A very simple mail server for forwarding only

[klaasvanschelven]

Hi there,

I'd like to set up a very simple mail server.
My DNS parking / minimal account does not include mail forwarding, which is all I need. I'd like to just forward all my mail to [whatever]@mydomain.com to my gmail or whatever other account. All tutorials I've found so far go into deep detail and actually manage boxes etc.

(this is happening on a debian server - I've found the Ubuntu community very helpful though, and hope to be able to bridge the differences myself.)

Klaas

[jimcooncat]

I used to use fetchmail and getmail, packages that retrieve mail from a pop or imap server, then I'd forward the messages along. These programs came with a good amount of problems.

I'm now using retchmail, a badly-named program that does the job very simply, but only for pop servers. It's been working with no problems or further effort for a few months now.

Here's the command-line steps I took to forward a couple accounts for my coworkers after installing from synaptic or apt-get:

1. Configure retchmail:
nano .retchmail/retchmail.conf

[POP Servers]
boss@pop.maine.com = secretPassword2
flunky@mail.midmaine.com = Super4SecretPasswd
[POP Targets]
boss@pop.maine.com = bigbossman@mycompany.com
flunky@mail.midmaine.com = superguy@yahoo.com


2. Set up a crontab (this fetches every five minutes):

crontab -e
# m h dom mon dow command
*/5 * * * * retchmail -qq -F


More info at:

http://alumnit.ca/wiki/index.php?page=RetchMail

[klaasvanschelven]

Do I understand correctly that these solutions presuppose a POP account? Because I don't have one... the entire point is that I don't care much for building & maintaining POP, I just want my info@whatever to point to an already existing address.

If I need to use POP, what would be the easiest way?

[jimcooncat]

Yes, I presupposed a POP server. Sorry for not understanding.

Simplest way to go about what you want is to look for a mail forwarding feature from whomever is supplying your DNS. Many do.

If they don't have that feature, you have two options:

1. Switch to one who does. Zoneedit.com is one I use, and is free for a generous amount of usage. In order to use it, you have to set up your DNS information at their site, and change your domain registration to use Zoneedit.com's name servers.

2. Run your own mail server. This involves having an always-connected computer to use as your server. If your internet provider gives you an IP address that changes, then you'll have to set up dynamic updates with your DNS provider (or switch to one that does, like zoneedit.com or dyndns.org). Then you set up MX records in your DNS to point to your mail server.

On your mail server, make sure you have Postfix installed, then you can put in your forwarding address in a .forward file in your home directory. You might also want to put in other addresses for yourself in the /etc/aliases file; this is great for common misspellings of your email address.

Running your own mail server can be a complicated process, but for your usage it's pretty simple. Using a good DNS service makes a big difference in how easy it is to set up.

[leidola]

On a normal Unix you can use the .forward file in the home directory of every user to forward mails to another mailbox. Please have a look at:

http://acs.ucsd.edu/email/dotforward.shtml

Just configure postfix or whatever as normal and use this forward files. The configuration "internet with smarthost" should be okay (--> dpkg-reconfigure postfix)

[windependence]

Two suggestions:

Transfer your domain to GoDaddy and get free forwarding (you won't lose what you paid for, they will credit you)

OR

Run a Postfix smtp server. 5 minute setup.

http://my.opera.com/Contrid/blog/show.dml/478684

http://howtoforge.com/perfect-server-ubuntu8.04-lts-p5


-Tim

[HermanAB]

You could also look at nullmailer.