearing that sendmail config is hard and that I > should use PostFix instead. Your opinion please. I'm probably not the best person to ask since I haven't done much e-mail configuring. From what I've heard at various places it's a good idea to move away from sendmail. Postfix is a good alternative. I personally use Exim but only because that's the Debian default. You probably can't go wrong with either Postfix or Exim, though I've had this impression over the years that Postfix is a little more configurable and powerful while Exim is a bit simpler to configure. But that could be an old idea or even a complete jibbrish so I wouldn't put much weight on it without others' input. -Mark -- Mark K. Kim AIM: markus kimius Homepage: http://www.cbreak.org/ Xanga: http://www.xanga.com/vindaci Friendster: http://www.friendster.com/user.php?uid=13046 PGP key fingerprint: 7324 BACA 53AD E504 A76E 5167 6822 94F0 F298 5DCE PGP key available on the homepage ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
