debian lenny email server

Question

I am a newbie and set up a debian lenny at home and set up the web and email server in the default installation. I followed the instructions for Exim and ran dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config and set it up for mydomainhere.com. I created a one line message file and attempted to test exim by running the command exim [e-mail] < msgfile. I also tried using exim4 Exim but i get same error -bash: Exim: command not found. Obviously I am ignorant on how to run exim and test.

I also tried to run a php file that sends a test mail and had no success. That script is tested and works fine if I send it from my hosting isp on a different domain. So I know the php script is good.

I set up the debian system behind a netgear firewall and uses 192.168.1.x ip . The web server works great and users can visit my site. But I am lack the knowledge on how to get the email working. Appreciate is someone can guide me.

Answer 1

Did you try something like

mail -s "My subject" [e-mail] < msgfile

Is your plan to send and receive mails or only send? Only sending should be easy to set, configuring to receive the mails for mydomainhere.com not. Do you have a fixed IP-address? Are you aware that if your mail server is down (software error, hardware failure, no network connectivity, power outage, etc) some mails sent to mydomainhere.com could get lost?

Have you read some basic mail server documentation?

Configuring a mail server is not an easy task, and being it often a critical resource, availability is a must. So leaving it at an ISP with redundant servers, redundant network connections, redundant Air Conditioning systems, redundant power supply, UPS, generators, etc. is IMHO often the right decision.