[npmccallum]

I have a powerbook and I travel a lot. I don't have access to an outgoing mail server when I am not at home (my local ISP doesn't allow relays). When I travel I am usually at colleges and have access to their LANs. Is there a fairly easy way to setup an outgoing mail server (sendmail?) for just my laptop? (I do not want to receive email, or send from other computers. I only want to be able to send mail from this computer no matter where I am) Thoughts!?

[Vi0]

Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilites/Terminal)

Type the following (or just copy and paste into terminal directly from this webpage).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

sudo -s

[enter your admin password]

pico /etc/hostconfig

[change MAILSERVER=-NO- to MAILSERVER=-YES-]

control+o [hit return to save]

control+x

pico /System/Library/StartupItems/Sendmail/Sendmail

**ABOVE the line "/usr/sbin/sendmail -bd -q1h", add the following on a line all by itself:

chmod g-w / /Users

**

control+o [return]

control+x

pico /etc/crontab

[add the following to at the very end exactly like it looks below on two lines replacing username with your real username]

MAILTO=username
0 * * * * chmod g-w / /Users /

control+o [return]

control+x

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Restart your Mac.

Open Terminal again and type

telnet localhost 25

you should see something like this

"Trying ::1...
telnet: connect to address ::1: Connection refused
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 macosxs-computer.local ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.7/8.12.2; Mon, 7 Apr 2003 19:46:35 -0700 (PDT)"

Type quit

Sendmail is up and running and will now send mail directly from your computer.

Go into your mail client like Apple Mail and replace the outgoing server with "localhost" no username or password needed.

Your mail client will send mail now from localhost to any other computer and put your account's correct return address on it (the one that you recieve mail at).

[Camelot]

Originally posted by Vi0:
Your mail client will send mail now from localhost to any other computer and put your account's correct return address on it (the one that you recieve mail at).

EXCEPT, that many mail servers will not accept your emails because you don't have working reverse DNS and will assume you're sending spam.

By far the easiest way of handing this kind of problem is to use SMTP authentication, where your regular mail server accepts a username/password combination to enable relaying, even when not on your ISP's network.

Check with your ISP to see if they support SMTP AUTH. If you can, get past first level support since it's not the kind of question that interns can answer

[Vi0]

why would the reverse DNS not work if you are plugged in?

[NYCFarmboy]

I had the exact same problem. I travel with my ibook just about every week and could receive mail but had such a hard time getting my outgoing mail smtp server set up at different hotels all over the USA.

However.. I found an easy solution based on open source... doing a similar thing as above but ONLY REQUIRES ONE STEP for the code to be done automatically.

http://www.roadstead.com/weblog/Tutorials/SMSource.html

Basically you just install the program.. hit the "start sendmail" button, and reset all of your outgoing mail smtp server accounts to read "localhost".

The weblog posted above shows exactly how to do it. The software is shareware, free to try, if you like it, its only 9.95.

And I love it!!!!!!!!! It turns your own laptop into a server using OS X's built in mail server.

FInally I can send email anywhere with ease!!!!!!!

[Telusman]

Well having a broadband connection at home, i've turned my rarely-used iMac into a Mac OS X Server will a fully working SMTP and POP3/IMAP server.

I've got it all working to accept mail at whatever location I am at, and if it doesnt, i've used Squirrelmail (included with server but a breeze to get working on client) in order to add a web-interface to my mail server.

-Telusman