# Mail questions?

## ralphdewitt

Hi:

I am new to Gentoo and this level of involvment with my linux system, the installation is going slowly, and is a bit overwhelming. Right now I have Kmail set up to recieve and send my mails, that is when I can get the system stable enough to run kde. (Did something when I recompiled the kernel to make kde lock up, have not figured that out yet). But what I would like to do is set up on of the more traditional programs to recieve and send mail to my isp, and have Kmail fetch the mail for that program and send out going to other mail program that would then send it on to my isp's smtp server. At some time in the future I may set up samba and have my window machine using Mozzila mail do the same thing. Get and send mail through my machine.  My question is what are good simple and ease programs to do this with. I know nothing of postfix that is mentioned in the Desktop manual. Your advice greatfully accepted.

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## pjp

Moved from Installing Gentoo.

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## alec

Grab the desktop manual and follow it step by step - it sounds like what you want.  Once you get postfix and fetchmail and courier-imap set up once, you probably won't have to fiddle with it.  It's mostly copying and pasting, so you won't need an extensive knowledge of postfix.

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## tgoodaire

I would recommend that you start by setting up some kind of mta (sendmail, postfix, qmail...) to just deliver local mail for starters. This is what I have set up on my laptop. Just to deliver the output of cron jobs and stuff like that. 

I say this because I've had some bad experiences setting up a mail server in the past, and ended up with email bouncing all over the place. Not fun. I would recommend starting with a simple configuration, and then building on that from there.

Also, why do you want your machine to do all of your sending and receiving? Is it just as a learning experience?

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## ralphdewitt

I would like the linux machine to go all the sending and recieving for my small two machine lan for two reasons: security (do not trust the windows machine) and as a learning experince.

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## tgoodaire

Well. I guess you should pick an mta (sendmail, postfix, qmail...) and start playing! 

I'm running qmail right now. It was pretty easy to set up, although I'm sure that you can get help with any of the above. I'll try and help you out if you have any problems.

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## ralphdewitt

nitro:

Thanks for your offer of assistants. I will take you up on it. Right now I loaded in postfix and mutt, because someone else suggested them and there are instruction in the desktop guide. I have looked at them but I am totally clueless trying to figure out what should be put in the config files if any thing. But right now there are four things I want to get fixed first. One I can not get my floppy to read any disks (error: can not determine the file system, no file system specified) Two I hosed up my parallel port stuff badly and can not get my printer online. Three Have an access problem with kscd and can not figure it out and get cds playing. Four The quick cam pwc problem.

That list down considerable from the start. Gentoo has been a good learning experince for me. In the four or five years I have used Linux I have never gotten so involved with a system. The level of knowledge need is about 1 step above my current level but with the help of good people like you and my reading and note taking I will get there. Right now I have gone through a ream of paper printing out all the docs, but some times they are too vague and loose me worst then I am already.

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## mglauche

postfix is a good MTA to start with, its easy to configure, yet very powerfull, flexible and secure. you can start by looking in the /etc/postfix/main.cf file and the numerous examples in /etc/postfix/

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## tgoodaire

I second that. Postfix is very easy to set up. 

http://www.postfix.org/basic.html

should have everything you need to get started.

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## ralphdewitt

Hi:

Sorry to be such a pain but this type/level of setup is still new to me. I have read the Postfix set-up and guide. and I think I am getting to understand it some what. I am running Gentoo on a machine connected to a router which is connected to a cable modem. What I cannot figure out is where do I specifie the pop server I need postfix to connect to to fetch mail ie. pop.charter.net. Also were do I specifie my log in name/id and my password. I can not seem to figure this out. Thanks for your help so far. I find the learning curve a little steep some time wih Gentoo but I would not change from it.

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## Crg

 *tgoodaire wrote:*   

> Well. I guess you should pick an mta (sendmail, postfix, qmail...) and start playing! 
> 
> 

 

One of the things he mentioned he wanted was security - so implies not sendmail.

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## tgoodaire

This is where fetchmail comes in. Fetchmail retrieves email from a pop server and delivers it to postfix. The username, password, and server settings are specified in its config file (fetchmailrc).

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