On Fri, 11 May 2001, you wrote:
> john gennard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I've installed v.1.03 from a src.deb package onto Debian Potato.
> > There is a large volume of literature which I've spent some days
> > reading and can't find explanations for a number of points (entirely
> > due to my semi- computer literate state).
>
> Please do not take this as a flame, insult, or pointless reply, but if (by
> your own admission) you are only semi-literate in computers, what are you
> doing installing a Unix MTA?
>
Charles, I certainly do not take any form of offence from your
reply - quite the opposite, in fact, I'm grateful you have
taken the time out to respond.
A couple of years ago, after reaching 70, I got a computer and following
a frustrating few months with Windoze switched to Linux which lets me
control things when, of course, I understand what I'm doing. Now, for
good or ill, I'm 'hooked' and want to learn 'all about it' (a forlorn hope as
each time I understand some aspect, another vast vista of knowledge
yet to be acquired appears before me). In short, its become a hobby.
Sendmail seems offered on most distros, and during reading about
email (using it has not presented me with problems - I've been using
kmail), a very strong case seems to be made for qmail as an
alternative. Nowhere have I seen any advice that the inexperienced
should avoid it. Spam is starting to annoy me and so I decided to
look at fetchmail, procmail, mutt and qmail as a 'package' which
might enable me to do something about it.
Most 'advisors' on serious newsgroups seem to be highly qualified
and experienced individuals who good-naturedly greatly assist those
like me. - they do not of course have to do so. In 'this day and age'
this is unusual. At the same time, I do wonder if those brought up
in times when some degree of computer literacy is the norm can
understand how the likes of myself struggle learning 'alien'
concepts in a completely foreign language, and without the
possibility of discussing things face to face with tutors, peers and
other users. Manuals are written by persons who know their subject
and believe those reading will appreciate what they say -
this is proper and completely understandable but for us is
frustrating (I doubt a brain surgeon can even countenance that
there exist people who don't know how to stop a simple haemorrhage).
Then the 'sublime irony', when we install and use, with help, that
covered by a man page and again read the page we say 'well it's
quite clear what it meant - it's obvious'.
Didn't mean to 'go on so'. Thank you very much for your response and
the helpful information you have imparted. Replies like yours are
specific to points raised, whereas general literature tends to be
too widely based. My gratitude - but I'm still going to
try to go ahead even if eventually I decide a simpler approach is
more expedient in my circumstances - any knowledge I gain is likely
to be a 'plus'.
Regards, John.
> Perhaps you should instead use something like mutt to read mail off your ISP's
> POP3 or IMAP server, and transfer any outgoing mail to them with a relay-only
> MTA like nullmailer.
>
> > I connect to an ISP by dialling with a modem and have just two user
> > accounts. I've never really understood the concept of a FQDN and so
> > can't with confidence create a /var/qmail/control file. Hypothetically,
> > my ISP is heaven.com, I call my box eden and have users adam and
> > eve, what is my FQDN? (I log in as say garden - so outsiders email
> > me as [EMAIL PROTECTED]).
>
> You don't have an FQDN. Well, you do, but it changes everytime you connect,
> and it's something like "dialin-254-43-129-32-us-west.spurious.isp.net".
>
> > I fail to understand exactly what part alias plays in the setup. At
> > a minimum, I should create three - root, postmaster and
> > mailer-daemon, but do I need any for my user accounts and why?
>
> No, and it's a big discussion.
>
> > With the simple setup I have should I bother with the dot-forward,
> > daemontools and fastforward packages?
>
> No.
>
> > I know these are very simple questions, but could someone give
> > a simple explanation to help me along. What I would ideally like is
> > a write up for a minimal setup for the type of installation I have -
> > it seems none exists or else I can't find it.
>
> qmail is designed for well-connected hosts (read: your internet connection is
> fast and always-on). While it can be made to do what you want it to do, it
> isn't completely trivial, and probably requires more Unix system
> administration skills to install, configure, and maintain than you currently
> posess. Lurk in this list for a few months, and you may pick up enough to get
> there.
>
> Charles
> --
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Charles Cazabon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> GPL'ed software available at: http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/
> Any opinions expressed are just that -- my opinions.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
