Route my ISP mail on a Linux box?

I have a fairly simple need, but I have no clue how to set things up.
I'm totaly new to any form of email software except the email readers.

What I want to do is to have my Linux box collect my email from my ISP
(roadrunner in this case). I then want to be able to read the email
and send email using a windows box. All of my machines lives on a
local 192.168 network behind a router.

In the future I want to expand this to do mail forwarding and to
access the email from email clients from outside my network.

How do I set this up? I installed toaster, but since I'm new to all of
this I don't know what to set up in the admin tools.

Any help appreciated. If there are any HOWTOs or similar I should have
read just point me in the right direction.

/Martin

d8hanma@dtek.chalmers.se (Martin) wrote in message news:<e6391e4a.0402210837.1ec5fa7e@posting.google. com>...
> I have a fairly simple need, but I have no clue how to set things up.
> I'm totaly new to any form of email software except the email readers.
>

Well, you will have to learn fast if you need these soon, there might
be
some sleepless night too.

> What I want to do is to have my Linux box collect my email from my ISP
> (roadrunner in this case).

This is simple, you can use fetchmail
http://www.catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/

> I then want to be able to read the email and send email using a windows box.

You will need to set up an imap server which is compatible with you
mail
server, you posted this in qmail group so I guess qmail is what you
want.
You read all about qmail at: http://www.lifewithqmail.org/ and the
imap server for qmail (the one I use) at:
http://www.inter7.com/courierimap.html

> All of my machines lives on a local 192.168 network behind a router.
>
> In the future I want to expand this to do mail forwarding and to
> access the email from email clients from outside my network.
>

Use one of the best web based mail readers in the free market:
http://www.squirrelmail.org/

> How do I set this up? I installed toaster, but since I'm new to all of
> this I don't know what to set up in the admin tools.
>
> Any help appreciated. If there are any HOWTOs or similar I should have
> read just point me in the right direction.
>
> /Martin

Good luck.

sunman@ureach.com (Vahid) wrote in message >
> Well, you will have to learn fast if you need these soon, there might
> be
> some sleepless night too.

Well that doesn't really bother me all that much :) Learning is fun.
As long as I know where to look.

>
> > What I want to do is to have my Linux box collect my email from my ISP
> > (roadrunner in this case).
>
> This is simple, you can use fetchmail
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/

Okies. Had that almost up and running before I tried qmail. Only
problem was that everything ended up with root instead of to the user.
Never tried to change /etc/aliases though.

> > I then want to be able to read the email and send email using a windows box.
>
> You will need to set up an imap server which is compatible with you
> mail
> server, you posted this in qmail group so I guess qmail is what you
> want.
> You read all about qmail at: http://www.lifewithqmail.org/ and the
> imap server for qmail (the one I use) at:
> http://www.inter7.com/courierimap.html

Hmm, well actually I installed qmail mecause I thought it was needed.
If there is an easier way I'm all for it. I'm not trying to set up a
mail system for a big company here, so small and easy is good.

Thanks for the info I will read up on imap and see if I can understand
it now that I have a focus.

/Martin

Hi dovecot (http://www.dovecot.org/) is perhaps an easier solution to
install. It works perfectly with qmail and you can have imap, pop and
both using ssl too.


Vahid wrote:

> d8hanma@dtek.chalmers.se (Martin) wrote in message news:<e6391e4a.0402210837.1ec5fa7e@posting.google. com>...
>
>>I have a fairly simple need, but I have no clue how to set things up.
>>I'm totaly new to any form of email software except the email readers.
>>
>
>
> Well, you will have to learn fast if you need these soon, there might
> be
> some sleepless night too.
>
>
>>What I want to do is to have my Linux box collect my email from my ISP
>>(roadrunner in this case).
>
>
> This is simple, you can use fetchmail
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/
>
>
>>I then want to be able to read the email and send email using a windows box.
>
>
> You will need to set up an imap server which is compatible with you
> mail
> server, you posted this in qmail group so I guess qmail is what you
> want.
> You read all about qmail at: http://www.lifewithqmail.org/ and the
> imap server for qmail (the one I use) at:
> http://www.inter7.com/courierimap.html
>
>
>>All of my machines lives on a local 192.168 network behind a router.
>>
>>In the future I want to expand this to do mail forwarding and to
>>access the email from email clients from outside my network.
>>
>
>
> Use one of the best web based mail readers in the free market:
> http://www.squirrelmail.org/
>
>
>>How do I set this up? I installed toaster, but since I'm new to all of
>>this I don't know what to set up in the admin tools.
>>
>>Any help appreciated. If there are any HOWTOs or similar I should have
>>read just point me in the right direction.
>>
>>/Martin
>
>
> Good luck.

On 22 Feb 2004 06:05:27 -0800, Martin <d8hanma@dtek.chalmers.se> may have written:
> sunman@ureach.com (Vahid) wrote in message >
>>
>> > What I want to do is to have my Linux box collect my email from my ISP
>> > (roadrunner in this case).
>>
>> This is simple, you can use fetchmail
>> http://www.catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/

Depending on how you want to access your mail, you probably don't need
to do much of anything. fetchmail will grab your mail from the ISP via
POP3 or IMAP and deliver it to a local mailbox on the system. The
standard for fetchmail is to deliver it locally via SMTP. You do not
need this functionality if you are only collecting mail for a single
user. Look into fetchmail's documentation about delivering to a local
mailbox, either in mbox format or in the preferred Maildir format. If
fetchmail can't write to a Maildir natively, the program safecat can be
used as an MDA from fetchmail.

From here.. you have mail on a local mailbox on your system. If you want
to read it locally on the system using a local mail client that reads
either the Maildir or mbox format, then you don't need any software
besides fetchmail. If you would like to then reach it remotely, you will
need a POP3/IMAP server. A few were mentioned, but you will want to make
sure you use a server that will read both mbox and Maildir formats so
you can stay flexible. I personally recommend dovecot as did a previous
poster. Also, if you want POP3 only, qmail itself comes with a POP3
server that reads the Maildir format ONLY. You would not use the
standard installation instructions in this case because you would not
want the MTA, just the POP3 daemon.

From here.. if you then want to be able send email using your local
system and have it perform deliveries as opposed to handing it off to
your ISP, this is where qmail would come in. If you register your own
domain name and want to have your server perform MX duties to receive
mail for that domain, qmail would also be necessary.

This might be a little long-winded just to say that qmail is most likely
not what you want, but that should get you started.

Cheers,
--
Brian T Glenn
delink.net Internet Services

d8hanma@dtek.chalmers.se (Martin) wrote in message news:<e6391e4a.0402220605.40608acd@posting.google. com>...
> sunman@ureach.com (Vahid) wrote in message >
> > Well, you will have to learn fast if you need these soon, there might
> > be
> > some sleepless night too.
>
> Well that doesn't really bother me all that much :) Learning is fun.
> As long as I know where to look.
>
> >
> > > What I want to do is to have my Linux box collect my email from my ISP
> > > (roadrunner in this case).
> >
> > This is simple, you can use fetchmail
> > http://www.catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/
>
> Okies. Had that almost up and running before I tried qmail. Only
> problem was that everything ended up with root instead of to the user.
> Never tried to change /etc/aliases though.

/etc/aliases is used by sendmail, we don't mention sendmail in here!

>
> > > I then want to be able to read the email and send email using a windows box.
> >
> > You will need to set up an imap server which is compatible with you
> > mail
> > server, you posted this in qmail group so I guess qmail is what you
> > want.
> > You read all about qmail at: http://www.lifewithqmail.org/ and the
> > imap server for qmail (the one I use) at:
> > http://www.inter7.com/courierimap.html
>
> Hmm, well actually I installed qmail mecause I thought it was needed.
> If there is an easier way I'm all for it. I'm not trying to set up a
> mail system for a big company here, so small and easy is good.

qmail is what you should really use as it is the best MTA around so
far.
If you want an easy way out, use sendmail but you will need to patch
it every other month or hackers will be all over you.
I know sendmail very well, that is why I value and am learning qmail.
I administer a system running qmail with "one" user but soon will
implement on a 5000+ user and 50K+ e-mail/day infra.

>
> Thanks for the info I will read up on imap and see if I can understand
> it now that I have a focus.
>
> /Martin

sunman@ureach.com (Vahid) wrote in message news:<64b3dda3.0402221755.522e30f6@posting.google. com>...
....
> If you want an easy way out, use sendmail but you will need to patch
> it every other month or hackers will be all over you.

For what you're doing, you don't even need an SMTP server (Sendmail,
Qmail, etc.). You can just leave your Windows clients configured to
route email via the SMTP server at RoadRunner. In fact, using your
own SMTP server will complicate things, because some recipient ISPs
block mail connections from dynamic IP addresses (AOL, RoadRunner, and
many others will refuse your mail). You will be constantly modifying
your /var/qmail/control/smtproutes file if you go this route.

All you need is an IMAP server (Courier has been recommended here) and
something to retrieve your mail. I recommend getmail
(http://www.qcc.ca/~charlesc/software/getmail-3.0/) instead of
fetchmail, as it was designed to deliver mail directly to Maildir
format mailboxes, and does not have to "reinject" mail via SMTP.

Jack