I feel like my problem is very simple, but I've been trying for quite some time and haven't cracked it. You experienced server guys will probably laugh at this, but I'm finally at the point I need help or I'll never get anywhere.

I have a little box running 12.04 LTS and I've wanted to script some status checks and have the server send me an email and schedule this with cron.

I basically want a command line mail client that I can set up as easily as Thunderbird to send through my existing SMTP through the command line. Something that can easily be rolled into my bash scripts.

I already have a remote host handling our email, SMTP, MTA, all that garbage. I don't particularly want to set up a relay just to send email when I have one that everyone else in the company already uses. I've tried, but there are too many aspects I don't understand AND I don't see why I should set up something local when we already pay for a remote host to do these things.

If I absolutely have to set up sendmail or postfix, then so be it, but I'd appreciate a simple alternative. I'm open to practically anything at this point.