[CentOS] OT: question on setting up an email server

Mon Jun 20 18:09:19 UTC 2005
Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com>

On Sun, 2005-06-19 at 23:22, Jimmy Bradley wrote:
> I'm really doing it for the learning part of it. If Bellsouth's smtp
> server is down when I need to send an email, I just turn to either
> yahoo, or hotmail, and write and send my email from there.
>   The machine that I'm using is a Dell Poweredge 2300 with 3 9.1 scuzzy
> hard drives. The machine was givien to me, and it's somewhat outdated.
> All it has in it is a 500mghrtz single processor, so if I do something
> wrong and the machine implodes, I'm not out any cash.

Why don't you start by setting up local email (which amounts to
making sure that sendmail and dovecot are activated) and configuring
one or more clients (evolution/kmail/outlook).  After the local
side is working, fire up fetchmail to grab your mail from your
ISP account and deliver it into your local system.  Your sendmail
should be configured to forward through your ISP's server anyway
because many recipients will use spam filtering that discards
most dialup/cable modem/dsl ranges. 

After that all works and you still want to completely control the
account, you can set up your own DNS domain name, reconfigure sendmail
to allow remote reception, and accept mail directly from the internet.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
   lesmikesell at gmail.com