Topic: New User Questions Nics and Mail

[Rob Fornasari]

Hi everybody, I'd apprreciate some help with the following questions.
I'm learning networking, have almost no idea about linux and SME 5.1.2 which I'm using for a home network. I've searched the phorum for some clues but I'm not sure I've understood all that I've read. If these are dumb questions I apologise - just point me at some explanatory text please.

I've got 2 Win2k boxes and a laptop (also win2k) hooked up through a 10/100 switch to an old pentium box which acts as the server/gateway/firewall. Connection to the internet is via dial up on a 56k modem.

Question 1 - NICs
I originally had the three boxes on a Win98 peer to peer network that worked for file shareing etc. The NIC in all three were the same brand and model based on a Realtek chip supported by SME. Installed 5.1.2 on the server box - OK, did a clean install of Win2k on the other boxes - all detected correctly and drivers installed OK. Problem one (only) of the boxes refused to see the server to log on. Tried setting IP addresses, swapping out nics, reinstalling windows, pulling out hair etc. Nothing seemed to work. Swapped the nic for an old 10Mbit card a friend had lying around, and Hey Presto! everything worked as advertised!

I read on the Phorum that some versions of SME dont like having the same NIC in server and client machines. Is this so? If so, why would there be no problem with one client that has the same NIC?

Question 2 - Email & Dial up
Being a home network I'm not real keen on the server dialing up every so often during the day to get mail, rapidly building up phone company profits. The default time frames are way too short for my liking. Once in the morning and once in the evening would be more than enough for me for automatic retrieval as long as you can force a mail transfer at any time you feel the need.

Is there a way you can change the default time frames? Or would something like Stephen Noble's ISP module be more appropriate. Anyone using it? I tried to install it but got an error message relating to dialmon being needed or in use or something. What did I miss in the installation instructions?

Question 3 - Multiple Email and Email addressing
I presently don't have a real domain name out there and mail is handled as username @ ISP.com. SME thinks it's the main mail server with a primary domain name of "myhome.network". I've set up multidrop so that it goes to the appropriate account at the ISP mail server to retrieve email.

What happens when mail is sent. Will it have user@myhome.network as the return address? Should I set up the email clients (outlook) to ignor the SME and go straight to the ISP? As you can see this is one area where I'm really confused!!

Thanks for your patience.

[Michael Smith]

All right, I'll take a shot at these.

NIC problem:  I've been doing tech support for a bit more than a decade now, and NICs with Realtek chipsets are the ONLY NICs I've ever seen actually *fail* in service (barring lightning and/or other abuse).  So you might have a dud NIC.

Dialup:  besides Noble's dialup, you might have a look at this thread and try another dialup manager:

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=6118.msg21847#msg21847

I have the other dialup manager installed from before I got broadband and it doesn't have the options you desire but it does offer you the ability simply to disable/enable dialing ... so you can have complete, if manual, control over your connection.

A note on your install error message reporting:  you're not going to get far with a vague reference to an error message that ends in "or something."  If you're installing your RPMs from a workstation using SSH connection, you should be able to copy the error message & paste it into a document or forum posting.  Exact error messages tend to get exact results ... inexact error messages tend to get ignored.

Email:  Messages will go out with the "reply-to" address you specify in your email client.  If you wish to bypass the SME server for outgoing email, simply specify your ISP's SMTP server in your email client.  Of course, your email client will then try to establish a connection to the Internet ...

Otherwise, you can have the SME box "hand off" all outgoing messages to your ISP from the "Other Email Settings" in Server Manager.  This would probably be best, as the mailserver would hold your messages & keep looking for an Internet connection.  When it finds one, i.e. when you dial up, off go your messages.

[Rob Fornasari]

Thanks for the assistance Michael, much appreciated.

I'll try installing again with more attention to detail (late night after work leads to sloppiness). Let you know how I go.