Fredderic wrote:
> It's also hard taking this system offline to test a new mail
> configuration. Everyone else in the house starts screaming at me if I
> do that, because the internet connection runs through my machine.

You can use netfilter to setup a firewall rule (using iptables) to block
outgoing connections via port 25 (the SMTP port). It's been forever and
a day since I've done anything with netfilter, so I would suggest taking
a look at their NAT documentation at:
http://www.netfilter.org/documentati...NAT-HOWTO.html

If you have issues figuring it out, let us know and we'll do what we can
to help out.


> The only downside to this configuration, is that every month the linux
> counter script tries to email home and shortly thereafter I get a bounce
> message in my inbox. One day..... *chuckles*

After you setup your netfilter rule, test your configuration
immediately. Then, after you're satisfied with your results, remove the
rule and immediately test an outgoing e-mail to an external webmail
account. I wouldn't suggest yahoo webmail as a good alternative since
their SMTP servers seem to be slow on delivery a lot of the time.

- Ken