[lug] Sending e-Mail under Linux

[Jeff Schroeder]

John:

> 1.  After installing RedHat 7.3 on one of my computers, I opened
> KMail 1.4.1 and tried to send a test mail to my hotmail account,
> before I had actually configured KMail.  I expected it to act like a
> Windows machine (ok, shoot me) and say "You're not configured yet!",
> then open some sort of Wizard. Instead, it really did send a mail to
> my hotmail account, with the From: and ReplyTo: addresses set to
> <john at localhost.localdomain>.

That's because you've logged into the system as user "john", and your 
hostname (by default) is "localhost.localdomain".  When you clicked 
"send" in KMail, it used your local copy of Sendmail to fire off the 
letter.  Sendmail resolved the Hotmail domain and successfully 
delivered the message.

Note that replying to that message will fail, because Hotmail (and, 
indeed, anyone "out there") won't be able to resolve 
"localhost.localdomain" properly.  It'll resolve to their own machine, 
if anything at all.

> 2.  After playing with KMail a little, I found that I could change
> the identity to simulate my wife's yahoo account, and even send an
> e-mail to a list she belongs to.  I don't understand how I managed to
> do this without some sort of authentication stopping me.  It seems
> like I could simulate anyone I wanted?

Absolutely.  Welcome to the world of spammers. ;)

While you can "impersonate" anyone by changing your From: or Reply-to: 
addresses, remember that when someone responds to your message, it will 
go to the address you've given.  So in this case, your wife will get 
the responses-- not you.

> 3.  If I'm using sendmail to create my own custom e-mail addresses,
> how do I ensure any replies come back to me, short of setting my
> ReplyTo: address to my hotmail or AT&T accounts?

That's exactly what you must do.  See above.

> 4.  In Outlook Express, you could choose POP3, IMAP, or HTTP mail,
> but I didn't see that last option in KMail.  Although I've figured
> out how to configure KMail to use SMTP to get my AT&T mail, I haven't
> figured out yet if there's a way to use KMail to retrieve my Hotmail.

In KMail, go to Settings > Configure KMail and click on the Servers 
icon.  There you can set your Receiving and Sending mail server 
properties.

Please note that you don't use SMTP to *get* mail; it's used for 
*sending* mail.  POP3 and IMAP are used for retrieving mail, and HTTP 
is typically a front-end to an IMAP server.

While I don't know how Hotmail works-- as far as whether it allows you 
to use POP3/IMAP-- you can go to the Receiving tab and click Add to add 
a mail server.  That's how you'd set up your AT&T mail account.  Note 
that KMail supports multiple accounts, too.

> I hope these questions aren't too amateurish; but even a few pointers
> in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks!

IMHO, e-mail is anything but amateurish.  There's a lot of stuff to 
learn, and these are good questions to start with.  Hopefully you'll be 
able to set everything up properly, and enjoy KMail (it's my mail 
program of choice too).

HTH,
Jeff