>Being very new to Linux I'd appreciate a little assistance with Sendmail.

> I've got to the point where I've got Linux set up as a File, WWW & FTP server, however I'm stuck on setting up sendmail.

> I'm able to send mail from my W95 PC to users on the Linux box but I can't figure out how to retrieve mail from the Linux
> box using my W95 PC. (I'm trying to set up a mail server for my office).

There are two different ways that your Linux box can be used to get mail.
1) Linux box is on constantly and gets mail sent directly to it from the senders out there on the Internet.
2) Linux box is not on all the time (e.g. dialup connection to Internet); Linux box downloads email from the
mailbox on the ISP's machine.

In both cases, PC's can still be used to read mail that may have gotten to the Linux box. However, there is
a bit of differences in the setup. In model #1, the PC's reading mail has nothing to do with sendmail on the
Linux box. It involves a mail service daemon such as imap or pop (unless of course you telnet in an use
pine or mail or mailx to read mail directly from the Linux box, not using a GUI program on your PC).

Model #2 also involves running an IMAP or POP server on the Linux box, but it requires additional
CLIENT program setup on the Linux box (mail client such as fetchmail to go out to the mailbox on the ISP's
mail server, retrieve the mail to the LInux box, so that your favorite mail reader can be used from the PC to
read via IMAP or POP service.

Reading mail from a Linux box is different that worrying about the Linux box sending and receiving mail,
which is what sendmail does.

You want to look at mail SERVICE to the PC's. That is you want to look at HOWTO provide
IMAP or POP mail service to a PC package such as Eudora or Outlook Express or Netscape Mail or Mulberry
In this model, the mail server is the box that sends and receives mail to/from the Internet (stays on all the time),
while the PC's are clients and go out and retrieve the mail from your mailbox on the mail server.

Now, you can even read mail on the Linux box itself by using telnet to connect to the Linux box, log in,
run a program called pine (if you've installed it) or mail or mailx (again depending on what you've installed).
Pine, mail and mailx are all keyboard-oriented mail readers, while eurora, outlook express, mulberry, netscape
are all GUI (mouse) interfaces.

Being able to telnet into the Linux box from some remote site and still read email can be a big help when you're
sitting at a machine that is not set up with your favorite GUI mail reader configured to read from your mail server.

(Of course there is also now a web mail client program called imp from horde.org that lets you do Hotmail or
Yahoo style email - users can read using a web interface. You run a web server (httpd) on your machine
in addition to sendmail and you can use a web browser to read mail that's in your mail box on the Linux machine.
(imapd service required).


Unless you have a really complicated connections, etc, a basic sendmail installation should work out of the box
in general. You do have to start it up if it's not yet (ps aux | grep sendmail to check to see if it's running) -
run linuxconf under RedHat to restart it or /etc/rc.d/init.d/sendmail start or even /sbin/sendmail & to start it
"by hand". If you're having problems, be sure to check /var/log/messages and let people know.

However, What you more probably need to read about are the mail SERVICE daemons: imapd or popd.
Go to the HOWTO's at metalab.unc.edu (home of the Linux documentation project online docs) or perhaps in
some of the URL's the Jerry K suggested.

-Jerry Winegarden