[Lucidwray]

HELP!!

I am totaly lost with how the M4 editor works. I am trying to migrate my server over from WebSTAR 4.4 on OS9 to iTools in OSX. My only hold back is Sendmail. Specificly allowing my remote users to relay mail though my server (I host their web sites).
I read on Sendmail.org all about relaying and there is an option that if I could turn it on would probably solve my problem for the short term.

FEATURE(rbl)
FEATURE(relay_local_from)

How in the WORLD do I get these options turned on. From what Ive read I have to create a .m4 file and run it through m4 to get the output config file. When I do this, the files that comes out is idential to wh
at I put in?!

Is there anyway to add these options to my existing sendmail.cf file without haveing to rebuild the entire thing?

[e-cyras]

Originally posted by Lucidwray:
<STRONG>HELP!!

I am totaly lost with how the M4 editor works. I am trying to migrate my server over from WebSTAR 4.4 on OS9 to iTools in OSX. My only hold back is Sendmail. Specificly allowing my remote users to relay mail though my server (I host their web sites).
I read on Sendmail.org all about relaying and there is an option that if I could turn it on would probably solve my problem for the short term.

FEATURE(rbl)
FEATURE(relay_local_from)

How in the WORLD do I get these options turned on. From what Ive read I have to create a .m4 file and run it through m4 to get the output config file. When I do this, the files that comes out is idential to wh
at I put in?!

Is there anyway to add these options to my existing sendmail.cf file without haveing to rebuild the entire thing?</STRONG>

--------------------------------------------------------------------
you don't need 'FEATURE(rbl)' and 'FEATURE(relay_local_from)'!!!

you must only add the feature 'FEATURE(`access_db')dnl' to your 'sendmail.mc'-file, then you must create the 'sendmail.cf' with 'm4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc &gt; /etc/mail/sendmail.cf'!

NEVER EDIT THE 'SENDMAIL.CF'-FILE -- thats very dangerous... ;o)

after that, you must create an access database in '/etc/mail/':

'cd /etc/mail/'
'touch access'
'mcedit access' or 'pico access' or ...

your access-file contains:

127 RELAY #all adresses that begin with 127 are allowed to relay mail
192.168.168 RELAY #all adresses that begin with 192.168.168 are allowed to relay mail -- there you must set YOUR ip-range....

now you must create the database:

makemap hash /etc/mail/access &lt; /etc/mail/access

now a new file (access.db) appears in '/etc/mail/'

and now you must restart sendmail....!

ok thats all...
and sorry for my very bad english...!
bye e-cyras
[email protected]

[Lucidwray]

I understand for the most part where your going. But my problem is i dont always know where my clients will be checking their mail from. I have several clients that are not in my IP range and there is never a way to tell where they are going to be when they send mail. I need to be able to let them relay mail though my server from anywhere.
Until I get another authentication scheme working I would like to be able to use the FEATURE(relay_local_from) feature. (I know its a potential security risk, and I hope to minimize that with the FEATURE(rbl)
and a few others)

What I really want to know.. is there a way to modify an existing sendmail.cf file? All I need is those 2 features added in there. Could i create a .m4 file and process it and then dump the output to the sendmail.cf file? or is there some way to do this without having to complety start from scratch just to add 2 features?

Any help would be appreciated.. Thanks

[Camelot]

Originally posted by Lucidwray:
<STRONG>I understand for the most part where your going. But my problem is i dont always know where my clients will be checking their mail from. I have several clients that are not in my IP range and there is never a way to tell where they are going to be when they send mail. I need to be able to let them relay mail though my server from anywhere.
Until I get another authentication scheme working I would like to be able to use the FEATURE(relay_local_from) feature. (I know its a potential security risk, and I hope to minimize that with the FEATURE(rbl)
and a few others)

What I really want to know.. is there a way to modify an existing sendmail.cf file? All I need is those 2 features added in there. Could i create a .m4 file and process it and then dump the output to the sendmail.cf file? or is there some way to do this without having to complety start from scratch just to add 2 features?

Any help would be appreciated.. Thanks</STRONG>

You can edit the sendmail.cf file using any text editor (vi, pico, etc.) In most cases, except for the sendmail rules (all the $#1$#S junk at the bottom of the file) it's a heck of a lot easier to edit the sendmail.cf than work out the m4 syntax for the same thing.

Now, as for your original question, if you want to allow users to send mail through your server from anywhere, then you're going about it the wrong way.

SMTP Authentication is THE way to go for this. Users provide a username and password for sending mail, just like they do when they're are getting mail via POP. This was you know your user is valid, regardless of where they're coming in from.

Checking the from address is BAD. It's no security at all, and if some spammer catches onto it, they'll fake the from address and all of a sudden all their spam is not just coming from your server, it's all addressed from your domain. About 30 seconds later your domain is on at least one of the blacklists. Don't do it.