Tag Archives: O2

Configure exim4 to use an O2 mail relay

Posted on by
2

To configure exim4 to use O2’s SMTP server for outbound mail:

(As root) edit /etc/exim4/passwd.client and add your O2 portal authentication credentials.

See ‘man exim4_passwd_client’ for how exim4 parses this file.

Note that smtp.o2.co.uk resolves to the IP address 82.132.141.69, but the reverse DNS for that IP address resolves to mail.o2.co.uk, so you will need to use that name in passwd.client.

The line in passwd.client should look something like this:

mail.o2.co.uk:yourname@o2.co.uk:your_password

O2’s mail servers don’t support TLS so you will need to add the following line to /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.localmacros (just create the file if it doesn’t exist already)

AUTH_CLIENT_ALLOW_NOTLS_PASSWORDS = true

This allows passwords to be sent over an insecure connection. It’s far from ideal but nothing can be done until O2 supports TLS.

Finally run ‘dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config’ to update the mail server configuration.

Select ‘mail sent by smarthost; received via SMTP or fetchmail‘ and when it asks for the smarthost address use smtp.o2.co.uk.

You should now be sending email using O2’s smarthost.

Check /var/log/exim4/mainlog when sending mail to confirm that everything is OK.

Sending email from an O2 Broadband connection

Posted on by
Reply

There are many options for sending email from an O2 Home Broadband connection:

  • If you have a static IP address (provided free with ‘The Works’ package or as a cost option in other packages) and you have access to a third party mail relay (e.g. SMTP2Go or AuthSMTP), you can connect directly to the external SMTP server on port 25
  • If you have a regular dynamic IP address then you can still connect to an external mail relay, but O2 blocks port 25 (SMTP) and so you will have to connect on port 587 (message submission)
  • Use the O2 Broadband mail relay – relay.o2broadband.co.uk – this will only accept mail from your broadband connection and will not work when outside of your home network
  • Use the O2 Mobile Data mail relay – smtp.o2.co.uk – you will need to authenticate yourself using your O2 portal username and password

If using smtp.o2.co.uk then you will also need to authenticate yourself using your O2 portal username and password. Note that even if using your own domain name your O2 username will also be made visible to the recipient in the mail headers, e.g.

Received: from yourhost.example.com by mail.o2.co.uk (8.5.119.05) (authenticated as yourlogin@o2.co.uk)

O2’s mail servers do not support SSL/TLS and so you will need to specify an insecure connection when configuring your mail client.

In the Windows Mail client go into the mail account properties and under the Outgoing Mail Server settings in the Servers tab tick the box next to ‘Outgoing Mail Server: My server requires authentication’. Go into these settings, fill in the account name and password with your O2 portal credentials and make sure that ‘Log on using Secure Password Authentication’ is NOT checked. In Advanced settings make sure that ‘This server requires a secure connection (SSL) is NOT checked.

For Unix users I have provided instructions for configuring exim4 to use an external smarthost in a separate post.

Squeezebox Server on a budget

Posted on by
8

Looking for an inexpensive, quiet and low-power Squeezebox Server?

The O2 Joggler is a rebadged version of a OpenPeak OpenFrame 7″ touch-screen device. It has an Intel Atom Z520 CPU running at 1.3Ghz, 512Mb of RAM and 1GB of internal flash storage. You can also run it as a fully functioning Squeezebox Server!

Here’s how:

  • First check that your Joggler is running the latest 26635.S3 (Jun 25 2010) software, if it’s not then update
  • You will need telnet access, so download this Joggler telnet hack
  • Unpack the Zip archive to the root of a USB stick formatted in FAT16 or FAT32
  • Unplug the Joggler, insert the USB stick, then power on again and wait!
  • When the Joggler reboots it will have telnet enabled 🙂
  • Telnet to the IP address of your Joggler and login with the username ‘letmein’
  • Download Logitech’s Squeezebox Server v7.5.1 and save to your PC desktop

Now use these commands to download and install flipflip’s Squeezebox server wrapper:

cd /media
mkdir /media/ssods4 /opt
ln -s /media/ssods4 /opt/ssods4
cd /opt/ssods4
wget http://oinkzwurgl.org/downloads/ssods/ssods-4.9.1-i686.tar.gz
tar -xzvpf ssods-4.9.1-i686.tar.gz
echo "ssods:*:1000:1000:ssods:/opt/ssods4:" >> /etc/passwd
echo "ssods:*:1000:" >> /etc/group
LC_ALL= /opt/ssods4/etc/init.d/rc.ssods start

Assuming all the above has gone ok, you can now open a browser and finish the Squeezebox server installation:

  • Open a web browser on your PC and enter the URL of your Joggler, e.g. http://192.168.1.65:9099/
  • Follow the instructions in SSOXX to upload the squeezeboxserver-7.5.1.tgz file you downloaded earlier and then install the SqueezeCenter tar ball
  • When it’s finished you should see Success messages like the screenshot below
  • Now just click on ‘Start SqueezeboxServer’ to fire it up

If you are going to use your Joggler as a dedicated Squeezebox Server then you might want to make the following tweaks to ensure that it all starts up automatically and unnecessary processes are disabled:

  • Edit  /etc/init.d/boot.d/S99boot.hacks and add the line ‘LC_ALL= /opt/ssods4/etc/init.d/rc.ssods start’ in the starthacks() function, just after the telnetd line should be fine (my S99boot.hacks additions are at the end of this post)
  • Go into the SSOXX settings tab and make sure that autostart is enabled
  • Stop the X11 server and O2 GUI from loading by commenting out the following two lines from the end of /etc/init.d/rcS
cd /openpeak/tango
./run &
  • Disable automatic software updating to ensure that all your good work is not undone in the future:
echo "127.0.0.1 localhost applog.openpeak.net o2.openpeak.com o2.openpeak.co.uk" > /etc/hosts

I want to keep my Joggler in a cupboard and forget all about it, so I have no use for the display.
To save power I switch the screen off entirely, to do this I use Starter’s driver patches:

cd /media
wget http://get.intanet.com/dl/brightness.sh
wget http://get.intanet.com/dl/bp
./brightness.sh allowscreenoff 1
./brightness.sh negativevalues 1

Add the following line to /etc/init.d/boot.d/S99boot.hacks:

/bin/echo "-3">/proc/blctrl"

If you want to mount a Samba/CIFS share (like a NAS mount) you will need to download the cifs.ko kernel module and add that to the startup file.

The starthacks() function in my /etc/init.d/boot.d/S99boot.hacks startup file now looks like this:

starthacks()
{
  # enable telnet
  /usr/sbin/telnetd
  # load CIFS kernel module
  /sbin/insmod /media/cifs.ko
  /bin/sleep 2
  # mount network share
  /bin/mount -t cifs //192.168.1.2/musicshare /mnt/music -o user=music,password=secret
  /bin/sleep 2
  # disable screen
  /bin/echo "-3">/proc/blctrl
  # start SSOXX and Squeezebox Server
  LC_ALL= /opt/ssods4/etc/init.d/rc.ssods start
}

Reboot your Joggler for the display driver patches to load.