Robert's goal: provide a central mail server that will allow delivery to
local users for private LAN.
Current software: sendmail, mailx
Question: Is mailx an SMTP client?
Answer: No. It's a very simple local delivery MUA. You need an MTA
installed for mailx to be effective. Configure this MTA as a "null
client" to your central SMTP server.
Question: Do you need DNS on the local subnet?
Answer: No. Turn off DNS lookup for local mail or use /etc/hosts files
for name resolution of IP addresses. Turn off MX lookup.
Suggestions
===========
Sendmail, postfix, or exim. It doesn't really matter as long as you're
comfortable with your server configuration, use it. exim or postfix may
be easier to set up. All three are fairly powerful and flexible. Read
the documentation.
I would configure your central SMTP server to accept mail for the local
domain (LAN), and use simple host file name resolution. Shut off DNS
lookup for the local IP's. You can also configure the server to not
accept email going outside the domain, where sender and receiver are
mapped to the same domain address.
sender at myprivate.lan
receiver at myprivate.lan
This is a little draconic, but if you do not expect email to leave the
LAN, this is the best way to set it up.
If you want to also use your SMTP server as a central relay host, your
configuration gets slightly more complicated, but not really. Just make
sure you set up your local sendmail.cw to include the names of your
local LAN and any domain you're relaying for (not relaying to).
Also, if you must, you can take advantage of your ISP's central SMTP
server. This is especially true for some RBL lists that block dialup,
or if your ISP doesn't do the footwork to make PTR records for all it's
IP addresses. It's a broken SMTP server that won't allow email from
these sources, but some people prefer to be draconic and receive less
spam with the sacrifice that a few legitimate emails will be dropped.
--
Chad Walstrom <chewie at wookimus.net> | a.k.a. ^chewie
http://www.wookimus.net/ | s.k.a. gunnarr
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