Requesting general SMTP guidance and opinions

[Benjamin J. Weiss]

Jeff Boyce wrote:

>Greetings -
>
>I am new to managing a Linux network for a small office so am looking for some general guidance and opinions.  My issue is that I have several administrative programs on my server (e.g., tape backup and Dell OpenManage Server administrative tools) that have the ability to send notices to the system administrator to notify them of certain conditions.  I would like to enable this as a tool for keeping track of the conditions on my system.
>
>We are running RHEL3, and our server is used primarily as a Samba file server for a small group of Windows based desktops.  I believe that Sendmail and Postfix were installed on the server during the initial setup, although all unnecessary services are turned off to assist with security.  Our incoming email service is handled via POP3 from a 3rd party provider.  In order for my administrative tools to email messages to me, do I need to configure/start Sendmail or Postfix.  For just this function, which one would be preferred and be easy to configure for this purpose by a novice administrator?  Is there possibly another option for providing this function that would be simpler to implement and secure?  Thanks.
>  
>
Okay, you say that your incoming email is handled via POP3 from a 3rd 
party provider.  If I understand correctly, this means that when you 
receive this email to jboyce at meriianenv.com,  the email is actually 
going to and being stored at electra.he.net.  You are then using POP3 to 
retrieve your email.

If this is in fact the case, then you don't have to have postfix or 
sendmail started.  postfix and sendmail are used to *receive* email.

What should happen is that your program will want to send an email to 
you.  It will use DNS to find the MX record for your domain.  The MX 
record shows the mail server that handles email for your domain.  (from 
a linux prompt, try 'dig -t MX meridianenv.com' without the quotes.)  
The program will then contact that server and send the email.  Then, 
when you use your POP3 client to retrieve your email, it will be there.

This is how it *should* work.

HTH,

Ben