Send Mail ?

C

Carlosinfl

Loves the juice
Joined
Sep 25, 2002
Messages
6,633
I just installed Linux Fedora Core 2 on a spare AMD XP system and was wondering if that comes with everything needed to be a send mail server?

Any info on getting this set up would be great.
 
I'd recommend going with qmail or another mail server other than sendmail. Sendmail is full of holes and not all that secure.
 
Disregard the last poster, he doesn't know what he's talking about. I've been running sendmail on a public machine for years and we've been running it at work for several years. sendmail is everywhere. Just remember, everyone hates you when you're number one.

sendmail is not a bad MTA at all. In fact, it'll do those obscure things you may need to do every so often that no other MTA will handle. sendmail gets a bad rep cause it does have security notices more often than other MTAs (they get discovered faster cause *gasp* there's a shitload more sendmail servers out there than anything else), but those security problems are fixed pretty damn quick and if you're not a lazy-ass admin it won't be an issue. If you're that lazy, just don't run a mail server at all and save everyone the annoyances, ok?

Configuration...Most distributions come with sendmail pretty much ready to go out of the box these days...Very little configuration needs to be done to get sendmail to work. I just set up a Mailman server for work (replacing Majordomo with Mailman for 4,500 mailing lists) with sendmail and I had to change all of four lines in /etc/mail/sendmail.mc and then type "make all restart". Boo fucking hoo, that's so much work!

Hell, my sendmail setup is fairly customized (google for "freebsd sendmail imap"---it'll be the first hit) and it's still fairly easy to replicate.

OpenBSD, the OS ran by "security Nazis," ships with sendmail by default. Hrmmmm, if it's really that bad why hasn't OpenBSD ditched sendmail?

sandmanx: why is sendmail around if it's so "bad?" Blanket statements like that really annoy the hell out of me, especially when it goes against common knowledge that sendmail is still the number one MTA out there. Don't knock something unless you know enough about it to have a valid point.

Security is 95% administration. Running "secure software" will not make up for inadequate administration, and if you're relying on the software by itself for your machine's security you're a fool. Staying on top of updates, making sure things are configure properly and generally not being a lazy bastard will go a long way to taking care of just about all the security "problems" you'll come across.
 
^^ Sendmail got a bad rep from its early days.

If you are interested in trying other things though I do prefer postfix. Oreilly has a great book that walks you through setup and such in a great easy to read manner.
 
[H]EMI_426 said:
sendmail is not a bad MTA at all. In fact, it'll do those obscure things you may need to do every so often that no other MTA will handle. sendmail gets a bad rep cause it does have security notices more often than other MTAs
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hemi, you know I respect your opinions...but come on. Notices? Holes. They are root exploits. Not notices.
(they get discovered faster cause *gasp* there's a shitload more sendmail servers out there than anything else), but those security problems are fixed pretty damn quick
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The beauty of open source. However, qmail has a 5 year clean security record, last I checked.
and if you're not a lazy-ass admin it won't be an issue. If you're that lazy, just don't run a mail server at all and save everyone the annoyances, ok?
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AMEN.
sandmanx: why is sendmail around if it's so "bad?" Blanket statements like that really annoy the hell out of me, especially when it goes against common knowledge that sendmail is still the number one MTA out there.
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And windows is the #1 desktop out there. Quality != quantity
Security is 95% administration. Running "secure software" will not make up for inadequate administration, and if you're relying on the software by itself for your machine's security you're a fool. Staying on top of updates, making sure things are configure properly and generally not being a lazy bastard will go a long way to taking care of just about all the security "problems" you'll come across.
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Absolutely. It all comes down to the administrator. And at the level we're at, it really doesn't matter if you choose sendmail or qmail or postfix or exim, it's the administrator that determines how secure it is.

^^ Sendmail got a bad rep from its early days.
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Early days being as recent as last year...
 
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