[rt-users] Newbie Alert (Mail settings)

[J.D. Falk]

On 12/01/00, "Bruce D. Meyer" <gh1 at rocsoft.net> wrote: 

> I have rt on a test server right now. I'd rather learn it and mess it up
> there before it goes prime time. One thing I noticed is due to my paranoid
> way of running the servers. (ISP) I only allow 2 of our 24 servers to run a
> mail server. One is sendmail running as a Daemon and handles a few thousand
> users, and the others is NT based. When one of the servers needs to send
> something via email (like logcheck reports of portsentry etc) it just
> executes sendmail sends it's stuff and unloads. (Sendmail is a bear to make
> relay proof, and one is enough to keep on eye on) 

	Actually, newer versions of sendmail are relay proof by default.
	But I agree that machines which don't need to be running an SMTP
	listener should not be doing so; my usual method of dealing with
	this is to run it without the -bd flag, so that it will still
	flush the queue periodically.

	Another option is to configure your firewall so that port 25
	connections from the outside are only allowed to the machines
	that you want to receive mail on.  All depends on whether you
	trust your sysadmins or your firewall admin more.  *grin*

> I still won't run sendmail as a daemon, but have considered setting up
> either a semaphore or just running sendmail ever 155 minutes as a cronjob to
> send and receive anything waiting on it. Is that a problem, or what does
> anyone else do, who is not allowing sendmail (or some other email software0
> to run as a full time daemon?

	I think the RT FAQ includes info on how to use fetchmail to
	pull mail in from a POP or IMAP account on another box.  Should
	work pretty well.

> I guess I am referring specifically to people whose servers are live on the
> internet 24 hours a day and have to deal with RBL, orbs etc and keep the
> spammers away from there machines.

-- 
J.D. Falk                                             "Laughter is the sound
Product Manager                          that knowledge makes when it's born."
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