Hello, all!
I'm new to the list, having subbed only a couple days ago. I'm also
new to Linux, and am definitely *not* a programmer, nor am I any
kind of computer scientist. I say this so you'll know my experience
level for this question.
I have RedHat 5.1 installed on my home computer, with kernel
version 2.0.35-1. The machine is a P166, 32 MB RAM, 2.1 GB
hard drive, with the drive split roughly down the middle in a dual-
boot confiugation with Windows 98. There's also a smaller drive
(545 MB, actually the primary master drive) given to Linux.
I have a ppp connection usable from either X or the console, but am
unable to retrieve mail with fetchmail. My ip address is dynamic. I
*can* retrieve mail using Netscape, but as much as I love their
browser, I hate their mail reader. I'd like to use pine.
Fetchmail connects to my ISP's mail server, but then says,
"Gethostbyname failed for ppp59a (or whatever number you
want).inetone.net". Here comes a strange part: I left the default
name assigned to my computer alone. (I think it's
localhost@localdomain.) After tying fetchmail, the name of my
machine changes to whatever my ISP gives me.
I'm using Windows right now and can't access my .fetchmailrc file,
but it's pretty close to this:
poll mail.inetone.net
proto POP3
timeout 60
name clfitz is root here
word xxxxxx
(I know that one set of options or other has to be first, but I can't
remember which one I did, but that's pretty close.)
The command I type to start fetchmail is this:
fetchmail -v -k -a
because I want to leave the message on the server in case
something goes wrong between fetchmail and pine. This is my
second install of Linux, because the first time around, fetchmail got
my mail but never delivered it. I was unable to fix it, tried a
program called Getpop3 which wouldn't work at all, then tried to
recompile my kernel. That failed, and I was so fed up at that point
that I didn't want to try anything else except a reinstallation.
I've read the fetchmail FAQ, but it didn't help a lot, other than
suggesting the "is root here" after my username. The man pages
are informative, as usual, but frankly a lot of it is beyond me at this
point.
If you've stuck with me this far, thanks! And, thanks in advance for
any help you can offer.
Carlyle
