Fetchmail, pop3 question

[NekdDrgn]

My server is running Redhat 7.0 and I'm using the sendmail that was installed with the basic install.

I figured I would install fetchmail so I could retrieve mail from my server, a so-called pop3 server.

My situation is that I have maybe 20 users on my server that connect in from their homes to my server and recieve mail using Outlook or whatever email program they have.

I downloaded the fetchmail rpm and installed it, is there something I have to do for configuring it? Where are the configuration files? Should I even be using fetchmail?

Basically what can I do so I can get what I want?

[bdl]

If you wanna check your pop mail, then fetchmail's the way to go, IMHO. You'll just need to create a ~/.fetchmailrc file and then just run the command from the cli. A typical fetchmail config file looks like so:

## ~/.fetchmailrc
## 04MAR01
## Substitute your isp, username, password

poll mail.isp.com protocol pop3 user remoteloginname is yourlocalloginname here password chickenbone

## eof

Chmod 0600 and you're set.

linuxprompt# fetchmail -vc

linuxprompt# man fetchmail

You can always create a cronjob that checks your mail regularly and d/l or forwards it as necessary. Fetchmail is pretty flexible and should allow you to do whatever youre looking to do.

Luck...

[ 04 March 2001: Message edited by: bdl ]

[NekdDrgn]

I put this in my /home/stalker/.fetchmailrc file:

poll mail.jimmysbox.yi.org protocol pop3 user stalker is stalker
here password ********

And then I typed fetchmail -vc and got this:


[stalker@jimmysbox stalker]$ fetchmail -vc
fetchmail: 5.6.8 querying mail.jimmysbox.yi.org (protocol POP3) at Sun 04 Mar 2T
fetchmail: normal termination, status 2


Does that look correct? Do I have to configure sendmail at all? If so, how?

When it's all done, what do I put in my server connections in Outlook to recieve my mail? mail.jimmysbox.yi.org?

[bdl]

Yes, your .fetchmailrc looks good. Are you running a properly configured pop3 daemon on your server? You'll have to use something like gnu-pop3d. It's very straightforward, you should simply have to install (it it's not already) the daemon, edit /etc/inetd.conf to allow connections to pop3, port 110 and SIGHUP inetd. Obviously you'll have to open the port on any firewall you may have as well. Luck.

[ 04 March 2001: Message edited by: bdl ]

[NekdDrgn]

I went to try and edit the inetd.conf file and it doesn't exist.. closest thing I have is identd.conf, and that doesn't have anything close to what my old server has in the inetd.conf. I have Redhat 7.0, is there something different with it?

[NekdDrgn]

I found out that on RH 7.0 systems it is xinetd, and I enabled a few things in there and now it works.

Thanks for all your help.

[bdl]

Right on, glad to see you got it working :)