SMTP enabled mail server

[kopite]

hey,

Trying to set up my own mail server atm. I have used Exim4 before and liked it but the problem I have is i havent been able to get SMTP working. I know i`m probably doing something really wrong in the setup.

basically I want a mail server that Can host a pile of accounts for a pile of domains. I want to have some kind of spam checking on the server to make sure I dont get too much crap though.

any help would be grand

[peterb]

I haven't used Exim, but AFIK it is an MTA, not a server in that it hosts mail accounts. You have probably got this link, but just in case...

exim Internet Mailer

I run a small mail server using postfix, so it accepts mail for my domains and shoves them in a directory, but I use Dovecot to get them and present them to the mail client.

If you aren't using a mail client and all your users have shell accounts, then you can deliver directly to the userd directory so they can pick up mail useing mail or mutt (and I think evolution will also pick up from a directory directly).

Spam assassin is a reasonably good spam filter, although I use some fairly restrivive directives (in Postfix) to reject mail where (for example) the sender domain doesn't resolve back to the sending IP address, but that approach does sometimes reject legitimate mail.

[kopite]

The part of the server i`m having problems with atm is being able to send emails from the server.

i`m on sky so i need an SMTP server to allow me to send email out

[peterb]

Ok, using Sky as a relay. That should work, although their T&C might say that you can't run a mail server . have you set up relaying in the EXIM config file? (You don't have to relay via Sky of course, but a lot of ISP MTAs require some form of sender policy framework before they will accept mail, and that appears to be a pain to set up. I relay mail via Zen, without any problems. It sounds like a config issue, particularly if you can send mail via sky using a normal client, like outlook or evolution.

[kopite]

The dedicated server isnt on my DSL connection its a proper hosted server in a data centre in paris.

When i try and use sky as my outgoing server the address gets changed to the sky one.

[Vimeous]

Scalix?
There is a community version that's free.
Similar in look and feel to Exchange 2k3

[directhex]

it's pretty easy to set up exim to do this (though i don't have my book of documentation with me right now), but you need to be very careful when running your own mail server - e.g. that other web servers don't think of you as a spammer (due to lack of some obscure records like SPF, for example), and make sure you're not open to abuse by spammers passing spam through you

[Spud1]

What OS is your server running?

MailEnable - Standard Edition

Has options for anti spam (PTR record checking, DNS blacklisting, auto-banning of IP addresses etc)/multiple domains&accounts/smtp and a bunch of 3rd party plugin modules. Config is pretty simple too, and its one of the few windows apps to actually follow guidelines and use MMC snapins to do this

The Professional edition has a nice webmail client too and adds in many more features (such as SPF, more detailed anti spam and so on).

Worth a look if you are running windows anyway

[kopite]

Im using Debian etch.

The server has a static non blacklisted IP address which is registered to me. I have set up the RDNS on the IP address as well so it should be fine that way.

[directhex]

www.exim-new-users.co.uk - A Simple Exim Configuration File

[peterb]

KLet me get this straight in my head...

You are setting up a local mail server for all the machines on your local net to send mail out. What are you using the Paris data centre mail server for? Are you trying to relay all mail to the data centre using sky as a bearer? If that is the case, you may have problems. I had a similar situationm with a Fren ckh ISP (Wanadoo) which wouldn't let me send SMTP (Port 25) traffic directly to my mail server, I had to clear my outgoing mail through Wanadoo's mail server.

Sky may be insisting that all outgoing mail is relayed via them - so they handle the final distribution, meanbing that you can't just use them as a pipe to relay directly to the data centre, it has to be via sky's mail server. TIf that is teh case, the only solution may be avia a VPN tunnel, so the nature oif the traffic is transparent to Sky.

[directhex]

KLet me get this straight in my head...

You are setting up a local mail server for all the machines on your local net to send mail out. What are you using the Paris data centre mail server for? Are you trying to relay all mail to the data centre using sky as a bearer? If that is the case, you may have problems. I had a similar situationm with a Fren ckh ISP (Wanadoo) which wouldn't let me send SMTP (Port 25) traffic directly to my mail server, I had to clear my outgoing mail through Wanadoo's mail server.

Sky may be insisting that all outgoing mail is relayed via them - so they handle the final distribution, meanbing that you can't just use them as a pipe to relay directly to the data centre, it has to be via sky's mail server. TIf that is teh case, the only solution may be avia a VPN tunnel, so the nature oif the traffic is transparent to Sky.

he wants to run his own non-sky smarthost, on his colo'd box, because sky do rewriting on outgoing mail

[peterb]

In that case, the problem is probably Sky not accepting traffic on port 25 unless it is via their mail relay - which they then re-write.

[kopite]

I want my mail server to be hosted on my Colo`d box.

I am able to connect to other servers using port 25 with little problem so its not an issue. I really want to have my own mail server that does everything. I want SMTP to be authenticated though.

[directhex]

I want my mail server to be hosted on my Colo`d box.

I am able to connect to other servers using port 25 with little problem so its not an issue. I really want to have my own mail server that does everything. I want SMTP to be authenticated though.

Exim Smtp Auth - Waikato Linux Users Group

[kopite]

I have niow managed to get Exim4 up and running using
Exim4 on Debian with SpamAssassin, ClamAV, Virtual Domain Alias Files and Message Size Limits per Domain to set up exim, spamassasin and clamav.
HowTo Setup Basic SMTP AUTH in Exim4 to set up smtp with auth.

The problem i`m having now though is that It wont sent email unless I set clamav to run as root. I get the following errors in exim4 mainlog if I run user as clamav.

008-05-22 08:09:09 1Jz4vF-0004TT-Lp malware acl condition: clamd: unable to connect to UNIX socket /var/run/clamav/clamd.ctl (No such file or directory)
2008-05-22 08:09:09 1Jz4vF-0004TT-Lp H=5ad1f586.bb.sky.com ([###.###.###.###]) [###.###.###.###] F=<email@address.com> temporarily rejected after DATA

Email goes through fine if I run as root so i`m thinking its a permissions issue but I dont know what theyy are supposed to be.