TUTORIAL Replace SendMail with SSMTP

[jpstaub]

Background: Emails sent from Incredible PBX would transmit but wind up in junk mail while using the default sendmail configuration. Sparkpost is my preferred SMTP relay but I had no success getting it to function with sendmail following instruction sets published for other relays like Gmail. However, I had great success setting up ssmtp to function with Sparkpost as SMTP relay using the short tutorial below.

http://www.raspberry-projects.com/pi/software_utilities/email/ssmtp-to-send-emails

For my purposes, ssmtp seems like a much better fit than sendmail. How do I make ssmpt the email server within the Incredible PBX system?

 

[billsimon]

The guy who wrote this five years ago can confirm that it worked then, but has not tested it recently. https://sites.psu.edu/psuvoip/2011/02/03/ssmtp-to-handle-your-pbxs-e-mail/

 

[wardmundy]

SSMTP falls in the category of "great to have if you can fix it if it breaks." SendMail is a secure, industry-standard, full-featured mail server that about half the planet knows how to use. We've tried other mail solutions including PostFix and Exim. Even they were too hard to support because you had to document three different ways to do the same thing.

Given the @billsimon comment that the SSMTP developer says the code worked "five years ago" would make me run away from this as fast as my little feet could carry me.

 

[jpstaub]

SSMTP falls in the category of "great to have if you can fix it if it breaks." SendMail is a secure, industry-standard, full-featured mail server that about half the planet knows how to use. We've tried other mail solutions including PostFix...

Thanks for the comments Bill and Ward.

I'm on the half of the planet that doesn't know how to use SendMail. Not that I know how to use SSMTP either. SSMTP is so simple that I had almost no trouble getting it to operate as a workaround.

I saw PostFix listed as an unused module in Webmin. Now I know why. Glad I didn't start mucking around with that. Coincidentally, SparkPost has configuration instructions for PostFix but not SendMail.

At this point I believe trying to go SSMTP would be a mistake. Would you be so kind as to explain how one might get SendMail to work with authentication and STARTTLS encryption. That's what I'm struggling with. SparkPost configuration requirements are included below for reference:

• Host:
  smtp.sparkpostmail.com
• Port:
  587 (Alternative Port: 2525)
• Authentication:
  AUTH LOGIN
• Encryption:
  STARTTLS
• Username:
  SMTP_Injection
• Password:
  sparkpost_api

 

[jerrm]

Given the @billsimon comment that the SSMTP developer says the code worked "five years ago" would make me run away from this as fast as my little feet could carry me.

I think @billsimon was referring to the author of the tutorial, not ssmtp. I think he knows the tutorial author very well. Ssmtp itself is a team Debian creation. Not much to worry about. The package works just fine. How many years(decades?) has it been since basic sendmail command line functionality has changed? The Debian package install actually removes and replaces sendmail.

Never say never and never say always, but I would not expect any issue with the ssmtp functionality as far as it goes(although I prefer msmtp).

The bigger issue is what happens if the target smtp server is down or there are connectivity issues. Ssmtp will simply fail and the email is lost vs being queued and delivered later.

The OP is correct ssmtp (or msmtp) are MUCH easier to setup, but offer less.