Subject: RE: Exim with Exiscan
To: Steve Brown <steve@daedilus.org>
From: Mirko Thiesen <thiesi@NetWorkXXIII.de>
List: netbsd-users
Date: 11/06/2004 12:20:30
On Sat, 6 Nov 2004, Steve Brown wrote:

> Hi Mirko,

Hi Steve,

>> Did you set
>> exim=YES               exim_flags="-bd -q15m"
>> in /etc/rc.conf? If yes, have a look at the various logfiles
>
> No I had not.  Following another similar suggestion I received by email
> only, I have set exim=YES in the /etc/rc.conf, and copied the

you should set exim_flags to the values I posted or at least to something 
similar, if you intend to use Exim in a real world scenario, as -qXm fires 
up a queue runner every Xminutes, which certainly is what you want.

> /usr/pkg/etc/rc.d/exim file to /etc/rc.d/  This now loads up exim (hurrah!).

Oh, I hadn't thought of this. On my systems, I set PKG_RCD_SCRIPTS=YES in 
/etc/mk.conf which installs the rc.d script(s) of a package (if there are 
any) to /etc/rc.d automatically after a successful build. Maybe you should 
consider setting this variable too - it can make life easier! ;-)

>> located under /var/log/exim and post any error messages
>> you'll find there.
>
> They now currently inform me that exim has no clue who or what is local etc.
> As before, this is fine as I can work from here, now I know I am able to
> test it.

Ah, I see. For a quick start, you should set the following variables in 
/usr/pkg/etc/exim/configure to reasonable values:

primary_hostname
domainlist local_domains
domainlist relay_to_domains
hostlist   relay_from_hosts

If you'll dig a little deeper into Exim, you'll find out that everything 
you can configure in the configuration file is very extensively documented 
on the Exim website.

Another resource of information is the Exim mailing list, to which you 
possibly should subscribe, though you might not understand very much of 
what is posted there at first. But things will start getting clearer the 
more you'll deal with Exim. Finally you'll find out there is (almost) 
nothing that can't be controlled or at least tweaked in some way with 
Exim. (This is what Tor Slettnes' document makes use of, btw. - almost 
every step of an SMTP transaction is modified.)

>> When you actually manage to start Exim, you should have a
>> look at http://slett.net/spam-filtering-for-mx/. Tor Slettnes
>> describes quite a lot of anti-spam techniques in this
>> document (even though probably not everything he writes can
>> be applied to your scenario). It is a very good starting
>> point, and the greylisting stuff really gets you rid of
>> almost 100% of the spam.
>
> Sounds good to me, and I'll certainly go and have a look at that in due
> course.

Feel free to contact me (probably off-list if you think it's not of 
interest for the general audience ;-) if you need any further help.

> Thanks for the help (knew it was something daft!)

Welcome to the wonderful world of Exim! ;-)

> Steve Brown

Bye, K&K,
T-Zee
-- 
thiesi@NetWork23.Sytes.NET ---- NetBSD: Power to the people!
Tel.: ++49-(0)171-416 05 09 -- Fax: ++49-(0)171-134 16 05 09
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