Section 42.2. Mail and News (Topic 2.206)

42.2. Mail and News (Topic 2.206)

42.2.1. Review Questions

1. You wish to map mail from one local user account to another local user account. What file would you edit?

2. You wish to map mail from remote hosts to your hosts to different accounts on the system. What file would you use?

3. You wish to rewrite outgoing emails from the system mail.company1.com so that they appear to come from the mail.company2.com domain. What file would you use to create the proper mappings?

4. What command is used to add or remove groups in innd?

5. You have just installed Majordomo 2 on a system named listserv.company.com. The password is listserv1. What command would you issue to create a list named operations?

6. You are reading the following Procmail recipe:

    * ^From: .*@sales.com /dev/null 

   
   

   What is the result of the recipe?

42.2.2. Answers

1. Use the /etc/aliases file.

2. Use the virtusertable file.

3. Use the genericstable file.

4. Use the ctlinnd command.

5. Enter:

    # create operations listserv1 

   
   

6. All email messages from sales.com will be redirected to the /dev/null file and thus be deleted.

42.2.3. Exercises

1. Install and configure a simple Sendmail server. Configure the proper aliases according to RFC 821. Use the proper files, m4 macros, and commands to configure the system of your choice. Do not forget to configure the MX records for the domain so that emails sent to your domain will be properly mapped to your Sendmail server. Test your configuration and settings using the commands discussed in this book and at http://ww.sendmail.org.

2. Once you have configured Sendmail to work in a basic manner, experiment with the server. For example, use the genericstable file so that emails sent from the system appear to be sent from another related domain. Do not engage in illicit activity. Simply experiment with how to rewrite headers.

3. After working on your Sendmail configuration, secure it. Shut down and remove all unnecessary services, such as web and database servers. Use the iptables or (if you have an older system) ipchains command to block unnecessary connections. If you are using SSH or VNC, lock down these services so that they use the best encryption available and accept connections only from trusted hosts.

4. Install and configure Procmail. Use recipes to forward email to another user. Then create a recipe that automatically responds and informs people that the user is on vacation.

5. Install and configure Majordomo 2. Prepare Sendmail or your alternative MTA to work well with Majordomo 2. Then, create new lists. Subscribe and unsubscribe from these lists. Customize these lists by enabling and disabling moderation, as well as enabling and disabling message digesting.

6. Experiment with the different ways to configure Majordomo 2. You can configure it either by editing the readers.conf file or by sending control email messages.

7. Install INN. Configure it to serve up at least two newsgroups. You will likely find that the server is configured by default to reject posts from remote hosts. Configure the system to accept remote posts. You will likely need to do this using both the ctlinnd command and by configuring the readers.conf file.

8. Once you have configured INN to accept posts from remote users, enable password protection using the htpasswd command. You will likely have to edit the readers.conf file to recognize your use of the database. Your entry will likely appear as follows:

    auth "useraccounts" {     auth: "ckpasswd -f /etc/news/nntp_passwd" } 

   
   

   Now experiment with user authentication on the server, and monitor when users make posts.

9. Once you have configured user authentication, experiment with upstream and downstream feeds. Even if you do not have access to these streams, configure INN as if you did.