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Configuring Exim for mail delivery

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  Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-09-30 22:30 +0200
    Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Liam O'Toole <liam.p.otoole@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 00:50 +0200
    Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 04:00 +0200
      Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 12:40 +0200
        Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-10-01 13:30 +0200
          Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 13:50 +0200
            Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Clive Menzies <clive@clivemenzies.co.uk> - 2016-10-01 14:00 +0200
              Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 14:10 +0200
            Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 14:10 +0200
            Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 14:10 +0200
        Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 14:30 +0200
          Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 14:40 +0200
            Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 15:00 +0200
              Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 15:00 +0200
          Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-10-01 15:00 +0200
            Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 15:10 +0200
            Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 15:40 +0200
              Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 16:20 +0200
              Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-10-01 16:40 +0200
        Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> - 2016-10-01 16:00 +0200
          Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 16:20 +0200
    Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 11:10 +0200
      Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-10-01 12:10 +0200
        Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 12:40 +0200
        Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 14:10 +0200
          Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-10-01 14:30 +0200
            Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 14:30 +0200
              Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 15:00 +0200
                Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 15:10 +0200
        Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 14:10 +0200
      Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 13:40 +0200
        Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 14:10 +0200
      Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery rhkramer@gmail.com - 2016-10-01 14:20 +0200
        Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 16:30 +0200
      Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Liam O'Toole <liam.p.otoole@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 18:30 +0200
        Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-10-01 20:20 +0200
          Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 22:50 +0200
            Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-10-02 00:30 +0200
              Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-02 02:30 +0200
                Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Liam O'Toole <liam.p.otoole@gmail.com> - 2016-10-02 13:10 +0200
              Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-02 10:50 +0200
          Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Liam O'Toole <liam.p.otoole@gmail.com> - 2016-10-01 23:10 +0200
            Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-10-02 00:40 +0200
              Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Liam O'Toole <liam.p.otoole@gmail.com> - 2016-10-02 02:10 +0200
                Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-10-02 14:00 +0200
                  Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-02 14:50 +0200
                    Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2016-10-02 15:20 +0200
                      Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-10-02 15:50 +0200
                    Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-10-02 15:40 +0200
                      Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery Liam O'Toole <liam.p.otoole@gmail.com> - 2016-10-02 17:30 +0200
        Re: Configuring Exim for mail delivery mo <mo777@gmx.net> - 2016-10-01 22:50 +0200

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#173053

Am 01.10.2016 um 15:57 schrieb Teemu Likonen:
> mo [2016-10-01 12:36:10+02] wrote:
>
>> I'm not a friend of avahi to be honest, i much rather ignore it :D
>
> Avahi is great. My ethernet-connected printer uses DHCP to get IP
> address and network configuration. The printer announces itself to the
> network with <mac-address>.local name so a print server can use that
> name to connect to it. CUPS print server also announces its printers by
> names. No static IP address configuration needed anywhere. I think the
> underlying technique is called multicast DNS.
>

I guess i should be looking into avahi, never really did that, to be 
honest avahi so far did not really made much sense to me with my static 
network... But one can never learn enough ;)

Greets

mo

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#173014

First of all:
Thank you Liam for your help! :)
Thanks for the very nice and long explanation Mark! :)

I think i should elaborate a little more on my setup.. i guess i did not 
make that very clear in the first place, sorry about that.

My network is consisting of the following systems:

Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)

The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.

What i want to do now is the following:

Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around, 
from the Server to my Main PC.
The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to 
other SMTP servers).
The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all 
this is sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is 
to send and receive mail from both systems in my home network.
I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)

I'm a little ashamed to say that, but i could not totally follow your 
explanations Mark... I'm quite a newbie when it comes to SMTP.. sorry :(

Thanks again for all your help ;)

Greets

mo

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#173018

On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 11:06:07 +0200, mo wrote:

> First of all:
> Thank you Liam for your help! :)
> Thanks for the very nice and long explanation Mark! :)
> 
> I think i should elaborate a little more on my setup.. i guess i did not
> make that very clear in the first place, sorry about that.
> 
> My network is consisting of the following systems:
> 
> Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
> Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)
> 
> The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.
> 
> What i want to do now is the following:
> 
> Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around,
> from the Server to my Main PC.
> The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to
> other SMTP servers).
> The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all this is
> sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is to send and
> receive mail from both systems in my home network.
> I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)
> 
> I'm a little ashamed to say that, but i could not totally follow your
> explanations Mark... I'm quite a newbie when it comes to SMTP.. sorry :(

Assuming the server hostname is "server".

1. On Main PC use your editor to create /etc/exim4/hubbed_hosts. In it
   put

   server: 192.168.23.200

   in it and restart exim4.

2. Send mail to user@server.

3. You can replace 'server: 192.168.23.200' with 'server: server.local'
   if avahi-daemon is running on both machines.

-- 
Brian.

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#173020

Hi Brian :)

>
> Assuming the server hostname is "server".
>
> 1. On Main PC use your editor to create /etc/exim4/hubbed_hosts. In it
>    put
>
>    server: 192.168.23.200
>
>    in it and restart exim4.
>
> 2. Send mail to user@server.
>
> 3. You can replace 'server: 192.168.23.200' with 'server: server.local'
>    if avahi-daemon is running on both machines.
>

It worked perfectly
...I just found out that "mail" does not support Maildir format, but 
mutt does fine
I can now send and receive mail from and to my server. Thank you very 
much for your help! (...And for the easy step by step guide )

Thanks again

Greets
mo

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#173029

Am 01.10.2016 um 14:02 schrieb Mark Fletcher:
> On Sat, Oct 01, 2016 at 11:01:17AM +0100, Brian wrote:
>> On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 11:06:07 +0200, mo wrote:
>>
>>> First of all:
>>> Thank you Liam for your help! :)
>>> Thanks for the very nice and long explanation Mark! :)
>>>
>>> I think i should elaborate a little more on my setup.. i guess i did not
>>> make that very clear in the first place, sorry about that.
>>>
>>> My network is consisting of the following systems:
>>>
>>> Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
>>> Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)
>>>
>>> The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.
>>>
>>> What i want to do now is the following:
>>>
>>> Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around,
>>> from the Server to my Main PC.
>>> The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to
>>> other SMTP servers).
>>> The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all this is
>>> sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is to send and
>>> receive mail from both systems in my home network.
>>> I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)
>>>
>>> I'm a little ashamed to say that, but i could not totally follow your
>>> explanations Mark... I'm quite a newbie when it comes to SMTP.. sorry :(
>>
>> Assuming the server hostname is "server".
>>
>> 1. On Main PC use your editor to create /etc/exim4/hubbed_hosts. In it
>>    put
>>
>>    server: 192.168.23.200
>>
>>    in it and restart exim4.
>>
>> 2. Send mail to user@server.
>>
>> 3. You can replace 'server: 192.168.23.200' with 'server: server.local'
>>    if avahi-daemon is running on both machines.
>>
>
> No colons as separators in hubbed_hosts, to my knowledge. Use spaces or tabs.

I have colones in the hubbed_hosts file... seems to work.
I just tested it: It works with or without the colon. Maybe this is 
interesting to know ;)

> Mark
>

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#173033

On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 14:09:19 +0200, mo wrote:

> Am 01.10.2016 um 14:02 schrieb Mark Fletcher:
> >
> >No colons as separators in hubbed_hosts, to my knowledge. Use spaces or tabs.
> 
> I have colones in the hubbed_hosts file... seems to work.
> I just tested it: It works with or without the colon. Maybe this is
> interesting to know ;)

Please see exim4-config_files(5).

-- 
Brian.

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#173035

Am 01.10.2016 um 14:20 schrieb Brian:
> On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 14:09:19 +0200, mo wrote:
>
>> Am 01.10.2016 um 14:02 schrieb Mark Fletcher:
>>>
>>> No colons as separators in hubbed_hosts, to my knowledge. Use spaces or tabs.
>>
>> I have colones in the hubbed_hosts file... seems to work.
>> I just tested it: It works with or without the colon. Maybe this is
>> interesting to know ;)
>
> Please see exim4-config_files(5).
>

Just looked into the man page, indeed a colon is required there. ;)

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#173039

On Sat, Oct 01, 2016 at 02:24:16PM +0200, mo wrote:
> 
> 
> Am 01.10.2016 um 14:20 schrieb Brian:
> >On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 14:09:19 +0200, mo wrote:
> >
> >>Am 01.10.2016 um 14:02 schrieb Mark Fletcher:
> >>>
> >>>No colons as separators in hubbed_hosts, to my knowledge. Use spaces or tabs.
> >>
> >>I have colones in the hubbed_hosts file... seems to work.
> >>I just tested it: It works with or without the colon. Maybe this is
> >>interesting to know ;)
> >
> >Please see exim4-config_files(5).
> >
> 
> Just looked into the man page, indeed a colon is required there. ;)
> 

No, it isn't. I don't use colons in my hubbed_hosts file.

Mark

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#173044

Am 01.10.2016 um 14:52 schrieb Mark Fletcher:
> On Sat, Oct 01, 2016 at 02:24:16PM +0200, mo wrote:
>>
>>
>> Am 01.10.2016 um 14:20 schrieb Brian:
>>> On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 14:09:19 +0200, mo wrote:
>>>
>>>> Am 01.10.2016 um 14:02 schrieb Mark Fletcher:
>>>>>
>>>>> No colons as separators in hubbed_hosts, to my knowledge. Use spaces or tabs.
>>>>
>>>> I have colones in the hubbed_hosts file... seems to work.
>>>> I just tested it: It works with or without the colon. Maybe this is
>>>> interesting to know ;)
>>>
>>> Please see exim4-config_files(5).
>>>
>>
>> Just looked into the man page, indeed a colon is required there. ;)
>>
>
> No, it isn't. I don't use colons in my hubbed_hosts file.

Both works actually. I Just tried it. But the man pages uses colons.. 
seems like it works fine with or without ;)

> Mark
>

Greets

mo

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#173031

On Sat, Oct 01, 2016 at 11:01:17AM +0100, Brian wrote:
> On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 11:06:07 +0200, mo wrote:
> 
> > First of all:
> > Thank you Liam for your help! :)
> > Thanks for the very nice and long explanation Mark! :)
> > 
> > I think i should elaborate a little more on my setup.. i guess i did not
> > make that very clear in the first place, sorry about that.
> > 
> > My network is consisting of the following systems:
> > 
> > Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
> > Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)
> > 
> > The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.
> > 
> > What i want to do now is the following:
> > 
> > Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around,
> > from the Server to my Main PC.
> > The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to
> > other SMTP servers).
> > The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all this is
> > sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is to send and
> > receive mail from both systems in my home network.
> > I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)
> > 
> > I'm a little ashamed to say that, but i could not totally follow your
> > explanations Mark... I'm quite a newbie when it comes to SMTP.. sorry :(
> 
> Assuming the server hostname is "server".
> 
> 1. On Main PC use your editor to create /etc/exim4/hubbed_hosts. In it
>    put
> 
>    server: 192.168.23.200
> 
>    in it and restart exim4.
> 
> 2. Send mail to user@server.
> 
> 3. You can replace 'server: 192.168.23.200' with 'server: server.local'
>    if avahi-daemon is running on both machines.
> 

No colons as separators in hubbed_hosts, to my knowledge. Use spaces or tabs.

Mark

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#173023

On Sat, Oct 01, 2016 at 11:06:07AM +0200, mo wrote:
> 
> I think i should elaborate a little more on my setup.. i guess i did not
> make that very clear in the first place, sorry about that.
> 
> My network is consisting of the following systems:
> 
> Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
> Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)
> 
> The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.
> 
> What i want to do now is the following:
> 
> Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around,
> from the Server to my Main PC.
> The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to
> other SMTP servers).
> The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all this is
> sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is to send and
> receive mail from both systems in my home network.
> I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)
> 

Right. So you get mail going back and forth between your two machines, 
server and PC, by creating and populating the hubbed_hosts file I 
talked about in my previous mail, on both machines, pointing at each 
other of course.

If you want to ping the server from the client, you should be able to do 
"ping server.local" from your PC (obviously replace the actual name of 
your server, which you didn't include in your mail, where I put server). 
What is happening if you do that is your PC is saying "get me the 
address of server.local!" and the Avahi daemon on your PC either already 
knows that, or sends out a broadcast message to your network saying "is 
there a server.local in the house???". The Avahi daemon running on the 
server responds to that saying "yes, I'm here, and my IP address is 
192.168.23.200!". The Avahi daemon on your PC responds to whatever did 
the asking (ping in this case) with the required IP. Ping then requests 
that packets be sent to IP address quoted. By this mechanism computers 
on the same LAN can communicate with each other peer to peer without 
fannying around with full-blown DNS, which is what Avahi is for. That is 
installed by the Jessie installer by default as far as I can tell, so 
both your machines should have it. It doesn't require any configuration, 
so if you haven't touched it, it should work as I have described. 
Although obviously, you have to substitute the real names for your 
server and PC (but you *do* require the .local unless you have configured 
Avahi to use something else)

If you used the default config of exim4 the hubbed_hosts router is set 
up and waiting to be used. All you need to do to enable it is to 
populate the hubbed_hosts file as I described. The other thing you need 
to do is follow Liam's advice, except importantly what needs to be set 
there is the "domain" of the local PC (on the local PC) or the server 
(on the server) only. So the PC will accept mail for pc.local (or 
whatever your pc is called) and the server for server.local (or whatever 
the server is called). Then, you will be able to email yourself at the 
server from the PC by sending a mail to mo@server.local, where I am 
assuming your user name on the server is mo and the server's machine 
name is server. Obviously you would substitute real names. And to go the 
other way, from the server, you could send a mail to yourself on the PC 
by mailing mo@pc.local.

Let's take a moment to go through what happens if you send a mail from 
PC to server with everything set up as it should be.

On the PC you create a mail and address it to mo@server.local. Let's 
imagine you use mutt to create it. And let's assume mutt is using its 
default configuration to send the mail, which is to call sendmail. And, 
since you have installed exim4, exim has overridden sendmail to actually 
be calling exim4. So, when mutt sends a mail, exim4 running on your PC 
gets handed the mail.

The first thing it does, is say is this mail for this domain. Hmmm. I am 
pc.local. This mail is going to server.local. That ain't me. So not 
local delivery. OK, next I will try hubbed hosts. Do I have any 
hubbed_hosts? Let's look in the hubbed_hosts file. Yep, I do. Can i find 
the @server.local domain in the hubbed_hosts file? Yes, I can. Right, 
where do I send it then? Ah, I send it to a machine called server.local. 
OK... Oi! Network! Gimme the address for server.local....... (this is 
where Avahi does its thing)...Thanks! Right, Connect to 192.168.23.200 
port 25!

At this point the exim4 running on your server gets a dig in the ribs, 
wakes up, and responds to the connection. The two exim4s talk to each 
other and the net result is the mail gets transferred from the exim4 
running on the PC to the exim4 running on the server.

Then the exim4 running on the server goes through the same rigmarole, 
except it finds that the mail IS addressed to a local address, so it 
goes into delivery mode and the mail finds its way into the right 
mailbox on that machine.

Now let's consider what would happen if you tried instead to send a mail 
to the debian user mailing list from your PC (but the same would apply 
to your server). You can't do this using mo@pc.local, because A) your 
ISP most likely won't let you and B) most recipient domains will reject 
that. Instead you have to use a "real" email address, ie one provided by 
your ISP or something like a gmail account or similar. You'll have to 
have configured exim4 in smarthost mode and you will have to have 
configured exim4 to know what your outgoing mail server name is. For 
example, for the specific case of sending to this mailing list, I use 
gmail for outgoing mail and their server name is smtp.gmail.com if I 
recall correctly. You'll also have had to put your email user name and 
password into a file called passwd.client in your /etc/exim4 config 
directory. Since this contains your email password, make sure the file 
is owned by root and not world readable!

Then, any address that isn't local to the machine, and also isn't in the 
hubbed_hosts file, will be treated as external and exim4 will connect to 
the smarthost (your email provider's server) and pass on the message to 
be delivered by it.

Net result -- you send an email from PC to Server, it gets delivered 
directly by a conversation between the two exim4 instances. You send a 
mail anywhere else, it gets handed off to your real-world (not that the 
inside of your home is not "real"!) email provider for delivery.

Now, a word on exim4 config. Be sure to read the *DEBIAN* wiki etc on 
configuring exim4, as the DEBIAN config is a bit different to what you 
will find upstream. Let me save you a bit of time.

First, there are two ways to configure exim4, using one big config file 
which is found in /var/lib/exim4, or using a config directory containing 
a bunch of small config files each handling one small piece of the 
configuration. Opinions abound on which is better, I have no opinion. By 
default, exim4 on Debian will use the single file approach. Second, 
Debian constructs the config file by using a TEMPLATE to be found in 
/etc/exim4, and a second configuration file called 
update-exim4.conf.conf (yes, the conf file for updating the conf 
file......) You put your specific config in the update-exim4.conf.conf 
file, then when you are done you run update-exim4.conf as root 
(update-exim4.conf is actually a program, not a conf file... 
update-exim4.conf.conf is a conf file...) and restart exim4. The 
update-exim4.conf program combines the template with the specific info 
in update-exim4.conf.conf and writes the result to 
/var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated which is the config exim4 on Debian 
uses. This can also be done by running dpkg-reconfigure exim4.conf as 
Liam suggested, but I think there are more things you can do with 
update-exim4.conf.conf than the questions dpkg-reconfigure will ask you, 
so it wouldn't hurt to get familiar with what is going on under the hood 
when you do dpkg-reconfigure, but that's just my opinion.

If you need more specific help on how to get your local exim4 talking to 
an external email provider, or for that matter if you need me to clarify 
anything about getting local machine to local machine email working, 
post back here.

Also, being able to receive replies to externally sent mails back into 
your machine locally, needs another bit of setup. If you need that, let 
us know and I'll help with that part too (it is where fetchmail comes 
in). But, there is nothing to stop you using whatever mail client you 
use today to read your email as you presumably do now, and you'll see 
the mails you sent locally there in your sent mail (depending on the 
precise behaviour of your provider's mail server)

Hope that helped clarify things. Sorry for the length of this but 
someone has finally asked for help with something I know something 
about, and I'm keen to help! :)

Mark

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#173027

Am 01.10.2016 um 13:36 schrieb Mark Fletcher:
> On Sat, Oct 01, 2016 at 11:06:07AM +0200, mo wrote:
>>
>> I think i should elaborate a little more on my setup.. i guess i did not
>> make that very clear in the first place, sorry about that.
>>
>> My network is consisting of the following systems:
>>
>> Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
>> Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)
>>
>> The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.
>>
>> What i want to do now is the following:
>>
>> Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around,
>> from the Server to my Main PC.
>> The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to
>> other SMTP servers).
>> The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all this is
>> sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is to send and
>> receive mail from both systems in my home network.
>> I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)
>>
>
> Right. So you get mail going back and forth between your two machines,
> server and PC, by creating and populating the hubbed_hosts file I
> talked about in my previous mail, on both machines, pointing at each
> other of course.

I created the hubbed_hosts file under /etc/exim4 and it now works fine, 
i can send mail from my server to my pc and vice versa :)

> If you want to ping the server from the client, you should be able to do
> "ping server.local" from your PC (obviously replace the actual name of
> your server, which you didn't include in your mail, where I put server).
> What is happening if you do that is your PC is saying "get me the
> address of server.local!" and the Avahi daemon on your PC either already
> knows that, or sends out a broadcast message to your network saying "is
> there a server.local in the house???". The Avahi daemon running on the
> server responds to that saying "yes, I'm here, and my IP address is
> 192.168.23.200!". The Avahi daemon on your PC responds to whatever did
> the asking (ping in this case) with the required IP. Ping then requests
> that packets be sent to IP address quoted. By this mechanism computers
> on the same LAN can communicate with each other peer to peer without
> fannying around with full-blown DNS, which is what Avahi is for. That is
> installed by the Jessie installer by default as far as I can tell, so
> both your machines should have it. It doesn't require any configuration,
> so if you haven't touched it, it should work as I have described.
> Although obviously, you have to substitute the real names for your
> server and PC (but you *do* require the .local unless you have configured
> Avahi to use something else)

I'm currently not using avahi as a matter of fact, but it works all fine 
without it ;)
(I have static entries in the /etc/hosts file for my server and for the 
pc - on each system of course)
I have never really worked with avahi... i kinda ask myself why do i 
need it if i can just use DNS or static entries in /etc/hosts. 
/etc/nsswitch.conf is also configured to lookup the /etc/hosts file first.
I know this question is OT, but since you mentioned avahi maybe i can 
ask you what kind of benefits avahi can offer me? :)
(I'm having a statically configured network with 4 machines)

> If you used the default config of exim4 the hubbed_hosts router is set
> up and waiting to be used. All you need to do to enable it is to
> populate the hubbed_hosts file as I described. The other thing you need
> to do is follow Liam's advice, except importantly what needs to be set
> there is the "domain" of the local PC (on the local PC) or the server
> (on the server) only. So the PC will accept mail for pc.local (or
> whatever your pc is called) and the server for server.local (or whatever
> the server is called). Then, you will be able to email yourself at the
> server from the PC by sending a mail to mo@server.local, where I am
> assuming your user name on the server is mo and the server's machine
> name is server. Obviously you would substitute real names. And to go the
> other way, from the server, you could send a mail to yourself on the PC
> by mailing mo@pc.local.

I have asked that before i believe, sorry if this question shows up 
twice.... But why do i even need to set up hubbed_hosts?
I don't really understand why... Should exim not consider the /etc/hosts 
file to resolve the ip of my pc or server (Which i have entered there)
Also i have seen (before it worked) in the log that i get a "destination 
unreachable"... I just don't understand why exim needs to rely on the 
hubbed_hosts being set up?
(I hope you can understand what i mean, if not i will try my best to 
make it clearer :D )

> Let's take a moment to go through what happens if you send a mail from
> PC to server with everything set up as it should be.
>
> On the PC you create a mail and address it to mo@server.local. Let's
> imagine you use mutt to create it. And let's assume mutt is using its
> default configuration to send the mail, which is to call sendmail. And,
> since you have installed exim4, exim has overridden sendmail to actually
> be calling exim4. So, when mutt sends a mail, exim4 running on your PC
> gets handed the mail.
>
> The first thing it does, is say is this mail for this domain. Hmmm. I am
> pc.local. This mail is going to server.local. That ain't me. So not
> local delivery. OK, next I will try hubbed hosts. Do I have any
> hubbed_hosts? Let's look in the hubbed_hosts file. Yep, I do. Can i find
> the @server.local domain in the hubbed_hosts file? Yes, I can. Right,
> where do I send it then? Ah, I send it to a machine called server.local.
> OK... Oi! Network! Gimme the address for server.local....... (this is
> where Avahi does its thing)...Thanks! Right, Connect to 192.168.23.200
> port 25!
>
> At this point the exim4 running on your server gets a dig in the ribs,
> wakes up, and responds to the connection. The two exim4s talk to each
> other and the net result is the mail gets transferred from the exim4
> running on the PC to the exim4 running on the server.
>
> Then the exim4 running on the server goes through the same rigmarole,
> except it finds that the mail IS addressed to a local address, so it
> goes into delivery mode and the mail finds its way into the right
> mailbox on that machine.
>
> Now let's consider what would happen if you tried instead to send a mail
> to the debian user mailing list from your PC (but the same would apply
> to your server). You can't do this using mo@pc.local, because A) your
> ISP most likely won't let you and B) most recipient domains will reject
> that. Instead you have to use a "real" email address, ie one provided by
> your ISP or something like a gmail account or similar. You'll have to
> have configured exim4 in smarthost mode and you will have to have
> configured exim4 to know what your outgoing mail server name is. For
> example, for the specific case of sending to this mailing list, I use
> gmail for outgoing mail and their server name is smtp.gmail.com if I
> recall correctly. You'll also have had to put your email user name and
> password into a file called passwd.client in your /etc/exim4 config
> directory. Since this contains your email password, make sure the file
> is owned by root and not world readable!
>
> Then, any address that isn't local to the machine, and also isn't in the
> hubbed_hosts file, will be treated as external and exim4 will connect to
> the smarthost (your email provider's server) and pass on the message to
> be delivered by it.
>
> Net result -- you send an email from PC to Server, it gets delivered
> directly by a conversation between the two exim4 instances. You send a
> mail anywhere else, it gets handed off to your real-world (not that the
> inside of your home is not "real"!) email provider for delivery.

Very great and detailed explanation, thank you very much! :)

> Now, a word on exim4 config. Be sure to read the *DEBIAN* wiki etc on
> configuring exim4, as the DEBIAN config is a bit different to what you
> will find upstream. Let me save you a bit of time.
>
> First, there are two ways to configure exim4, using one big config file
> which is found in /var/lib/exim4, or using a config directory containing
> a bunch of small config files each handling one small piece of the
> configuration. Opinions abound on which is better, I have no opinion. By
> default, exim4 on Debian will use the single file approach. Second,
> Debian constructs the config file by using a TEMPLATE to be found in
> /etc/exim4, and a second configuration file called
> update-exim4.conf.conf (yes, the conf file for updating the conf
> file......) You put your specific config in the update-exim4.conf.conf
> file, then when you are done you run update-exim4.conf as root
> (update-exim4.conf is actually a program, not a conf file...
> update-exim4.conf.conf is a conf file...) and restart exim4. The
> update-exim4.conf program combines the template with the specific info
> in update-exim4.conf.conf and writes the result to
> /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated which is the config exim4 on Debian
> uses. This can also be done by running dpkg-reconfigure exim4.conf as
> Liam suggested, but I think there are more things you can do with
> update-exim4.conf.conf than the questions dpkg-reconfigure will ask you,
> so it wouldn't hurt to get familiar with what is going on under the hood
> when you do dpkg-reconfigure, but that's just my opinion.

That sure is nice to know, i will have a look at the wiki page ;)
(This saves me quite a lot of time :D Thx!)

> If you need more specific help on how to get your local exim4 talking to
> an external email provider, or for that matter if you need me to clarify
> anything about getting local machine to local machine email working,
> post back here.

As far as i understood it i need to set up exim as a smarthost of i want 
to send mail of to other smtp servers, for example gmail.
I guess i will try that out as a next step, so i can send myself mail to 
my gmail or gmx account.... Well, since you asked:
Is it enough to run 'dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config" and use the 
smarthost option from the curses menu?

> Also, being able to receive replies to externally sent mails back into
> your machine locally, needs another bit of setup. If you need that, let
> us know and I'll help with that part too (it is where fetchmail comes
> in). But, there is nothing to stop you using whatever mail client you
> use today to read your email as you presumably do now, and you'll see
> the mails you sent locally there in your sent mail (depending on the
> precise behaviour of your provider's mail server)
>
> Hope that helped clarify things. Sorry for the length of this but
> someone has finally asked for help with something I know something
> about, and I'm keen to help! :)
>

Your explanations sure helped me a lot, i can see clearer now, thx for 
that and of course for the long mail ;) Thx! :)

> Mark
>

Greets

mo

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#173032

On Saturday, October 01, 2016 05:06:07 AM mo wrote:
> My network is consisting of the following systems:
> 
> Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
> Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)
> 
> The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.
> 
> What i want to do now is the following:
> 
> Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around,
> from the Server to my Main PC.
> The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to
> other SMTP servers).
> The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all
> this is sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is
> to send and receive mail from both systems in my home network.
> I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)
> 
> I'm a little ashamed to say that, but i could not totally follow your
> explanations Mark... I'm quite a newbie when it comes to SMTP.. sorry :(
> 
> Thanks again for all your help ;)

Here is how I do something similar (I don't need to get all emails to both 
systems), and some other alternatives:

What I do now:

   * On my main desktop (which I normally use to send and receive emails), I 
use kmail, which I consider a "Windows style" email client (because I don't 
know what else to call it--it sends email via SMTP and receives email via 
POP3--it (the PC) doesn't use anything like an MTA (e.g., postfix)) and is set 
to delete emails from the server).  

My email provider / server is Google (which I don't really like because of the 
insecurity, but I started using it a long time ago and haven't bothered to 
switch)--for really confidential emails I use encryption).  

On the other PC, which I use only rarely to receive or send emails, I use a 
browser to access my google mail account.  Even though I set kmail on the 
other PC to delete emails from the server, google keeps them in the "all mail" 
file for something like 30 days.  (Aside: I forget how emails sent from the 
second PC get to the first--I'll have to test that--they do seem to get there.)

Other alternatives:

   * Use, for example, kmail on both PCs, but use something like rsync to keep 
the mail folders in sync on both PCs.

   * <darn--getting old is a pain--I thought of a second alternative--I'll 
post again if I remember... ;-) >

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#173054

Am 01.10.2016 um 16:17 schrieb rhkramer@gmail.com:
> On Saturday, October 01, 2016 08:23:10 AM mo wrote:
>> I use Icedove (Thunderbird) for all my personal mails and also to write
>> mail to the Debian users Mailing list ;)
>> I have never tried Kmail before, maybe i should, but Icedove fit's the
>> bill right :) (I'm normally a wm guy.. so i opt for lesser dependencies
>> when i install software... (Kmail pulls in a lot of KDE stuff that i
>> don't want) but atm i use Gnome.. well it works :D )
>> I will give Kmail a try on one of my vm's (Got Debian Jessie here in a
>> vm on which i have KDE installed)
>
> AFAIK, Icedove is the same kind of email client as kmail, so there is no need
> to try kmail.  (I happen to use (or, at least, used to use) a lot of other KDE
> stuff, do using kmail was no burden for me.)  (I mean that Icedove uses (or at
> least can use) pop3 to get emails and smtp to send emails--otoh, I have never
> used Icedove, so I'm not absolutely sure.

Indeed, they are both MUA's with quite the same features (Of course the 
GUI is different - also another gui toolkit, qt - icedove uses gtk)
Yes, that is true, icedove can handle POP and IMAP

> regards,
> Randy Kramer
>

Greets

mo

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#173063

On 2016-10-01, mo <mo777@gmx.net> wrote:
> First of all:
> Thank you Liam for your help! :)
> Thanks for the very nice and long explanation Mark! :)
>
> I think i should elaborate a little more on my setup.. i guess i did not 
> make that very clear in the first place, sorry about that.
>
> My network is consisting of the following systems:
>
> Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
> Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)
>
> The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.
>
> What i want to do now is the following:
>
> Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around, 
> from the Server to my Main PC.
> The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to 
> other SMTP servers).
> The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all 
> this is sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is 
> to send and receive mail from both systems in my home network.
> I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)
>
> I'm a little ashamed to say that, but i could not totally follow your 
> explanations Mark... I'm quite a newbie when it comes to SMTP.. sorry :(
>
> Thanks again for all your help ;)
>
> Greets
>
> mo
>
>

I should have been a little clearer myself. You don't need to register a
domain name. Just invent your own domain name for local purposes. Let's
say you choose the domain name "monet", and that you have already given
the hostnames "desktop" and "server" to your two machines. Then you
would edit the file /etc/hosts on both machines to contain the following
lines:

	192.168.23.11 desktop.monet desktop
	192.168.23.200 server.monet server

Now you only need to tell exim4 on the server that it is the final
destination for emails to *.monet, again using the debconf wizard. You
will then be able to send emails to local addresses, while emails to all
other domains will go through your ISP's smarthost.

Incidently, you can also tell exim4 on the desktop to use the server as
its smarthost.

I realise that you're getting lots of (sometimes contradictory)
information from various sources. The barebones configuration I have
described above has served me well for several years.

If you add more machines to your network later on you should consider
setting up local DHCP and DNS instead of manually updating /etc/hosts
files. But we'll leave that for another day. :)

-- 

Liam

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#173071

On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 17:25:46 +0100, Liam O'Toole wrote:

> On 2016-10-01, mo <mo777@gmx.net> wrote:
> > First of all:
> > Thank you Liam for your help! :)
> > Thanks for the very nice and long explanation Mark! :)
> >
> > I think i should elaborate a little more on my setup.. i guess i did not 
> > make that very clear in the first place, sorry about that.
> >
> > My network is consisting of the following systems:
> >
> > Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
> > Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)
> >
> > The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.
> >
> > What i want to do now is the following:
> >
> > Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around, 
> > from the Server to my Main PC.
> > The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to 
> > other SMTP servers).
> > The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all 
> > this is sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is 
> > to send and receive mail from both systems in my home network.
> > I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)
> >
> > I'm a little ashamed to say that, but i could not totally follow your 
> > explanations Mark... I'm quite a newbie when it comes to SMTP.. sorry :(
> >
> > Thanks again for all your help ;)
> >
> > Greets
> >
> > mo
> >
> >
> 
> I should have been a little clearer myself. You don't need to register a
> domain name. Just invent your own domain name for local purposes. Let's
> say you choose the domain name "monet", and that you have already given
> the hostnames "desktop" and "server" to your two machines. Then you
> would edit the file /etc/hosts on both machines to contain the following
> lines:
> 
> 	192.168.23.11 desktop.monet desktop
> 	192.168.23.200 server.monet server

I did that on gnome and desktop with appropriate changes:

        192.168.7.20 desktop.monet desktop
        192.168.7.67 gnome.monet gnome

> Now you only need to tell exim4 on the server that it is the final
> destination for emails to *.monet, again using the debconf wizard. You
> will then be able to send emails to local addresses, while emails to all
> other domains will go through your ISP's smarthost.

I did that on gnome and desktop.

> Incidently, you can also tell exim4 on the desktop to use the server as
> its smarthost.
> 
> I realise that you're getting lots of (sometimes contradictory)
> information from various sources. The barebones configuration I have
> described above has served me well for several years.

All commands are issued from gnome.

  brian@gnome:~# ping -c3 desktop
  PING desktop.monet (192.168.7.20) 56(84) bytes of data.
  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.267 ms
  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.269 ms

  --- desktop.monet ping statistics ---
  3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2001ms
  rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.255/0.263/0.269/0.019 ms

  brian@gnome:~# ping -c3 desktop.monet
  PING desktop.monet (192.168.7.20) 56(84) bytes of data.
  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.264 ms
  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms

  --- desktop.monet ping statistics ---
  3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2002ms
  rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.255/0.258/0.264/0.004 ms

We expect that result because ping uses files in /etc/nsswitch.

  root@gnome:~# exim -bt brian@desktop
  R: dnslookup for brian@desktop
  brian@desktop is undeliverable: Unrouteable address

  root@gnome:~# exim -bt brian@desktop.monet
  R: dnslookup for brian@desktop.monet
  brian@desktop.monet is undeliverable: Unrouteable address

Am I the only one who gets this? No capability to deliver mail to
desktop. What am I doing wrong?

-- 
Brian.

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#173082

Am 01.10.2016 um 20:17 schrieb Brian:
> On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 17:25:46 +0100, Liam O'Toole wrote:
>
>> On 2016-10-01, mo <mo777@gmx.net> wrote:
>>> First of all:
>>> Thank you Liam for your help! :)
>>> Thanks for the very nice and long explanation Mark! :)
>>>
>>> I think i should elaborate a little more on my setup.. i guess i did not
>>> make that very clear in the first place, sorry about that.
>>>
>>> My network is consisting of the following systems:
>>>
>>> Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
>>> Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)
>>>
>>> The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.
>>>
>>> What i want to do now is the following:
>>>
>>> Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around,
>>> from the Server to my Main PC.
>>> The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to
>>> other SMTP servers).
>>> The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all
>>> this is sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is
>>> to send and receive mail from both systems in my home network.
>>> I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)
>>>
>>> I'm a little ashamed to say that, but i could not totally follow your
>>> explanations Mark... I'm quite a newbie when it comes to SMTP.. sorry :(
>>>
>>> Thanks again for all your help ;)
>>>
>>> Greets
>>>
>>> mo
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I should have been a little clearer myself. You don't need to register a
>> domain name. Just invent your own domain name for local purposes. Let's
>> say you choose the domain name "monet", and that you have already given
>> the hostnames "desktop" and "server" to your two machines. Then you
>> would edit the file /etc/hosts on both machines to contain the following
>> lines:
>>
>> 	192.168.23.11 desktop.monet desktop
>> 	192.168.23.200 server.monet server
>
> I did that on gnome and desktop with appropriate changes:
>
>         192.168.7.20 desktop.monet desktop
>         192.168.7.67 gnome.monet gnome
>
>> Now you only need to tell exim4 on the server that it is the final
>> destination for emails to *.monet, again using the debconf wizard. You
>> will then be able to send emails to local addresses, while emails to all
>> other domains will go through your ISP's smarthost.
>
> I did that on gnome and desktop.
>
>> Incidently, you can also tell exim4 on the desktop to use the server as
>> its smarthost.
>>
>> I realise that you're getting lots of (sometimes contradictory)
>> information from various sources. The barebones configuration I have
>> described above has served me well for several years.
>
> All commands are issued from gnome.
>
>   brian@gnome:~# ping -c3 desktop
>   PING desktop.monet (192.168.7.20) 56(84) bytes of data.
>   64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.267 ms
>   64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
>   64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.269 ms
>
>   --- desktop.monet ping statistics ---
>   3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2001ms
>   rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.255/0.263/0.269/0.019 ms
>
>   brian@gnome:~# ping -c3 desktop.monet
>   PING desktop.monet (192.168.7.20) 56(84) bytes of data.
>   64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.264 ms
>   64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
>   64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
>
>   --- desktop.monet ping statistics ---
>   3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2002ms
>   rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.255/0.258/0.264/0.004 ms
>
> We expect that result because ping uses files in /etc/nsswitch.
>
>   root@gnome:~# exim -bt brian@desktop
>   R: dnslookup for brian@desktop
>   brian@desktop is undeliverable: Unrouteable address
>
>   root@gnome:~# exim -bt brian@desktop.monet
>   R: dnslookup for brian@desktop.monet
>   brian@desktop.monet is undeliverable: Unrouteable address
>
> Am I the only one who gets this? No capability to deliver mail to
> desktop. What am I doing wrong?
>

I think this is the problem with exim calling DNS on the given 
hostname... which is doomed to fail. To get it working you need to 
create the hubbed_hosts file and set your aliases in there, for example:
192.168.7.20: desktop

Then it should work fine, at least for me it did.

Hope this helps :)

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#173088

On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 22:47:27 +0200, mo wrote:

> Am 01.10.2016 um 20:17 schrieb Brian:
> >On Sat 01 Oct 2016 at 17:25:46 +0100, Liam O'Toole wrote:
> >
> >>On 2016-10-01, mo <mo777@gmx.net> wrote:
> >>>First of all:
> >>>Thank you Liam for your help! :)
> >>>Thanks for the very nice and long explanation Mark! :)
> >>>
> >>>I think i should elaborate a little more on my setup.. i guess i did not
> >>>make that very clear in the first place, sorry about that.
> >>>
> >>>My network is consisting of the following systems:
> >>>
> >>>Main PC - 192.168.23.11  (Running Debian Jessie)
> >>>Server  - 192.168.23.200 (Running Debian Jessie)
> >>>
> >>>The server is always online, the PC is only half of the day on.
> >>>
> >>>What i want to do now is the following:
> >>>
> >>>Sending mail from my Main PC to my Server and also the other way around,
> >>>from the Server to my Main PC.
> >>>The Server should also be able to send mail to the "outside" (Meaning to
> >>>other SMTP servers).
> >>>The second requirement is optional since i dont own a domain and all
> >>>this is sitting locally at my home. The most important thing for me is
> >>>to send and receive mail from both systems in my home network.
> >>>I hope this made my problem a little clearer :)
> >>>
> >>>I'm a little ashamed to say that, but i could not totally follow your
> >>>explanations Mark... I'm quite a newbie when it comes to SMTP.. sorry :(
> >>>
> >>>Thanks again for all your help ;)
> >>>
> >>>Greets
> >>>
> >>>mo
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>I should have been a little clearer myself. You don't need to register a
> >>domain name. Just invent your own domain name for local purposes. Let's
> >>say you choose the domain name "monet", and that you have already given
> >>the hostnames "desktop" and "server" to your two machines. Then you
> >>would edit the file /etc/hosts on both machines to contain the following
> >>lines:
> >>
> >>	192.168.23.11 desktop.monet desktop
> >>	192.168.23.200 server.monet server
> >
> >I did that on gnome and desktop with appropriate changes:
> >
> >        192.168.7.20 desktop.monet desktop
> >        192.168.7.67 gnome.monet gnome
> >
> >>Now you only need to tell exim4 on the server that it is the final
> >>destination for emails to *.monet, again using the debconf wizard. You
> >>will then be able to send emails to local addresses, while emails to all
> >>other domains will go through your ISP's smarthost.
> >
> >I did that on gnome and desktop.
> >
> >>Incidently, you can also tell exim4 on the desktop to use the server as
> >>its smarthost.
> >>
> >>I realise that you're getting lots of (sometimes contradictory)
> >>information from various sources. The barebones configuration I have
> >>described above has served me well for several years.
> >
> >All commands are issued from gnome.
> >
> >  brian@gnome:~# ping -c3 desktop
> >  PING desktop.monet (192.168.7.20) 56(84) bytes of data.
> >  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.267 ms
> >  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
> >  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.269 ms
> >
> >  --- desktop.monet ping statistics ---
> >  3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2001ms
> >  rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.255/0.263/0.269/0.019 ms
> >
> >  brian@gnome:~# ping -c3 desktop.monet
> >  PING desktop.monet (192.168.7.20) 56(84) bytes of data.
> >  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.264 ms
> >  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
> >  64 bytes from desktop.monet (192.168.7.20): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
> >
> >  --- desktop.monet ping statistics ---
> >  3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2002ms
> >  rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.255/0.258/0.264/0.004 ms
> >
> >We expect that result because ping uses files in /etc/nsswitch.
> >
> >  root@gnome:~# exim -bt brian@desktop
> >  R: dnslookup for brian@desktop
> >  brian@desktop is undeliverable: Unrouteable address
> >
> >  root@gnome:~# exim -bt brian@desktop.monet
> >  R: dnslookup for brian@desktop.monet
> >  brian@desktop.monet is undeliverable: Unrouteable address
> >
> >Am I the only one who gets this? No capability to deliver mail to
> >desktop. What am I doing wrong?
> >
> 
> I think this is the problem with exim calling DNS on the given hostname...
> which is doomed to fail. To get it working you need to create the
> hubbed_hosts file and set your aliases in there, for example:
> 192.168.7.20: desktop
> 
> Then it should work fine, at least for me it did.
> 
> Hope this helps :)

Not really, I'm afraid.

We all know a hubbed_hosts file works. Mark Fletcher has written
extensively about it and I have said a thing or too also. What I want to
know is why following the advice from Liam O'Toole doesn't work for me,
even though I have followed the instructions exactly.

BTW: It would be 'desktop: 192.168.7.20' and 'desktop.monet:192.168.7.20'
in hubbed_hosts.

-- 
Brian.

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#173095

On Sat, Oct 01, 2016 at 11:22:06PM +0100, Brian wrote:
> 
> We all know a hubbed_hosts file works. Mark Fletcher has written
> extensively about it and I have said a thing or too also. What I want to
> know is why following the advice from Liam O'Toole doesn't work for me,
> even though I have followed the instructions exactly.
> 

I think Liam is describing a situation where the only mail-capable 
machine is the server, in your example gnome.monet. He configured it to 
be the end-point for *.monet. But for mo's original use-case, gnome 
should only be the end-point for gnome.monet and desktop should be the 
end-point for desktop.monet. Then, if gnome.monet gets handed a mail for 
desktop.monet, it doesn't try to deliver it, but instead tries to pass 
it on, and that's when you need hubbed_hosts populated so it can find 
desktop.monet to pass it on to.

So Liam has consistently been describing a solution that, while 
perfectly valid, is the solution to a slightly different problem than 
the one mo originally asked about.

Mark

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#173113

On 2016-10-02, Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 01, 2016 at 11:22:06PM +0100, Brian wrote:
>> 
>> We all know a hubbed_hosts file works. Mark Fletcher has written
>> extensively about it and I have said a thing or too also. What I want to
>> know is why following the advice from Liam O'Toole doesn't work for me,
>> even though I have followed the instructions exactly.
>> 
>
> I think Liam is describing a situation where the only mail-capable 
> machine is the server, in your example gnome.monet. He configured it to 
> be the end-point for *.monet. But for mo's original use-case, gnome 
> should only be the end-point for gnome.monet and desktop should be the 
> end-point for desktop.monet. Then, if gnome.monet gets handed a mail for 
> desktop.monet, it doesn't try to deliver it, but instead tries to pass 
> it on, and that's when you need hubbed_hosts populated so it can find 
> desktop.monet to pass it on to.
>
> So Liam has consistently been describing a solution that, while 
> perfectly valid, is the solution to a slightly different problem than 
> the one mo originally asked about.
>
> Mark
>
>

My setup is more or less as you describe. The only difference is that
all machines are mail capable and use the local server as their
smarthost, while the server in turn uses an external smarthost.

Brian seems to be experiencing a more fundamental issue, where exim
refuses to resolve domain names in the expected manner. That one has me
stumped.

-- 

Liam

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