## 20.9 Using Mail with a Dialup Connection 

If you have a static IP address, you should not need to adjust anything from the defaults. Set your host name to your assigned Internet name and  **sendmail**  will do the rest.

If you have a dynamically assigned IP number and use a dialup PPP connection to the Internet, you will probably have a mailbox on your ISPs mail server. Let's assume your ISP's domain is `example.net`, and that your user name is `user`, you have called your machine `bsd.home`, and your ISP has told you that you may use `relay.example.net` as a mail relay.

In order to retrieve mail from your mailbox, you must install a retrieval agent. The  **fetchmail**  utility is a good choice as it supports many different protocols. This program is available as a package or from the ports collection ([`mail/fetchmail`](http://pkgsrc.se/mail/fetchmail)). Usually, your ISP will provide POP. If you are using user PPP, you can automatically fetch your mail when an Internet connection is established with the following entry in `/etc/ppp/ppp.linkup`:

    
    MYADDR:
    !bg su user -c fetchmail


If you are using  **sendmail**  (as shown below) to deliver mail to non-local accounts, you probably want to have  **sendmail**  process your mailqueue as soon as your Internet connection is established. To do this, put this command after the `fetchmail` command in `/etc/ppp/ppp.linkup`:

    
      !bg su user -c "sendmail -q"


Assume that you have an account for `user` on `bsd.home`. In the home directory of `user` on `bsd.home`, create a `.fetchmailrc` file:

    
    poll example.net protocol pop3 fetchall pass MySecret


This file should not be readable by anyone except `user` as it contains the password `MySecret`.

In order to send mail with the correct `from:` header, you must tell  **sendmail**  to use `user@example.net` rather than `user@bsd.home`. You may also wish to tell  **sendmail**  to send all mail via `relay.example.net`, allowing quicker mail transmission.

The following `.mc` file should suffice:

    
    VERSIONID(`bsd.home.mc version 1.0')
    OSTYPE(bsd4.4)dnl
    FEATURE(nouucp)dnl
    MAILER(local)dnl
    MAILER(smtp)dnl
    Cwlocalhost
    Cwbsd.home
    MASQUERADE_AS(`example.net')dnl
    FEATURE(allmasquerade)dnl
    FEATURE(masquerade_envelope)dnl
    FEATURE(nocanonify)dnl
    FEATURE(nodns)dnl
    define(`SMART_HOST', `relay.example.net')
    Dmbsd.home
    define(`confDOMAIN_NAME',`bsd.home')dnl
    define(`confDELIVERY_MODE',`deferred')dnl


Refer to the previous section for details of how to turn this `.mc` file into a `sendmail.cf` file. Also, do not forget to restart  **sendmail**  after updating `sendmail.cf`.



CategoryHandbook
CategoryHandbook-email