Mail HowTo

Mail HowTo

[John J. Boyer]

Hello,
Thanks to those who answered my question on upgrading from RH 7.1 to 7.2.
Here's one last question before I switch to Linux except for some office
chores that require Windows.
I've been reading the manuals for Fetchmail and Pine, but I can't quite
figure out where to put the various information for setting up an e-mail
account. So I'm wondering if there is a howto that explains step by step
what to do to set upo an e-mail account in RedHat.
My current e-mail address, director@chpi.org is provided by our Webhosting
service. We also have DSL from a different company. To set up this account
on Linux, i will have to specify the webhosting company's server for
incoming mail, the DSL company's server for outgoing mail, the account name
assigned to be by the Webhosting company, my e-mail name, "director", and of
course my password with the Webhosting company. Where does all this
information go?
I also have an Internet Ministry account which is set up in a similar way.
I'm anxious to get off of Windows with its lack of security and instability.
Thanks.
John

Computers to Help People, Inc.
http://www.chpi.org
825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703

Re: Mail HowTo

[Chris Nestrud]

I'm assuming that you want to use fetchmail to get your mail and pine to
read it locally. It's possible to use pine to do both of these, but
fetchmail will give you more options. The account name, password, and
incoming mail server go in ~/.fetchmailrc. You can set up multiple
entries for multiple mail servers. I'll make an example below. From what
I remember of pine the smtp server goes in the main configuration
section of setup. You can also put your outgoing real name and domain
name there. In order to use multiple from addresses you'll need to look
into using roles, or just use two different accounts on the system.
Here's an example of ~/.fetchmailrc with several accounts.

poll  "mail.somewhere.com"
protocol pop3
username "smith"
password "secret"

poll "server.somewhere-else.com"
interval 5 # if you put fetchmail in background and check each minute it
		# will check this account every 5 minutes
protocol imap
username "me"
password "bigsecret"
ssl # use encryption, not always supported by isp

Hope this helps and doesn't make things even more confusing.

Chris

On Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 08:21:47AM -0500, John J. Boyer wrote:
> Hello,
> Thanks to those who answered my question on upgrading from RH 7.1 to 7.2.
> Here's one last question before I switch to Linux except for some office
> chores that require Windows.
> I've been reading the manuals for Fetchmail and Pine, but I can't quite
> figure out where to put the various information for setting up an e-mail
> account. So I'm wondering if there is a howto that explains step by step
> what to do to set upo an e-mail account in RedHat.
> My current e-mail address, director@chpi.org is provided by our Webhosting
> service. We also have DSL from a different company. To set up this account
> on Linux, i will have to specify the webhosting company's server for
> incoming mail, the DSL company's server for outgoing mail, the account name
> assigned to be by the Webhosting company, my e-mail name, "director", and of
> course my password with the Webhosting company. Where does all this
> information go?
> I also have an Internet Ministry account which is set up in a similar way.
> I'm anxious to get off of Windows with its lack of security and instability.
> Thanks.
> John
> 
> Computers to Help People, Inc.
> http://www.chpi.org
> 825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

Re: Mail HowTo

[Janina Sajka]

Problem with putting smtp in the Pine configuration is that it may not 
always be available, and it will detain pine if it isn't available. On the 
other hand, the provider may not accept local smtp (as my dialup provider 
when I tra vel, UUnet, does not).

Bottom line ... You have options.
 On Thu, 6 Dec 2001, Chris Nestrud wrote:

> I'm assuming that you want to use fetchmail to get your mail and pine to
> read it locally. It's possible to use pine to do both of these, but
> fetchmail will give you more options. The account name, password, and
> incoming mail server go in ~/.fetchmailrc. You can set up multiple
> entries for multiple mail servers. I'll make an example below. From what
> I remember of pine the smtp server goes in the main configuration
> section of setup. You can also put your outgoing real name and domain
> name there. In order to use multiple from addresses you'll need to look
> into using roles, or just use two different accounts on the system.
> Here's an example of ~/.fetchmailrc with several accounts.
> 
> poll  "mail.somewhere.com"
> protocol pop3
> username "smith"
> password "secret"
> 
> poll "server.somewhere-else.com"
> interval 5 # if you put fetchmail in background and check each minute it
> 		# will check this account every 5 minutes
> protocol imap
> username "me"
> password "bigsecret"
> ssl # use encryption, not always supported by isp
> 
> Hope this helps and doesn't make things even more confusing.
> 
> Chris
> 
> On Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 08:21:47AM -0500, John J. Boyer wrote:
> > Hello,
> > Thanks to those who answered my question on upgrading from RH 7.1 to 7.2.
> > Here's one last question before I switch to Linux except for some office
> > chores that require Windows.
> > I've been reading the manuals for Fetchmail and Pine, but I can't quite
> > figure out where to put the various information for setting up an e-mail
> > account. So I'm wondering if there is a howto that explains step by step
> > what to do to set upo an e-mail account in RedHat.
> > My current e-mail address, director@chpi.org is provided by our Webhosting
> > service. We also have DSL from a different company. To set up this account
> > on Linux, i will have to specify the webhosting company's server for
> > incoming mail, the DSL company's server for outgoing mail, the account name
> > assigned to be by the Webhosting company, my e-mail name, "director", and of
> > course my password with the Webhosting company. Where does all this
> > information go?
> > I also have an Internet Ministry account which is set up in a similar way.
> > I'm anxious to get off of Windows with its lack of security and instability.
> > Thanks.
> > John
> > 
> > Computers to Help People, Inc.
> > http://www.chpi.org
> > 825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blinux-list mailing list
> > Blinux-list@redhat.com
> > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Will electronic books surpass print books? Read our white paper,
Surpassing Gutenberg, at http://www.afb.org/ebook.asp

Download a free sample Digital Talking Book edition of Martin Luther
King Jr's inspiring "I Have A Dream" speech at
http://www.afb.org/mlkweb.asp

Learn how to make accessible software at
http://www.afb.org/accessapp.asp

Re: Mail HowTo

[Gil Andre]

Hello John,

I am new to this list, and I hope I'll be able to be of
assistance...

Most of the information needed to configure UNIX (and Linux)
software is contained in files named "dot-files". These files
are usually put into your "home" directory and start with a
dot (hence the name!). To view these files, enter the
following command:
ls -a

You will find yourself with a long list of files, the one 
you are looking for is ".pinerc". ("man ls" for more help
on using ls).

To edit the file, just enter the following command:
vi .pinerc

If you don't like "vi", you can substitute your favourite
editor:
nano .pinerc
emacs .pinerc

(...etc...)

The .pinerc file itself contains a large amount of comments
to help you configure it. Make sure you read each comment
carefully before changing the contents of the file.

If you cannot find the .pinerc file, just run pine and it'll
probably create this file in your /home directory.

Two comments on your message:

A. You usually need only two piece of information to receive
and send email: your SMTP server address and your POP3/IMAP
server address. The SMTP server is used to send mail and your
POP3/IMAP server is used to receive mail. If you'd like more
information on all these protocols, you may want to read
the information at the LDP (Linux Documentation Project), at
the following address:
http://www.linuxdoc.org

For instance, here is what I use to connect to my Yahoo! email
account:
SMTP server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
POP3 server: pop.mail.yahoo.com

B. Based on (A), I think that all you really need are the
addresses of the email servers of the "webhosting" company.
You may also want to check if these people can "redirect"
the email received to your main (DSL company) email address.

For instance, I have the email address "gil@gilandre.org"
redirected to another address I use from home. This is 
completely transparent for you, and it allows you to have
multiple addresses/aliases all "pointing" at the same
address.

Hope this helps... It's been a long time since I have 
configured "Pine" (I prefer mutt myself).

Take care!


_______________________________________________

Gil Andre -- Technical Writer -- Knox Software
            gandre@arkeia.com
_______________________________________________

Re: Mail HowTo

[Janina Sajka]

John:

If it's only your own mailbox you want to support, you need only configure 
a .fetchmailrc in your home directory telling where to get your mail from 
and how often to go looking for new mail messages. Your installation will 
install sendmail to handle outgoing mail (and local deliveries to you).

PS: Fetchmail can also be configured to gather mail for all system users, 
but I have not myself done that.
 On 
Thu, 6 Dec 2001, John J. Boyer wrote:

> Hello,
> Thanks to those who answered my question on upgrading from RH 7.1 to 7.2.
> Here's one last question before I switch to Linux except for some office
> chores that require Windows.
> I've been reading the manuals for Fetchmail and Pine, but I can't quite
> figure out where to put the various information for setting up an e-mail
> account. So I'm wondering if there is a howto that explains step by step
> what to do to set upo an e-mail account in RedHat.
> My current e-mail address, director@chpi.org is provided by our Webhosting
> service. We also have DSL from a different company. To set up this account
> on Linux, i will have to specify the webhosting company's server for
> incoming mail, the DSL company's server for outgoing mail, the account name
> assigned to be by the Webhosting company, my e-mail name, "director", and of
> course my password with the Webhosting company. Where does all this
> information go?
> I also have an Internet Ministry account which is set up in a similar way.
> I'm anxious to get off of Windows with its lack of security and instability.
> Thanks.
> John
> 
> Computers to Help People, Inc.
> http://www.chpi.org
> 825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Will electronic books surpass print books? Read our white paper,
Surpassing Gutenberg, at http://www.afb.org/ebook.asp

Download a free sample Digital Talking Book edition of Martin Luther
King Jr's inspiring "I Have A Dream" speech at
http://www.afb.org/mlkweb.asp

Learn how to make accessible software at
http://www.afb.org/accessapp.asp

RE: Mail HowTo

[B. Alan Mattison]

John,
If somebody sends you a URL for such a HOWTO, please at least share it with
me, although I bet there are some other people with the same kinds of
problems.
-Alan Mattison


-----Original Message-----
From: blinux-list-admin@redhat.com
[mailto:blinux-list-admin@redhat.com]On Behalf Of John J. Boyer
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 6:22 AM
To: blinux-list@redhat.com
Subject: Mail HowTo


Hello,
Thanks to those who answered my question on upgrading from RH 7.1 to 7.2.
Here's one last question before I switch to Linux except for some office
chores that require Windows.
I've been reading the manuals for Fetchmail and Pine, but I can't quite
figure out where to put the various information for setting up an e-mail
account. So I'm wondering if there is a howto that explains step by step
what to do to set upo an e-mail account in RedHat.
My current e-mail address, director@chpi.org is provided by our Webhosting
service. We also have DSL from a different company. To set up this account
on Linux, i will have to specify the webhosting company's server for
incoming mail, the DSL company's server for outgoing mail, the account name
assigned to be by the Webhosting company, my e-mail name, "director", and of
course my password with the Webhosting company. Where does all this
information go?
I also have an Internet Ministry account which is set up in a similar way.
I'm anxious to get off of Windows with its lack of security and instability.
Thanks.
John

Computers to Help People, Inc.
http://www.chpi.org
825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703






_______________________________________________
Blinux-list mailing list
Blinux-list@redhat.com
https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

Re: Mail HowTo

[John J. Boyer]

Alan,
If I get hold of such a HowTo I'll post the URL to the list, unless, of
course, someone on the list actually provides it.
I've been studying the replies that I've gotten so far. One problem that
doesn't seem to be addressed is that my Web hosting provider gives me an
account name, chpi02, a user name, director and a password. I think i have
to supply all three of these to their server to get my incoming mail. All of
them are required in Outlook Express, and what Windows can do Linux should
be able to do at least as well.
John

Computers to Help People, Inc.
http://www.chpi.org
825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703


----- Original Message -----
From: "B. Alan Mattison" <alan.mattison@abq.com>
To: <blinux-list@redhat.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 15:18
Subject: RE: Mail HowTo


> John,
> If somebody sends you a URL for such a HOWTO, please at least share it
with
> me, although I bet there are some other people with the same kinds of
> problems.
> -Alan Mattison
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blinux-list-admin@redhat.com
> [mailto:blinux-list-admin@redhat.com]On Behalf Of John J. Boyer
> Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 6:22 AM
> To: blinux-list@redhat.com
> Subject: Mail HowTo
>
>
> Hello,
> Thanks to those who answered my question on upgrading from RH 7.1 to 7.2.
> Here's one last question before I switch to Linux except for some office
> chores that require Windows.
> I've been reading the manuals for Fetchmail and Pine, but I can't quite
> figure out where to put the various information for setting up an e-mail
> account. So I'm wondering if there is a howto that explains step by step
> what to do to set upo an e-mail account in RedHat.
> My current e-mail address, director@chpi.org is provided by our Webhosting
> service. We also have DSL from a different company. To set up this account
> on Linux, i will have to specify the webhosting company's server for
> incoming mail, the DSL company's server for outgoing mail, the account
name
> assigned to be by the Webhosting company, my e-mail name, "director", and
of
> course my password with the Webhosting company. Where does all this
> information go?
> I also have an Internet Ministry account which is set up in a similar way.
> I'm anxious to get off of Windows with its lack of security and
instability.
> Thanks.
> John
>
> Computers to Help People, Inc.
> http://www.chpi.org
> 825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>

Re: Mail HowTo

[Cheryl Homiak]

Actually, there's a complicating factor here. The username "director" goes
with the domainname "chpi.org" which is not the provider's domainname but
I assume a domainname specifically given for your business, since there
are other email addresses at your office that are also chpi.org. This may
have already been discussed, as I've been too busy upgrading my hard drive
to pay much attention, but it seems to me that the fact that you have your
own official domainnames may change how you do your fetchmail and Pine
setups. Since i've not had this situation, I can't tell you now to set it
up, but I know there are other people on this list who have their own
domainnames.

Cheryl

Re: Mail HowTo

[Dave Mielke]

[quoted lines by John J. Boyer on December 6, 2001, at 15:12]

>I've been studying the replies that I've gotten so far. One problem that
>doesn't seem to be addressed is that my Web hosting provider gives me an
>account name, chpi02, a user name, director and a password. I think i have
>to supply all three of these to their server to get my incoming mail. All of
>them are required in Outlook Express, and what Windows can do Linux should
>be able to do at least as well.

I've never seen a setup like this before, but, after looking at the fetchmail
man page, my guess is that you may be able to get your mail via fetchmail as
follows: fetchmail -u director@chpi02 server-host-name

-- 
Dave Mielke           | 2213 Fox Crescent | I believe that the Bible is the
Phone: 1-613-726-0014 | Ottawa, Ontario   | Word of God. Please contact me
EMail: dave@mielke.cc | Canada  K2A 1H7   | if you're concerned about Hell.

Re: Mail HowTo

[L. C. Robinson]

On Thu, 6 Dec 2001, John J. Boyer wrote:

> If I get hold of such a HowTo I'll post the URL to the list,
> unless, of course, someone on the list actually provides it.

All of the most current HOWTOs should be at
http://www.linuxdoc.org/, or at the beginning of the HOWTOs,
there should be a pointer to where the most current one is.
Most distributions install a set of them in /usr/doc/HOWTO, or
more currently, /usr/share/doc/HOWTO, on your local hard drive.

See below for specific info...

> > -----Original Message-----
> > [mailto:blinux-list-admin@redhat.com]On Behalf Of John J. Boyer
> >
> > ...
> > I've been reading the manuals for Fetchmail and Pine, but I can't quite

The other posters have explained about fetchmail and pine, so I skip that.

> > figure out where to put the various information for setting up an e-mail
> > account. So I'm wondering if there is a howto that explains step by step
> > what to do to set upo an e-mail account in RedHat.

I recently posted detailed directions for RedHat systems running
sendmail.  You can find it in the blinux archives under the
subject heading: "Re: sendmail problem"
There is an attachment called sendmail-masq-add.mc and that name
also appears in the body of the message (good search string).

> > My current e-mail address, director@chpi.org is provided by
> > our Webhosting service. We also have DSL from a different
> > company. To set up this account on Linux, i will have to
> > specify the webhosting company's server for incoming mail,
> > the DSL company's server for outgoing mail,

So the DSL company would probably be known to "sendmail" as your
gateway:

dnl "dnl" starts a comment
dnl Add this if your ISP requires you to use an outgoing mail gateway:
dnl define(`SMART_HOST', `your_DSL_companys_gateway_mail_server.net')
dnl Example:
define(`SMART_HOST', `smtp.DSLprovider.net')

> > the account name assigned to be by the Webhosting company, my
> > e-mail name, "director", and of course my password with the
> > ...

So you may want to have your mail appear to come from that
address, or in other words, be masqueraded:

dnl MASQUERADE_AS(your_ISP.net)
dnl This is the machine you would pop your mail from (probably using fetchmail).
dnl Example:
MASQUERADE_AS(onewest.net)

Sendmail also has some schemes for aliasing.  Everyone should
have, for instance, root aliased to their normal user account, in
/etc/aliases (run "newaliases" after making any changes, to
update the hashed database), so that system reports come to them.
Never read mail as root.

LCR

-- 
L. C. Robinson
reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@onewest.net.invalid

People buy MicroShaft for compatibility, but get incompatibility and
instability instead.  This is award winning "innovation".  Find
out how MS holds your data hostage with "The *Lens*"; see
"CyberSnare" at http://www.netaction.org/msoft/cybersnare.html

Re: Mail HowTo

[Jude DaShiell]

a configuration file called .fetchmailrc goes in /root.  Try putting one
together based on what you read in man page, and test it using fetchmail
-v <cr>.  If the fetchmail program finds errors, it'll let you know.  Red
hat really should make a fetchmailconf program that doesn't need xterm or
x11 to run.  Then at least you'd not have these problems with fetchmail.
I tried putting my .fetchmailrc in a non-privileged account and removing
it from root but that stopped fetchmail from operating since the root
.fetchmailrc file wasn't there.  sendmail is another headache, I have yet
to get that to successfully mask even though it sends email out.  It's a
good idea not to be online as root, you leave yourself wide open for
hackers that way.  If you need do something in root su root out of
non-privileged account when off line and take care of business then.
Then exit from root before going back online.

Jude <jdashiel@shellworld.net>