Enable External Mail on Ubuntu

First, install the appropriate packages:

sudo apt-get install mailutils

Configure Exim for external mail:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

Options:

mail sent by smarthost; no local mail
FQDN of the system
127.0.0.1 (This will prevent external use of the server to send mail.)
localhost; hostname
FQDN of the system
External (ISP) SMTP server
Dial-on-Demand? No
Split config? No
Root/postmaster recipient: (enter the email address you wish to receive messages sent to root/postmaster on the system).

The root/postmaster recipient is stored in /etc/aliases

The Exim configuration is stored in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf. To apply configuration manually changed in this file, run:

sudo update-exim4.conf
sudo /etc/init.d/exim4 restart

Actual Exim configuration is stored in /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated. Don’t edit this file directly.

This was tested on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid)

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