## Email with a Dynamic IP Dial-up Account
## Oben O. Candemir <>
Setting up mail on a FreeBSD box can be one of the most challenging parts
of configuring a stand-alone workstation. If you are like the majority of
home users and use an ISP for your internet access then there are a few
tricks that you need to set mail up successfully. The FreeBSD handbook
has an excellent section on setting up 'user PPP' using the tun0 pseudo
device; and therefore readers who haven't set that up already are referred
to that source.
The official Sendmail site has an extensive FAQ dealing with setup of
sendmail that can be daunting to a new user. This article will attempt to
describe one setup of mail using tools that I will assume are installed
on the stand-alone machine and are described below:
1) Sendmail: I would strongly urge use of version 8.9.2 that compiles on
FreeBSD 2.2.8 without any drama whatsoever. It has several improvements
in dealing with mail relaying (preventing people from using your machine
as a mail gateway for spam). How sendmail 8.9.2 can be compiled and
installed is described very well by Dan Langille on his
site.
Sendmail can be configured using the 'm4' program and Dan gives an
example '.mc' file that m4 will use to generate the essential
'/etc/sendmail.cf' file.
Stand-alone machines using the default sendmail.cf file will send
incorrect `From' headers and this can sometimes cause problems with both
sending mail (bounced when the user's domain can't be verified) or in
receiving replies from people who you've mailed to. This problem can be
overcome by using a feature of sendmail called 'masquerading'. When
enabled this feature tacks on your ISP's (or whatever you set in fact)
domain to your local user name; allowing proper delivery and receiving of
mail. The sendmail 8.9.2 distribution includes a default setup for BSD
4.4 type systems that will generate a sendmail.cf that is similar to what
you probably already have. If you would like to use masquerading and
smart relaying of mail to your ISP (so it does all the hard work of
translating the email address into a computer to deliver to) I would
suggest using the following '.mc' file that I name 'FreeBSD.mc':
=======
# FreeBSD.mc sendmail m4 configuration file for masquerading and smart
# mail relaying.
divert(0)dnl
VERSIONID(`fireball.2000.com.au bsd4.4.mc - Version 1.0 - 17/01/1999')
OSTYPE(bsd4.4)dnl
FEATURE(nouucp)dnl
MAILER(local)dnl
MAILER(smtp)dnl
Cwlocalhost
Cwyour.own.domain.here
MASQUERADE_AS(`isp.domain.here')dnl
FEATURE(allmasquerade)dnl
FEATURE(masquerade_envelope)dnl
FEATURE(nocanonify)dnl
define(SMART_HOST, `your.isp.mail.host')
Dmyour.own.domain.here
define(`confDOMAIN_NAME', `your.own.domain.here')dnl
=======
Note the 'your.own.domain.here' that appears three times needs replacing
with your domain name (try typing 'hostname' at a command prompt if you
are not sure what to use). The other two things that need changing are
'isp.domain.here' and 'your.isp.mail.host'. The first needs to be changed
to whatever appears after the '@' in the email address your ISP gave you.
For example the email address '[email protected]' requires the use of
'bogus.com.au' in the lines above. The 'your.isp.mail.host' needs to be
replaced with the name of the outgoing SMTP mail server your ISP would
have given you.
Now I'd give the commands to generate the sendmail.cf file but it is
essential that you go over some of the stuff in the README file located in
the '_path_to_sendmail_source/cf' directory for how to generate a
sendmail.cf file from the configuration .mc file given above using the m4
program. (It is a line starting 'm4 ....')
Become the superuser (su) and install the generated sendmail.cf file into
the /etc directory after backing up your previous sendmail.cf file (you'll
be glad you did if you have made any errors). If sendmail is running
(examine the output from 'ps ax |grep sendmail'), kill it in the usual
manner.
Type 'sendmail -v -bi'. This will give you some output and should cause
sendmail to read the new configuration file and rebuild the aliases
database. The important thing is that there are no error messages. The two
possible errors are firstly, you may get a complaint that the sendmail.cf
file is not of the correct version. Sendmail 8.9.2 has reduced default
support for much of the `older' style things like uucp. The second
problem can be that file permissions for the mail related files in /etc
are 'loose'. Go over the main README file in the sendmail 8.9.2 for the
solution to problems with permissions on those files.
That's the sendmail configuration out of the way.
2) The second step is to become the superuser again and create a new user
on your system that is named whatever appears in the first part of your
email address. Taking the example from above '[email protected]' would
require a user with a login name of 'obenc'. If your local login name is
the same as your ISP user login name then you can skip this step
altogether (you are already set up). The reason we do this is so that
sendmail will tack on the ISP domain onto the proper user name. There are
other ways of doing this but setting up a new user that has only mail
duties is a useful way of administering a system. Therefore type 'adduser
<ispusername>' and go through the process of answering the questions.
(An important point is to use no password for this user if you want to start
the mail program in step 5 without requiring a password or if you intend
to start it from a window manager's menus. Note that using no passwords
is a security risk and the telnet service should be turned off for a
start. Otherwise use a password. The only thing in this users directory
is going to be mail and all the mail files will have permissions of 0600.
Now onto Fetchmail and its configuration...
3) Fetchmail 4.6.7: This program replaces the older 'popclient'
software. It is a relatively simple program that has some nifty features
for stand-alone users that access their mail from their ISP's mail server.
Fetchmail can deal with IMAP servers but my ISP (and I suspect many
others) uses POP3 so I will describe only POP3 setup.
We will be setting fetchmail up to run as a 'daemon' process whenever we
connect to our ISP using the 'PPP' program. I normally start PPP
interactively from a root account (it can be set up to allow users access
but my setup uses a nifty little trick that requires root to be the user
dialing up the ISP).
The first step in setting up fetchmail is to make a '.fetchmailrc' file
in the directory of the mail user you just created. The following will
suffice:
======
# Sample .fetchmailrc file
set daemon 300
poll <your.isp.mail.host>
protocol pop3
localdomains <your.own.domain.here>
user <isp_mail_username> with password <isp_mail_password>
to * here
poll <another.alternate.mail.host>
protocol pop3
localdomains <your.own.domain.here>
user <another_username> with password <another_password>
to * here
======
The fields to complete in <..> are straightforward (do not type the
'<' or '>' :) and the values should be the same as we used above. The
'set daemon 300' line sets fetchmail up to run as a daemon checking mail every
300 seconds (5 minutes); you can change this to your taste. The file also
shows that you can have more than one POP3 server listed. See the
fetchmail man pages for other options.
The only other thing that is advisable is to 'chmod 600 .fetchmailrc' to
protect the file from viewing by others (it contains your passwords
after all).
The final part of the fetchmail puzzle is how to get it running. This can
be done in two ways. Manually (not advised); you have to 'su
<mail_username>' and type 'fetchmail'. Or better, modify your
'/etc/ppp/ppp.linkup' (you'll have to be root to do this) file to start
fetchmail whenever you connect to your ISP. You will already have set up
PPP before (see Handbook for excellent instructions). Here is an example of
what you need to include in the /etc/ppp/ppp.linkup file to start fetchmail
automatically when you connect to your ISP:
======
# /etc/ppp/ppp.linkup
ISPlabel:
delete ALL
add default HISADDR
!bg sendmail -q
!bg su <mail_username> -c fetchmail
# ... other stuff
======
Note that you have to replace the <mail_username> (again without the
'<' and '>') with the local mail user we created earlier (if you had
to create it). This simply runs the fetchmail as that mail user and therefore
the .fetchmailrc in the mail user home directory will be used.
Another thing to note is the sendmail line. I start my sendmail at boot
time (you can do that by changing the /etc/rc.conf file); if you don't
start sendmail at boot time then you will need to change the line to read:
!bg sendmail -bd -q15m
That is a fairly standard way to start sendmail as a background daemon
and to tell it to check its queue (located in /var/spool/mqueue) every 15
minutes. Feel free to alter the frequency. Note: only root should start
sendmail as a daemon; so the line above will work only if you have
followed my recommendation to start PPP as root, but will fail if you use
a user account to start PPP.
The fetchmail program will automatically check for new email every 5
minutes with the setup above. If you don't receive mail very frequently
then you can lengthen this to a more suitable interval. You can
're-awaken' the daemon before the scheduled times by typing the
'fetchmail' command on an xterm or terminal that you have logged in or
su'd to the mail user account. If you type 'fetchmail' on your normal
login account (assuming it is not the same as your mail user account) and
you have no .fetchmailrc file then you will get some complaints from
fetchmail. Or if you do have a .fetchmailrc then mail will end up in your
login account's mailbox (ie. usually not what's intended).
I also use Procmail to sort my mail into folders according to their
relevance and importance to me. Setting up Procmail is relatively
straightforward but completely optional therefore I won't go into its
setup (others have already done a good job at it anyhow... it may be the
subject of another article).
Setting up the Mail Program...
4) Install Pine v4.05 if you haven't already. Pine is just so much
better in all respects than other terminal based programs like 'elm' or
'mail' that you should do yourself a favour and install it. You can use
the other programs but count yourself as a masochist.
5) The final step is to arrange an easy way to access your mail from your
normal login account. This only applies to people who had to create a new
local mail user account to match their ISP username as in step 2 above.
You can do this easily by creating a script named something like
'startmail'. If you use X and would like pine to appear in its own window
make 'startmail' contain the following:
======
#!/bin/sh
# A script to change the user to the mailuser and fire up pine
su <mail_username> -c 'xterm -geometry 120x40 -T "Mail" -e pine'
======
for terminal only users, use the following 'startmail' script:
======
#!/bin/sh
# A script to change the user to the mailuser and fire up pine
su <mail_username> -c pine
======
Replace <mail...> in each case as above with your user name from
step 2. Remember to 'chmod 755 startmail'. You may also want to modify the
'-geometry 120x40' to something suiting your screen size.
When you run startmail you will be asked for the mail users password. If
you set up without a password then pine should come up without needing a
password.
Note that if you did not use a password, the instruction above can be
included in the configuration files of the various window managers and
started conveniently whenever you need to use your email account. So it
can be started for example from a Dock application if you use Windowmaker
or from a menu if you use Blackbox (my favorite two window managers).
I hope that this short discussion has helped you in setting up mail
delivery on your machine. Please feel free to send me any feedback or
corrections on the material here. Address email to -> Oben O. Candemir
<>. Questions
are best directed to the various mailing lists that deal with the programs
above.
Congratulations. You should now have an excellent mail setup that will
serve you well for many years without problems :)
======================================================================
Copyright (c) 1999 by Oben O. Candemir <[email protected]>
This may be used for fair non-commercial purposes without the consent
of the author provided this copyright notice accompanies any usage of
the material herein. The instructions here are provided AS IS; no
responsibility whatsoever is taken for any damage caused by following
them properly or otherwise.
======================================================================
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