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# 28.9 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`). 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`.

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