Problems with mail.

A while back I posted the following to a.l.o.s

"When I download mail using Kmail it does not put all the mails in the
correct place. Some go into the inbox(correct place) and some go into
the /var/spool/mail/me/ directory. I say 'correct place' because that
is where it should go according to the Kmail configuration. As far as
I know this has only happened over the last few months when I started
to 'lose' some emails which I thought (wrongly) were being lost by
the ISP. I, inadvertently found they were disappearing
into /var/spool/mail/me/ Can anyone suggest what is causing this to
happen and how I can put things right? I have not set any filters and
I am using SUSE 9.1. I have had mails from the same sender go into
either place at different times."

I took the advice given in various replies ie: Shut down 'fetchmail' or
change from Kmail to, say, Thunderbird. But this has not cured the problem.

What I think is happening now, as soon as I connect to the internet the
mail is downloaded into the /var/spool/mail/me/ directory. I have not
*knowingly* altered anything to make this occur.

Any useful suggestions as to how I can correct this?

TIA, Stan.

S W Collier wrote:
> A while back I posted the following to a.l.o.s
>
> "When I download mail using Kmail it does not put all the mails in the
> correct place. Some go into the inbox(correct place) and some go into
> the /var/spool/mail/me/ directory. I say 'correct place' because that
> is where it should go according to the Kmail configuration. As far as
> I know this has only happened over the last few months when I started
> to 'lose' some emails which I thought (wrongly) were being lost by
> the ISP. I, inadvertently found they were disappearing
> into /var/spool/mail/me/ Can anyone suggest what is causing this to
> happen and how I can put things right? I have not set any filters and
> I am using SUSE 9.1. I have had mails from the same sender go into
> either place at different times."
>
> I took the advice given in various replies ie: Shut down 'fetchmail' or
> change from Kmail to, say, Thunderbird. But this has not cured the problem.
>
> What I think is happening now, as soon as I connect to the internet the
> mail is downloaded into the /var/spool/mail/me/ directory. I have not
> *knowingly* altered anything to make this occur.
>
> Any useful suggestions as to how I can correct this?
>
> TIA, Stan.
I would think that the mails in /var/spool/mail are being delivered via
your MTA, ( default postfix, but it could be sendmail, qmail or whatever
you have installed). Some ISP's, noteably Demon in the UK will deliver
via smtp if they see a server available on the end of your connection to
them.

Depending how you have things set up the solution varies

Do you do any local mail delivery?
Do you use the local MTA to 'forward' to your ISP's mail servers for
outgoing mail
Have you set kmail to point directly to your ISP's mail servers?

We need a bit more information to help you.

--
Clive

Clive Eisen wrote:
> your MTA, ( default postfix, but it could be sendmail, qmail or whatever
> you have installed). Some ISP's, noteably Demon in the UK will deliver
s/ISP's/ISPs/

tired!

Clive Eisen wrote:
> S W Collier wrote:
>
>> A while back I posted the following to a.l.o.s

<snipped>

>> What I think is happening now, as soon as I connect to the internet
>> the mail is downloaded into the /var/spool/mail/me/ directory. I have
>> not *knowingly* altered anything to make this occur.
>>
>> Any useful suggestions as to how I can correct this?
>>
>> TIA, Stan.
>
> I would think that the mails in /var/spool/mail are being delivered via
> your MTA, ( default postfix, but it could be sendmail, qmail or whatever
> you have installed). Some ISP's, noteably Demon in the UK will deliver
> via smtp if they see a server available on the end of your connection to
> them.
>
> Depending how you have things set up the solution varies
>
> Do you do any local mail delivery?

No, all I do is download my emails from the ISP into my MTA inbox. The
present MTA is Thunderbird.

> Do you use the local MTA to 'forward' to your ISP's mail servers for
> outgoing mail

I was using Kmail, I now try to use Thunderbird.

> Have you set kmail to point directly to your ISP's mail servers?

Yes
>
> We need a bit more information to help you.
>
> --
> Clive

I had a look at which mail daemons were running. I had already turned
off Fetchmail so Postfix appeared to be the only one running. I have now
turned this off and it seems to have put things right.
Many thanks for your help.

Stan.

S W Collier wrote:
> Clive Eisen wrote:
>> S W Collier wrote:
>>
>>> A while back I posted the following to a.l.o.s
>
> <snipped>
>
>>> What I think is happening now, as soon as I connect to the internet
>>> the mail is downloaded into the /var/spool/mail/me/ directory. I have
>>> not *knowingly* altered anything to make this occur.
>>>
>>> Any useful suggestions as to how I can correct this?
>>>
>>> TIA, Stan.
>>
>> I would think that the mails in /var/spool/mail are being delivered
>> via your MTA, ( default postfix, but it could be sendmail, qmail or
>> whatever you have installed). Some ISP's, noteably Demon in the UK
>> will deliver via smtp if they see a server available on the end of
>> your connection to them.
>>
>> Depending how you have things set up the solution varies
>>
>> Do you do any local mail delivery?
>
> No, all I do is download my emails from the ISP into my MTA inbox. The
> present MTA is Thunderbird.
A small point, and I'm glad that you have solved your problem, but
Thunderbird ( et al ) are MUA , Mail User Agents

Postfix is an MTA ( Mail Transport Agent)

>
>> Do you use the local MTA to 'forward' to your ISP's mail servers for
>> outgoing mail
>
> I was using Kmail, I now try to use Thunderbird.
>
>> Have you set kmail to point directly to your ISP's mail servers?
>
> Yes
>>
>> We need a bit more information to help you.
>>
>> --
>> Clive
>
> I had a look at which mail daemons were running. I had already turned
> off Fetchmail so Postfix appeared to be the only one running. I have now
> turned this off and it seems to have put things right.
> Many thanks for your help.
>
> Stan.
>

Clive Eisen wrote:

<snipped>

> A small point, and I'm glad that you have solved your problem, but
> Thunderbird ( et al ) are MUA , Mail User Agents
>
> Postfix is an MTA ( Mail Transport Agent)

Thanks for that information Clive, I'll keep it in mind.
Many thanks again for your help.

Stan.