Questions about sendmail

[Wizaerd]

I have a question about PHP and sendmail that I was hoping to get an answer
about.  But first let me tell you as to why I am asking this...

I am new to Linux, using Mandrake Linux version 7.0.  I use the linux
machine as a router/gateway/firewall for my windows 98 machine.  It is
connected to the internet via an DHCP VDSL through US West.  I can access
the machine via IP from outside (such as from work, etc...) with a browser,
and I'm running Apache 1.3.12.  I do not have a domain registered for it
(since it's not a static IP) but I am running the DNS as a caching domain
name server.

Is there any way I can use the sendmail server (or program) to send and
recieve emails?  The reason I ask is I'm learning PHP, and am converting a
ColdFusion application (a discussion forum) to PHP, but in order to test
some of the functionality I need email interaction.  (When a user adds a new
message, the message is emailed out to a group of subscribers or when a
reply is posted, and email goes out to everyone who's posted to that
particular thread).

While testing it on this local machine, I'd like to be able to send an email
notification to three various email addresses I have (through work and other
domains I own and are hosted with web hosting ISPs...).  However the mail()
in PHP requires a sendmail directory instead of an SMTP server, so am not
quite sure how to proceed...  I've never used sendmail before at all, and
have an O'Reily book for it, but it's confusing as h*ll...

thanx!

Joseph E. Sheble
a.k.a. Wizaerd
Wizaerd's Realm
Canvas, 3D, Graphics, ColdFusion
http://www.wizaerd.com
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