Author: Rik Thomas
Email: rikt@delug.org
Web Page: http://www.delug.org
Date Submitted: Mon, Jan 4, 1999
Status: New Entry
Requester: Ray
Email: ray@clark.net
Web Page: http://www.clark.net/pub/ray
Request Made: Tue, Mar 17, 1998
Releases: | all |
Platform: | all |
Category: | |
Category Listing: | Email on a small Lan between machines ? |
I have been asked this question several times now and don't really have a good answer. I am using a DNS setup on my Lan so this is not a problem for me, however quite a few people with only two or three machines have a real problem with this. How do you setup sendmail to be able to send email between machines on a small Lan using RedHat 5.0 ? RedHat has a small description of how to do this in their manual on page 107 using one machine as the mail gateway, but since Sendmail distributed with RedHat depends on DNS, how does someone setup sendmail to allow this service without having DNS ? Thanks for any info,
You basically have two ways to handle this. Through DNS and/or a HOSTS file. However sendmail should sense that the mail should be handled through the local MDA. That is part of ruleset 0. See the Bat(Sendmail) book at http://sysadmin.oreilly.com. First you need to ensure (for ease of routing since this is a small lan) that each client has an IP on the same subnet. Then you need to ensure that each user has an account on the mail server. Next you need to make sure that each has a valid host name and all are using the same domain. Distribute a master hosts file to all clients. Make sure their DNS points to a valid DNS server, if it is a small lan it should be the mail server too. Make sure there is a relevant entry in DNS for all machines as well. NOTE: Using just a hosts file will work just as well. Make sure that all clients mail programs point to the mail server for sending mail and receiving mail. Make sure you are running pop3 or qpopper (or whatever Pop/IMAP server you wish) and there you go. This should get you up and running with a great internal/external mail system for a small LAN. For more advanced mail routing see the bat book and investigate diald for internet mail routing on a non-dedicated connection to the internet.
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