[calimehtar]

I'm trying to get sendmail set up so I can use it as a relay -- I'm using imap to receive but I want to use sendmail to send. My home computer does not have a static IP.

I can send to myusername@localhost no problem but when I try to send outside I the send fails. Looking in mail.log I see something like:

Code:
Jul  7 18:16:48 My-Computer sendmail[652]: h67JE2SH000534: to=<[email protected]>, ctladdr=<[email protected]> (501/20), delay=03:02:46, xdelay=00:03:45, mailer=esmtp, pri=210371, relay=mail.domain.com. [205.189.152.16], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: Operation timed out with mail.domain.com.

I got the same result with two different domains. Is it because of the originating domain (or lack thereof), or is it something else?

[Ludovic Hirlimann]

Originally posted by calimehtar:
I'm trying to get sendmail set up so I can use it as a relay --

This really is BAD idea.
Spammer will be able to use you machine to send spam and your ISP migth terminate your account.

I'm using imap to receive but I want to use sendmail to send. My home computer does not have a static IP.

I can send to myusername@localhost no problem but when I try to send outside I the send fails. Looking in mail.

Read this document

[calimehtar]

A bad idea how? Isn't it true that you'd have to have a user account on my machine to use the relay or am I missing something. Anyway I'm the only one who should be able to use it at all, so if I have to configure it specially to work that way then I will.

Thanks for the tip, I'll read it when I have a few minutes.

[Ludovic Hirlimann]

Originally posted by calimehtar:
Anyway I'm the only one who should be able to use it at all, so if I have to configure it specially to work that way then I will.

Yes. If you really intend to use sendmail , you should read this book.

[Rainy Day]

A bad idea how?

Well you mis-spoke when you said you want to set sendmail up as a "relay." That is not what you want to solve the problem you described earlier. Loosely speaking, a relay is where your machine will accept mail from another machine, and pass it along to yet a third.

But what you really want is for a process on your computer to be able to use sendmail as a mail transport agent (MTA), which is different from a relay. Now it used to be that sendmail was broken in the default MacOS X install due to a configuration/permission issue, and i think that is still the case in Jaguar. If so and if you haven't addressed this issue, that is probably all you need do to get sendmail working the way you desire. You can make a simple one-line change to your sendmail.cf file. Set the variable DontBlameSendmail to "GroupWritableDirPathSafe". Here's the section of the sendmail.cf file to modify, and it should look like this (fourth line):

Code:
# override file safeties - setting this option compromises system security,
# addressing the actual file configuration problem is preferred
# need to set this before any file actions are encountered in the cf file
O DontBlameSendmail=GroupWritableDirPathSafe

Here are a couple of links with more info. They're pretty much the same info as each other, but they're not exactly the same:

O'Reilly Network: Getting sendmail Up and Running [July 10, 2003] hacks.oreilly.com -- O'Reilly Hacks Series

O'Reilly Network: Configuring sendmail on Jaguar

Isn't it true that you'd have to have a user account on my machine to use the relay or am I missing something. Anyway I'm the only one who should be able to use it at all

Relays don't work this way, but that's not what you want anyhow. For anyone interested in configuring their sendmail to relay, however, they should read this document: Allowing controlled SMTP relaying in Sendmail 8.9 and later.

[calimehtar]

Thanks for the tips. Raingy Day, I think you know what I'm after, but I'm still having problems sending mail this way and wondering whether I should be masquerading my domain for this purpose so my email doesn't come out as me@localhost... and whether there are problems associated with, say, masquerading as yahoo.com (or whatever my webmail address is). Do I need a real, valid domain for my home computer to make this work?

[Rainy Day]

I'm inferring from your post that you now have sendmail up and sending out mail.

Regarding the return address: I've never actually used sendmail's masquerade feature, and while there are other ways to achieve the same thing, i suspect that for your purposes that masquerading may be the simplest (and best) way to achieve your goal. This page may give you some insights: To thyn own domain be true

wondering... whether there are problems associated with, say, masquerading as yahoo.com (or whatever my webmail address is). Do I need a real, valid domain for my home computer to make this work?

No, you should be okay using your webmail host's domain (e.g. [email protected]).

You could get your own domain, but you would then need to have a mail server set up to receive mail for the domain (or at least forward the mail on to your mail host). That's not a bad thing, but would be more complicated. However, some domain registrars will forward eMail for your domain (and even web traffic) for no additional charge. The advantage of having your own domain, of course, is that your eMail address can remain constant, even if you change mail hosts. Of course that means the SPAMmer's won't lose track of you either!