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<!-- $Id: mta.xml 22935 2004-10-09 18:36:20Z fjpop-guest $ -->
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<sect2 id="base-config-mta">
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<title>Configuring Your Mail Transport Agent</title>
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Today, email is a very important part of many people's life, so it's
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no surprise Debian lets you configure your mail system right as a part
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of the installation process. The standard mail transport agent in
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Debian is <command>exim4</command>, which is relatively small,
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flexible, and easy to learn.
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You may ask if this is needed even if your computer is not connected
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to any network. The short answer is: Yes. The longer explanation: Some
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system utilities (like <command>cron</command>,
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<command>quota</command>, <command>aide</command>, …) may send
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you important notices via email.
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So on the first screen you will be presented with several common mail
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scenarios. Choose the one that most closely resembles your needs:
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<term>internet site</term>
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Your system is connected to a network and your mail is sent and
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received directly using SMTP. On the following screens you will be
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asked a few basic questions, like your machine's mail name, or a list of
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domains for which you accept or relay mail.
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<term>mail sent by smarthost</term>
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In this scenario is your outgoing mail forwarded to another machine,
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called a <quote>smarthost</quote>, which does the actual job for
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you. Smarthost also usually stores incoming mail addressed to your
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computer, so you don't need to be permanently online. That also means
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you have to download your mail from the smarthost via programs like
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fetchmail. This option is suitable for dial-up users.
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<term>local delivery only</term>
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Your system is not on a network and mail is sent or received only
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between local users. Even if you don't plan to send any messages, this
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option is highly recommended, because some system utilities may send
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you various alerts from time to time (e.g. beloved <quote>Disk quota
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exceeded</quote>). This option is also convenient for new users,
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because it doesn't ask any further questions.
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<term>no configuration at this time</term>
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Choose this if you are absolutely convinced you know what you are
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doing. This will leave you with an unconfigured mail system —
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until you configure it, you won't be able to send or receive any mail
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and you may miss some important messages from your system utilities.
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If none of these scenarios suits your needs, or if you need a finer
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setup, you will need to edit configuration files under the
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<filename>/etc/exim4</filename> directory after the installation is
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complete. More information about <command>exim4</command> may be found
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under <filename>/usr/share/doc/exim4</filename>.