Sendmail

sepia-

this totally helped and explained it, you're definitely the man.

so, that's a bummer. i mean, i understand how it would be a spam/security risk to not have the user given access manually.... but don't i need to use my login/pass anyway to get into the smtp server? (i.e. spammers wouldn't have that)

thanks again for all this help. with the help of guys like you and os x's unix base i feel like i'm really gaining a whole new understanding of computing.

g
 
Originally posted by gaboosh
so, that's a bummer. i mean, i understand how it would be a spam/security risk to not have the user given access manually.... but don't i need to use my login/pass anyway to get into the smtp server? (i.e. spammers wouldn't have that)

When spammers "hijack" an open-relaying SMTP server,
they don't "get into" it, they just bounce messages
off of it. The way SMTP works is that it just takes
RFC-compliant message and does something with it, where
"something" is generally one of three things:

1. Accept it for delivery to a local user.
2. Reject it (for various reasons)
3. Send it on for someone/thing else on the
internet to handle.

Number 3 generally isn't a problem when you're talking
about a message from a well-behaved local (to your network)
user or service. When that message comes from an outside
spammer, though, #3 can be a _huge_ problem... that's
why Sendmail now defaults to disallowing #3 from
outside hosts.
 
Yes, he's right. There's no username or password required to talk to an SMTP server.

On the other hand, you do need a username and password to talk to a POP or IMAP server (for retrieving your mail from afar). If you're going to set up a POP/IMAP server, I strongly recommend University of Washington IMAP.
 
Ok. well thanks anyway for all the help guys, atleast i can use my server with authorized clients.

adios.
g.
 
I just got finished compiling and installing sendmail 8.11.3 on Mac OS X 10.0.1 on a 350 MHz iMac w/ 64 MB of RAM and it seems to work like a charm. I am no unix guru, but heres what I did:

First off, I downloaded the newest version of sendmail from the following address:

ftp://ftp.sendmail.org/pub/sendmail/sendmail-8.11.3.tar.gz

and expanded it using Stuffit Expander

Then at the terminal, cd'd into the sendmail folder created by stuffit, then became root. next, I read the file INSTALL, which gives you all the installation instructions you need, but there are some little details that it leaves out. Basically, the first step is to type in:

sh Build

which runs the 'Build' shell script and compiles the source code. Then, you cd youself into cf/cf and execute the following command:

cp generic-bsd4.4.mc config.mc

and then

pico config.mc

and at the end of the file, I added the line:

FEATURE(promiscuous_relay)

and saved the file. Now, Unix diehards will tell you that this is a big security no-no, but it *will* take care of any "550 5.7.1 relaying denied" errors you might get. Basically, it makes things work at the risk of allowing any sort of email to pass through your box.

next, i typed in

sh Build config.cf
cp config.cf /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
cd ../..
sh Build install

and everything was supposed to work at this point, but it didnt. so, I manually copied the sendmail binary to the right place with the following command

cp obj.Darwin.1.3.PowerMacintosh/sendmail/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail

Then, I went into /etc/hostconfig and edited the HOSTNAME and MAILSERVER lines

next, typed in

chmod 755 /
reboot

in the terminal, and when i came back online, sendmail was still not running. finally went back into root and typed in

/usr/sbin/sendmail -bd

and things started working fine.

the only thing left to do is write a little script that executes on startup to execute the '/usr/sbin/sendmail -db' line, and i'll be as happy as flies on sh*t.

--kelly westbrooks
 
kelly-

if you go into /System/Library/StartupItems/sendmail/sendmail there is an extra "&" after a line towards the end (i'm at work, thus can't look at it now). When I took out that & Sendmail started to load with the system. Takes a bit of time, but then again I've got an iMac Rev A...

good luck.

g
 
Just a guess, but I'd bet my first 25 cents that the Build install failed b/c you needed to execute it as root to overwrite the previous sendmail.

ie... sudo sh Build install

Mike
 
Just a guess, but I'd bet my first 25 cents that the Build install failed b/c you needed to execute it as root to overwrite the previous sendmail.

... not if you su'd to root in the first place:

tcsh>su
Password:

#root:tcsh> sh Build install
 
[localhost:~] kwan% can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): No such file or directory

I get this error after turning on mailserver (on the hostconfig file) and changing the permissions on the root directory. I went to the spool directory and found 'mqueue' not 'clientmqueue'

what do I do now?
 
The simplest test that I know of to see if sendmail can deliver mail from your
system is to give this command:

/usr/sbin/sendmail -v <email-address>

Then on the next line put the text of your message, like:
"testing to see if sendmail can deliver mail."

When you are done typing your text put a single period '.' on a line by itself.
Then sit back and watch what happens.

Here's an example from my system:

w139:~] ramos% /usr/sbin/sendmail -v me...@RichRamos.com
testing to see if sendmail can deliver mail.
.
me...@RichRamos.com... Connecting to w137.z208176063.chi-il.dsl.cnc.net. via
esmtp...
220 gw2.r2tek.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.11.3/8.11.3; Fri, 1 Mar 2002 23:04:21 -0600
(CST)
 
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