problems receiving e-mail to my server redux

[Ed McCorduck]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: redhat-list-bounces at redhat.com 
> [mailto:redhat-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Cowles, Steve
> Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 10:29 AM
> To: 'General Red Hat Linux discussion list'
> Subject: RE: problems receiving e-mail to my server redux
> 
> 
> Ed McCorduck wrote:
> > 
> > Hi Steve,
> > 
> > Here's what my ISP told me about any blocking of smtp connections:
> > 
> >> Road Runner does not block any significant ports on your 
> connection. 
> >> The Road Runner service only blocks ports 137-139 
> inclusive for the 
> >> security of your system. These blocked ports will not affect 
> >> connectivity
> 
> That's good to know. Lets just hope the RoadRunners left hand 
> knows what the right hand has implemented. :-)
> 
> With the above in mind, there are 3 basic tasks that you will 
> need to implement at your end to receive e-mail:
> 
> 1) Your firewall will need to forward SMTP (TCP 25) and DNS 
> (TCP/UDP 25) requests to the IP of the server running the 
> corresponding service. Based on your other posts, that should 
> be the 192.168.1.101.

Yes, my firewall is already set up that way (I assume you just made a
typo with "(TCP/UDP 25)," i.e. the port should be 53 as I already have
it. Am I a quick study or what? ;-) )

 
> 2) The DNS service (named) will have to be configured to be 
> the SOA (Start of Authority) for mccorduck.ws so that it can 
> answer queries such as www.mccorduck.ws or return the MX 
> (mail exchanger) records for mccorduck.ws. Simply starting 
> named (as supplied by redhat) on your server will not work. 
> By default, redhat supplies a caching-only name server 
> configuration. If needed, I can supply you with a DNS/bind 
> template that I use to setup a proper SOA for your domain.

I'd really appreciate that. Thanks much. 


> 3) In order to receive e-mail, your server will need an MTA 
> (Message Transport Agent)installed and configured to accept 
> e-mail for mccorduck.ws. Redhat supplies two MTA's, sendmail 
> and postfix. Sendmail being the default MTA that is installed 
> and started. Also, by default, redhat configures sendmail to 
> only accept port 25 connections from localhost, not from 
> external sources like the internet. How to configure sendmail 
> to accept external port 25 connections has been discussed on 
> this list at least a billion times. Hint: 
> /etc/mail/sendmail.mc, look for DAEMON_OPTIONS.
> 
> In addition, remember sendmail is an MTA, not an LDA (local 
> delivery agent). In other words, sendmail does not store 
> inbound e-mail in your mailbox, the LDA (procmail) does that. 
> With this in mind, sendmail must be configured to hand-off 
> any inbound e-mail for mccorduck.ws to the defined LDA. This 
> is done by adding your domain name to /etc/mail/local-host-names.

Thanks again. I've seen these terms and apps bandied about but obviously
I've never quite understood how they all need to work together. I've got
other resources about them at my disposal, and hopefully (<--as an
English teacher I'm not supposed to say that, but I don't think too many
of my kind lurk here ;-) ) I'll figure it all out following your basic
outlines above.  


> Finally, once you get your system configured to accept and 
> deliver e-mail for your domain, be sure to test it against an 
> open-relay checker. This will insure that you have not made 
> an inadvertent change to sendmail's configuration where it 
> accidentaly becomes an open-relay for spammers. There are 
> many open-relay checkers available on the internet - I have 
> always used this one: http://www.abuse.net/relay.html

Thanks for this too. Yes, I'm well aware of the need to keep my server
from being a spam relayer (if--God forbid--it isn't one already), and in
fact when I came crying to this forum a couple of months ago in my first
_cris de coeur_ regarding my e-mail problem Rodolfo J. Paiz gave me the
link to his site http://www.simpaticus.com which has some good
instructions for doing this (as well as info. about flying; a fellow
aviation buff!) I intended to set my server up this way as soon as it's
working properly in all ways.  


> Good Luck
> Steve Cowles

Thanks, I really appreciate it, Steve, as well as all the help you and
other have given me on this forum.


Ed McCorduck
Department of English
State University of New York College at Cortland 
http://mccorduck.cortland.edu 
ICQ: http://mccorduck.cortland.edu/pager 
AIM: EdMcCorduck