sending mail

[Michael Rees]

Hello, I want to open up a customer's server (at their request) to the internet. We only want to allow outbound email at this time. Can anyone give me the basic steps (or detailed if you have time) to accomplish this. I have tried modifying the svc.conf file, creating the resolv.conf file (though I get an error, unable to start resolver). I have tried pinging any outside IP address with no success. This is an old DEC ALPHA 2150 running Tru64 4.0f. Yet, we have the capabilities to telnet in from an outside machine, so I know it is connecting to the internet.

[Johan Brusche]

To avoid forgetting to set appropriate items in ALL related files use bindsetup or bindconfig(=with sysman GUI), instead of editing 'some' random files.

You do not need to configure mail to enable
outbound mail.
Mailsetup or mailconfig, will assist you in configuring mail, but it will result in having inbound mail enabled.
To disable incoming mail do the following:
comment-out the line
smtp 25/tcp mail
from /etc/services and
mv /sbin/init.d/sendmail /sbin/init.d/no.sendmail.deamon

Johan.

[Ralf Puchner]

the setup must be done on firewall not on the Alpha itself!

[Michael Rees]

I used the gui BIND setup, but it always fails stating "invalid nameserver".
This ALPHA has never known about the internet. The internet connection is coming through an XOASIS box running free BSD.
The biggest thing we need right now is the ability to send/receive email for the alpha so we can create automated scripts for emailing, and allow the users to print reports to their internet email account rather than print on paper.
Should I pursue BINDSETUP? or should I try and route the mail through the freeBSD box?
If I pursue the BINDSETUP, do I have to have a 'local domain name' that is registered with NIC? Or can I just make one up? I was making one up in my test, but it didn't fail there (before I made one up it did fail there). Again, this ALPHA will NEVER serve pages, or allow direct access from the internet.

[Al Licause]

bindsetup will only configure your system as either a dns server/client or
a dns client....but you should have it configured minimally as a client.
In v4.0f you should be running v8.8.8 of sendmail. V8.x sendmail wants
to live on a system that can use a dns resolver.

You may also be able to get away with not running bindsetup or have a
working dns resolver if you run mailsetup and tell it to use the LOCAL
dns domain. But in this case you will need to have a valid mail server
or relay that can resolve hostnames and get through the firewall on
your behalf. It can work but it's a trick configuration.

First check your system to see if you are setup to use dns.
Check the hostname command to see if the system is defined with a simple
name or fully qualified domain name. If the later then you may already
be configured to use the dns resolver.

As mentioned earlier, it is best that you use the system provided
configurators as they typically perform all of the necessary steps and
will provide all required file changes.

If bindsetup is failing, you may want to list your hostname, the hosts=
line from /etc/svc.conf and your resolv.conf file to see just what may
be broken.

As also mentioned earlier, outgoing mail should work w/o running mailsetup
but this will only provide a simple setup and you may need more details
in which case you will want to answer all questions from mailsetup.

Another method for configuring the system to run outgoing mail only and
not accept inbound connections on port 25 is to modify the
/sbin/init.d/sendmail script and change the line that starts sendmail
to eliminate the -bd switch.

You might want to place a call to one of the support centers if you
are unable to get this working correctly. Sendmail can often be a
difficult sub system to configure.

Good luck.

[Michael Rees]

Hello everyone, I really appreciate the info. One more question, in running bindsetup and trying to set this up as a client, I am told that I need to have at least one server on my network running as a PRIMARY BIND SERVER. Does this have to be within my domain? I have a nameserver to use, but it is not in my domain. I'm hesitant to continue with bindsetup using this external nameserver because I don't have confirmation that an external nameserver can be considered the same as a primary bind server.
Mike

[Ralf Puchner]

It sound you miss some basics depending "bind".

The nameserver must not within your domain, but it is a bottleneck (because all requests must be routed through a router) and it is save to have one within your network (because if the other network is not reachable your network will also slow down).

So configuring a primary nameserver for your local network would be wise, reducing outage and increases performance....