local mailing

[tovis]

I have a small LAN. I need a platform independent mailing "system" to fetch, read, write and archive my emails from several different providers.
After some testing and configuring I found that the best for me is squirrelmail - it have all base functionality and expandable with many nice features.
I have broadband 5 Mbps internet connection but DHCP - no real domain, no DNS. To test the abilities of WEB based mailers and underlying protocols I'm using windows client which was able to send mails on LAN without DNS MX record - really it's gives me an error but the mail arrived to my test box.
Do you know some more reliable testing method just using windows vulnerability? May be is there a DNS -like daemon which can serve MX records on a LAN such names in /etc/hosts file?

[Jeroen]

The SMTP (email) specs state that in absense of an MX record, mail shall be delivered to the host mentioned in the A record. I don't understand your question, it's a bit unclear -- for having your mail server function to recieve mail for an own (dynamic) domain, use any of the many dynamic DNS services, most if not all also provide MX. For local (same computer) delivery, you don't need DNS at all, just configure your mail transport agent properly. For delivery within a LAN, you can and you should setup your own local DNS in a fake zone with bind, such as the 'localdomain.' zone, or whatever you prefer.

[tovis]

For delivery within a LAN, you can and you should setup your own local DNS in a fake zone with bind, such as the 'localdomain.' zone, or whatever you prefer.

This answer was what I afraid of! I must use a CPU time and memory consuming daemon, which is reported in every document as "dangerouse", for simple task, at least test a mail serving "system".
dyn dns - nice, but I don't want to pay for nothing, free service is abused by several kind of advertisement - I hate and furiouse about them.
Really, what I want is a platform independent mail client, which fetch, store emails on my local file server, allow to compose messages and send them to recipients, store my address book in a well usable form, also use some good things such calendar!
For now to built this up I need:
- an MTA - exim;
- an IMAP - courier-imap;
- a HTTP server - apache1/2;
- some kind of mail delivery - fetchmail;
- plus a DNS;
Put it all together ... The good news thats all of this is available

[tovis]

Again
What is the right configuration for exim4 for local delivery?
I have a box as myhost.
On myhost there are two users (exclude root) usr1 and usr2
usr1 is assigned as recipient for system messages by email.
exim4 configured to local delivery only, through Maildir instead of mbox (later I need imap server).
How to send email to other user, on the same box (I called it as "local delkivery"), what is the good address for Cc in command "mail s"?
I try everything, include usr1@myhost, usr1@localhost.localdomian ...
The letter always comes to the right recipient Maildir, but an error report also, what said message is "unroutable"
What a mess is this, if is it delivered to recipient why the error report?
What I should configure to exim4?

[Jeroen]

Just try mail to 'usr1', without anything @something. Anyway, you *need* a domain name. Unless you want your mail to only work within your own system, and never mail anyone on the outside, you *need* to use dyndns or something, or pay some provider to get your own domain name (or ask a friend who has a domain name to get a subdomain).

Anyway, to setup a MTA like exim, you do need to know a bit about the basics of mail, smtp, and the like. Otherwise it'll be a bit hard for you. Check also your /etc/mailname, it should list the domain name you're using for your mail -- again, you *need* a domain name, either invent one yourself (and you cannot mail to anybody outside of your system), or get some way an offical, real one.

The insecurity of bind is quite exaggerated, you can run it fine, as tons of people do... Sure, there's always a risk, but you'll always be at risk if your computer is powered on and connected to the internet.

[Jeroen]

Oh wait, I see you're planning on using fetchmail -- so, then you probably want to invent your own domain name, use /etc/hosts would work fine too, and use address rewriting for when you send a mail to the outside world. You'll still need to configure exim for a specific domain name, for example, use the name of your computer.

[tovis]

Thanks Jeroen!
Now my "mailing system" is working;o)
exim4 + courier-imap + apache2 + squirrelmail + fetchmail
I've still suspect that is it too complicated!?
For now I'm testing and securing this "construction", it suppose to work behind my firewall, but at finish, I plan prot forwarding to reach "my" mailserver from outside.
Troubles:
- I need different user name and passwords then system.
- I need at least SSL connection to squirrelmail, especially from outside.
- Addressbook of squirrelmail doesn't work! - "Error initializing global
addressbook".