It seems that you never read any single document about muLinux, isn't true? Mulinux comes with an huge set of scripts for that, in other words it fall in the class of "preconfigured Linuxes". After that, you can connect to internet with this algorithm:
1. setup -f port (this configure the modem) 2. setup -f isp (this configure PPP) 2b. setup -s (this save definitively your profile) 3. ppp-on (this activate the connection) 3. ppp-off (this stops the connection) 4. plog (this monitor the outgoing call)
smail acts differently if you are connected or not You , in both cases, may have more log running the queue with:
# smail -d9 -q > log_file
then send me the "log_file". If empty, replace ">" with "2>".
On local network, smail deviler correctly only if you use "not-fully-qualified-domain". Example: craxi@extensa is delivered, but craxi@extensa.sanvittore.it gets sent to SMART_HOST (in my /etc/hosts, extensa is an alias for extensa.sanvittore.it). Address like craxi@[192.168.1.2] also works fine.
As many MTA in UNIX, smail works well only if a DNS is 24/24h reachable: for intermittent links, the messages are queued then sent to a SMART_HOST.
If you close your internet connection without to "run the queue" in mutt (I provided a macro: escape-s, for that), the messages are still in the directory /var/spool/smail/input: they will be delivered to next connection. You can obtains the list with "mailq".
You can run the queue by hand with "runq" or "runq -v", in a console.
I know, all that behave differently from Eudora, Outlook etc: the UNIX delivering system are projected with the queue in mind, because they are for multi-user, big systems.