Hello everyone. I am pretty new to linux systems. I just setup a suse 11.1 with DNS, Web, Postfix mail servers on it. And I set them up using the guideline on HowToForge. I don’t know if that is enough to setup Courier-IMAP/Courier-POP3 after postfix to use pop support. I can send e-mails using Outlook but I can not receive any. Outlook always asks for user & passwords like they are not correct. But I am very sure that they are correct. My questions;
Do I still need Dovecot IMAP/POP3 Server after I setup Courier IMAP / POP?
I can see e-mails on Webmin, Read Users Mail section but outlook can’t connect to my server to get them. But sending mail is fine on it.
Is that enough to create a normal user and add it to postfix group to have a mail user?
I have been trying this for 3 days now, I am really tried so please help
The Servers and Software I have on Suse 11.1 so far:
*Webmin Version 1.480 (Suse 11.1)
*Bind DNS, Apache Web, Postfix w/Courier IMAP&POP
*Dovecot IMAP/POP3 Server (not active)
*MySQL, PHP
One thing is for sure, you never add any user to the postfix group to use mail.
You either use Courier or Dovecot, not both, since they both do the same task (POP/IMAP server). Personally I prefer Dovecot as that is what I use.
Your problem seems to be Courier’s authentication. The HOWTO you pointed to is rather terse on how authentication is supposed to work in this setup. You could either try to work it out with the help of other tutorials on Courier (sorry, don’t know any, I don’t use Courier). Or you could switch to Dovecot, which is easier to configure, IMHO. Dovecot as delivered is setup to use PAM authentication, whch uses the Linux username and password. If you want to use Maildir folders (recommended), you need to tell both Postfix and Dovecot to use this format instead of Mbox format.
Thanks for your reply ken_yap, I deleted Courier and using Dovecot now. Dovecot is better because I can control Dovecot on Webmin. But the problem is same, I can not get it work that’s why I tried Courier. Still same, outlook keeps asking for password. And this time, I can not see the mail on Webmin, Read Users Mails section. I think something wrong with the folder. I did these settings as you wrote me below for Dovecot;
*Default PAM service (dovecot)
*Standard Unix user database
Try it with some other mail client first instead of Outlook.
You may have to generate a self-signed certificate before you can use POP3S.
Check that your firewall is allowing the POP3 and POP3S ports.
Good luck.
PS: I really dislike webmin because it often messes up how the distro vendor intended for you to configure the services. So in some sense you are on your own when you take openSUSE in that direction.
What do you suggest instead of Webmin? or you rather not to use any web-based software I do all the installations & configurations on terminal but I am a newbie to check my conf. in terminal, that’s why I need webmin… The firewall is already turned off, I will try to get mail thru Thunderbird.
> Thanks for your reply ken_yap, I deleted Courier and using Dovecot now.
> Dovecot is better because I can control Dovecot on Webmin. But the
> problem is same, I can not get it work that’s why I tried Courier. Still
> same, outlook keeps asking for password.
How about testing with the “raw” method? A telnet session
telnet 192.168.0.1 110
user your_username
pass your_user_password
list
retr 1
quit
This way you’ll have an idea about the nature of the failure: authentication
problem, network or connection problem…
Thanks Camaleón. Telnet session worked fine. I can see my e-mails there, no any problem. But the mails are delay sending to my server. I sent an e-mail from hotmail and I got it 4 hours later. There might be a problem with my mail server maybe, because when go to mail.grapixi.com on explorer, I reach to the web page which is on Grapixi Web It’s not normal, I think I messed up somewhere on DNS server. What can I do?
Ok it is not delaying now. Something was wrong with IP. Outlook or Thunderbird keep asking for password but I can login and read mails on telnet, no any problem there. I think I need to conf. mail server name on DNS or something because mail.grapixi.com going to my web page. I don’t know why…
> Ok it is not delaying now. Something was wrong with IP. Outlook or
> Thunderbird keep asking for password but I can login and read mails on
> telnet, no any problem there. I think I need to conf. mail server name
> on DNS or something because mail.grapixi.com going to my web page. I
> don’t know why…
If telnet session is working, then your setup seems to be good.
To debug the error you are getting while using an e-mail client, review
either Dovecot log files (dunno where they are located :-?) or the standard
ones (/var/log/messages or /var/log/warn) to see what is going on when
issuing the authentication data within the MUA.
I tried POP3 & Imap and I see the same error message all the time. I tried to use with only the username or changed password and tried again but it is still same. Thunderbird or Outlook 2003 give the same error message. I’m thinking that it might be about “SSL”, I feel that I did something wrong when I set it up while I was setting the postfix server up. Well I don’t have a certificate so I think it’s disabled now. My questions;
How can I make sure that SSL is disabled? How can I disable or delete it?
User “Admin” is primary member of dovecot group and it’s on mail, postfix, root as secondary groups. Is that right setup if I want to use POP3/Imap features? Is it enough to get the user dovecot group if I want to get the mail by POP3 or Imap?
I even tried with no password, still getting the authentication failed message. What else do you suggest? Thanks for your helps.
Ok, I get it now I unassigned the user from the secondary groups and I can get e-mails by POP3 and Imap now. But I think I have to assign it at least for a primary group, do I need to assign it to Dovecot or Postfix group? It is on Postfix group now and I can get e-mails using Outlook. Is it wrong you think?
Thank you very much for your helps, I learned a lot things thanks to you and I can get a good sleep now
No additional groups are needed. You can leave the user in the normal primary group “users”. Don’t go assigning users to system groups or they may be able to access things they are not supposed to. Groups are not relevant to network services as I have already said.
