Serving Mail
You are probably used to composing email in a program such as Eudora, Netscape Messenger, or Outlook. These programs are mail clients—for them to work, mail must be served to them by a server program running on the network known generically as a mail transport agent (MTA).
Sendmail is the most widely used Unix MTA. In fact, it is probably the most widely used MTA on any platform. The sendmail program comes bundled with Red Hat Linux 6. If you chose to install the server components when you installed Red Hat Linux 6, it is probably already on your system. Otherwise, you install it from the CD using GnoRPM, as explained in Chapters 2 and 3.
This section shows you how to configure sendmail's basic options (there is not much to it). For information on sendmail's extensive options, refer to
To create a basic sendmail configuration:
1. | Log on as root. |
2. | Open the Linux Configuration applet. |
3. | Scroll down the left panel to the Mail Delivery System (Sendmail) section. |
4. | Click Basic Information. The Basic Sendmail Configuration tab will open (Figure 13.36). Figure 13.36. A basic sendmail configuration is usually enough to get the mail delivered.
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5. | Enter a name for mail presentation. All email from your organization will be presented using this name, usually your domain name, no matter what host it originates from. |
6. | Select Accept Mail for the Domain. |
7. | Provide the name of the mail server, which stores email for users and the mail gateway (often the same as the mail server). |
8. | Set the mail gateway protocol, by default SMTP. |
9. | Click Accept. |
10. | When prompted, activate the changes. |
Tip
The Help file, which you can open from the Basic Sendmail Configuration tab by clicking Help, contains detailed instructions on completing the configuration. (This is in contrast to most of the Linux Configuration Applet Help files, which by and large haven't been written yet.)
Tip
You may want to activate Relay Control, which prevents spammers from "borrowing" your SMTP server (for example, sendmail) and deluging the world with things like email advertisements for Ponzi schemes and get-rich chain letters.