Archive:Docs/Drafts/ServerInstallationGuide/SendmailServer

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Documentation Summary: Fedora Core Server Installation (HOWTO)

Lead Writer: Miles Brennan

Sendmail Server

Versions

sendmail

8.13.6

dovecot

1.0

clamav

0.88.2

clamav-milter

0.88.2

spamassassin

3.1.3

Sending emails to multiple recipients scattered around the world these days is such an easy everyday task, that its hard to image life without it. Sending an email through the Internet uses many different protocols and applications that all work seamlessly to ensure your message reaches its end destination.

This chapter will provide assistance in the configuration of your own server for sending and receiving emails, and will also provide details on some extra applications to ensure your system remains secure and relatively virus free. In chapter 13, we will configure a webmail application which provides a means to send and receive email while away from home. To make proper use of an email system requires the server to be configured with a fully registered Internet domain name; DNS is used extensively for email. In chapter 20 we will configure LDAP to provide our network with a share address book (with SSL) to be used by internal and/or roaming clients.

Before we begin, here are some of the basic components that help to make up the email world:

MUA: Mail User Agent	The email application that a user sends/receives (thunderbird,pine,outlook)
MTA: Mail Transport Agent	The server agent responsible for sending the emails (sendmail,postfix,qmail)
MDA: Mail Delivery Agent	The server agent that accepts email from MTA, and places into users mailbox (procmail)
SMTP: Simple Mail Transport Protocol	MUAs and MTAs use this protocol for sending emails
POP3: Post Office Protocol (Ver 3)	MUAs use this protocol for receiving their emails from the final server
IMAP: Internet Message Access Protocol	MUAs can use this protocol to send and receive emails on the servers

Procmail is normally installed and running on most systems already so it won't be covered here.

The preferred email protocol for this configuration is IMAPS as all emails are stored on the main server and then replicated through to your MUA client when it connects. Because the mail files on the server and client are synchronised, the webmail application will have all the emails contained on your local workstation and vice versa, including sent emails.