Hello guys,

I am sure this will come out as a dumb question but I have to ask it.
I just setup a qmail server, with secure imap and secure pop3 with directions from the lifewithqmail intructions.

I can do a ps and see that qmail is running fine and I used mkmaildir and newu to create the Maildir folders and all.


My question is how do i send and retrieve email . I have read about using fetchmail and procmail to retrieve and send messages. If my email client is outlook do I still need fetchmail? Also i read that I need a fetchmail.rc file in each users folder. Do i create these manually for each user or is there a program that creates all these files (.qmail and fetchmail.rc ) automatically. I think i have read so much that I am now confused with too much info. Help Guys,

Thanks.

i think you could use mutt for reading mail
and fetchmail is a prigram to fetch mail from a popserver on the intenet
if you configure mutt for maildir you will be on the right way

and ithink(not 100% sure) that you have made a imap server for clients on the internet

Mutt is the email client I use. There's also pronto.

I havent gotten courier IMAP running.. so cant help you there.

Thanks guys for all the input. the problem is all my clients are unning windows and they are gonna be using Outlook. O question is do I need fetchmail or procmail as a go between to get the mail from the mail servers and deliver it to Outlook?

I tried to set it Outlook up to connect to the Qmail server and retrieve and send mail and it doesnt work. Am I missing something?

Any ideas?

Does outlook support Maildir???

Kofi.. if you want your windows users to fetch their email, what you need is a POP or IMAP server running on the Qmail Box. Qmail comes with qmail-pop3d which is a pop server that supports Maildirs ( the directory structures under user home directories in the Qmail box that Qmail delivers mail to ) . If I were you, I would download Courier IMAP ( from http://www.inter7.com/courierimap/ )which is a very 'configurable' IMAP server, install and run it on the Qmail box.

This server will
1) listen at the IMAP port ( 443 by default ? ) on the Qmail box
2)authenticate the users using their unix username and password - which they supply from any IMAP compatible mail client like Outlook/Netscape Mail/ Eudora(?) on any platform they're designed to run
3)Read the appropriate user Maildirs once authenticated, fetch the message headers etc and supply them to the asking party ( email client ) according to the IMAP protocol.

For secure IMAP you may need to refer to courier IMAP manuals.

Fetchmail is a utility that you use from the Unix command prompt to fetch mail from pop/imap servers other than itself. Because there's not much reason to connect to an IMAP server running on the same machine when your UNIX mail client ( mutt, patched pine ) can read the Maildir format and show you the messages from your own home directory. Procmail is another command line utility that can process mail according to the filters you set it up with ( like filter spam )

jet.. Outlook does not need to support standard mbox or maildirs since all it needs to do is to talk to the POP/IMAP server running on the Qmail box.

Thanks guys,

nxny,

Thanks so much. You clearly explained what I was suspecting. Interesting twist to my mail problems. i went back to test all my installation and decided to do the tests listed in TEST.delver and TEST .receive manuals bundled with qmail. After using the command line telnet 127.0.0.1 25 , I was able to send a mail to myself. Funny thing is though it confirmed that messages was sent and qeued it never showed up in my Maildir folder. Further investigation revealed that all my ,mail was being sent to /var/mail/postfix for some reason. the /var/mail folder had files representing every user on the system but all the messages were sent to postfix.

This mail server is a Redhat Linux 8.0 and i removed sendmail during the qmail setup .. i am wondering now if i should remove postfix too to force it to use qmail? Under qmail, i made sure i set the defaultdelivery to use Maildir. Any thoughts ?

Lastly I setup up qmail-pop3 during the qmail install and later installed the secure pop3. Also installed IMAp and the secure version using SSL Now i have 2 pop3 servers running and 2 IMAP Servers . Should I remove the non-secure ones or leave them ?


Thanks gusy for all the input.

Yes, you should remove postfix too. I think there's something that has gone wrong with the qmail installation, because if it was 'told' to use Maildirs - 2 things here. You can ask it to use Maildir format for your mail delivery/storage. Also, you can make the qmail-lspawn/qmail-local subsystems point to $HOME/Maildir or whatever you decided to call those. Are you sure you did both of these? - it would. The maildirs also need to be created using maildirmake under the home directories. If they dont exist when qmail is looking to deliver mail, you're in trouble.

For the time being, I'd keep all 4, but after I'm done configuring, the only thing I'd keep is the secure IMAP server.
Post the output of
netstat -na | grep -i listen
and also
ps -axfw

nxny,

Yep I made sure to run maildirmake as each of the users to create the folders so in each user's home directory, there is a Maildir folder that has 3 folders in it namely(new, tmp and cur) .

For the qmail install I have the file defaultdelivery under the /var/qmail/control directory to have the entry "./Maildir" . I assumed this is where qmail-lspawn/qmail-local use .. or do i need to specify it elsewhere? Per your request, here is the output of the following commands :

netstat -na | grep -i listen

tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:1024 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:993 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:1025 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:995 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:110 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:783 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:6000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:21 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:25 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 34190 /tmp/orbit-root/linc-2d55-0-23d9558025b93
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1599 /usr/lib/courier-imap/var/authdaemon/socket.tmp
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 33999 /tmp/.ICE-unix/11562
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 34202 /tmp/orbit-root/linc-2d45-0-174c019357935
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1705 /tmp/.font-unix/fs7100
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1958 /tmp/.X11-unix/X0
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 33840 /tmp/ksocket-root/kdeinit-:0
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 33963 /tmp/mcop-root/troisieme_intcomschool_org-2d1c-3ddbd767
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 33873 /tmp/ksocket-root/klauncherzbhICa.slave-socket
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1655 /dev/gpmctl
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 33337 /tmp/ssh-XX0H7GoC/agent.11400
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 33845 /tmp/.ICE-unix/dcop11524-1037817696
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1949 /tmp/.gdm_socket


###############################################################


[root@troisieme Maildir]# ps -axfw
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
1 ? S 0:03 init
2 ? SW 0:00 [keventd]
3 ? SW 0:00 [kapmd]
4 ? SWN 0:00 [ksoftirqd_CPU0]
5 ? SW 0:00 [kswapd]
6 ? SW 0:00 [bdflush]
7 ? SW 0:00 [kupdated]
8 ? SW 0:00 [mdrecoveryd]
12 ? SW 0:00 [kjournald]
68 ? SW 0:00 [khubd]
193 ? SW 0:00 [kjournald]
194 ? SW 0:00 [kjournald]
195 ? SW 0:00 [kjournald]
196 ? SW 0:00 [kjournald]
197 ? SW 0:00 [kjournald]
515 ? S 0:00 syslogd -m 0
519 ? S 0:00 klogd -x
536 ? S 0:00 portmap
555 ? S 0:00 rpc.statd
637 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/apmd -p 10 -w 5 -W -P /etc/sysconfig/apm-scripts/apmscript
675 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
689 ? S 0:00 xinetd -stayalive -reuse -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid
705 ? SL 0:00 ntpd -U ntp
729 ? S 0:00 /usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/authlib/authdaemond.pgsql start
739 ? S 0:00 /usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/couriertcpd -address=0 -stderrlogger=/usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/courierl
744 ? S 0:00 /usr/lib/courier-imap/libexec/courierlogger imapd-ssl
750 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/spamd -d -c -a
759 ? S 0:00 gpm -t ps/2 -m /dev/mouse
768 ? S 0:00 crond
801 ? S 0:00 xfs -droppriv -daemon
819 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
837 tty1 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty1
838 tty2 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty2
839 tty3 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty3
840 tty4 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty4
841 tty5 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty5
842 tty6 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty6
843 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/gdm-binary -nodaemon
925 ? S 0:00 \_ /usr/bin/gdm-binary -nodaemon
926 ? S< 0:15 \_ /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 -auth /var/gdm/:0.Xauth
11400 ? S 0:00 \_ /bin/sh /usr/bin/startkde
11461 ? S 0:00 \_ /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/share/apps/switchdesk/Xclients.kde
11560 ? S 0:00 \_ kwrapper ksmserver --restore
844 ? S 0:00 /bin/sh /command/svscanboot
867 ? S 0:00 \_ svscan /service
875 ? S 0:00 | \_ supervise qmail-send
885 ? S 0:00 | | \_ qmail-send
908 ? S 0:00 | | \_ qmail-lspawn ./Maildir/
909 ? S 0:00 | | \_ qmail-rspawn
910 ? S 0:00 | | \_ qmail-clean
876 ? S 0:00 | \_ supervise log
886 ? S 0:00 | | \_ /usr/local/bin/multilog t /var/log/qmail
877 ? S 0:00 | \_ supervise qmail-smtpd
888 ? S 0:00 | | \_ /usr/local/bin/tcpserver -v -R -l troisieme.intcomschool.org -x /etc/tcp.smtp.cdb -c 20 -u 53
878 ? S 0:00 | \_ supervise log
13026 ? Z 0:00 | | \_ [supervise <defunct>]
879 ? S 0:00 | \_ supervise qmail-pop3d
901 ? S 0:00 | | \_ /usr/local/bin/tcpserver -v -R -H -l 0 0 110 /var/qmail/bin/qmail-popup troisieme.intcomschoo
880 ? S 0:00 | \_ supervise log
13025 ? Z 0:00 | | \_ [multilog <defunct>]
881 ? S 0:00 | \_ supervise pop3sd
899 ? S 0:00 | | \_ /usr/local/bin/tcpserver -v -R -H -l 0 -x /etc/tcp.pop3s.cdb -c 0 995 /usr/local/sbin/stunne
882 ? S 0:00 | \_ supervise log
900 ? S 0:00 | \_ /usr/local/bin/multilog t /var/log/qmail/pop3sd
868 ? S 0:00 \_ readproctitle service errors: ...: fatal: unable to lock directory /var/log/qmail/pop3d: access denie
11520 ? S 0:00 kdeinit: Running...
11548 ? S 0:01 \_ /usr/bin/artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -s 60 -m artsmessage -l 3 -f
11564 ? S 0:00 \_ kdeinit: kwin -session 117f000001000103729714600000015340000
11586 ? S 0:00 \_ /usr/bin/pam-panel-icon --sm-client-id 117f000001000103729715100000015340003
11594 ? S 0:00 | \_ /sbin/pam_timestamp_check -d root
11589 ? S 0:10 \_ /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/rhn-applet-gui --sm-config-prefix /rhn-applet-Umd3vs/ --sm-client-id 117f000
11995 ? S 0:01 \_ kdeinit: konsole -icon konsole -miniicon konsole
12001 pts/1 S 0:00 | \_ /bin/bash
13027 pts/1 R 0:00 | \_ ps -axfw
12036 ? S 0:24 \_ /usr/lib/mozilla-1.0.1/mozilla-bin
11524 ? S 0:00 kdeinit: dcopserver --nosid
11528 ? S 0:00 kdeinit: klauncher
11531 ? S 0:00 kdeinit: kded
11558 ? S 0:00 kdeinit: knotify
11562 ? S 0:00 kdeinit: ksmserver --restore
11568 ? S 0:04 kdeinit: kdesktop
11574 ? S 0:00 kdeinit: kicker
11585 ? S 0:00 kdeinit: kwrited
11598 ? S 0:00 kalarmd -session 117f000001000103729715300000015340004
11605 ? S 0:00 /usr/libexec/gconfd-2 7

Thanks for all the help nxny. Really appreciate it.

My wife hogged my server for the last couple of days.. she's addicted to Windoze.. today I snatched it back from her and my fave OS is running again. That explains the delay.

so.. as long as the qmail-lspawn has a ./Maildir/ next to in the process listing, qmail recognizes your defauldelivery. That part is fine. Did you end up removing postfix too? I'm not too familiar with postfix or what it can do to you. What happens when you try qmail-inject?

I had to refer to http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers to see what runs on what port of your box. What are you running on port 783? is it the IMAP server? 143 is default, I think.

If you have nmap can you
nmap localhost
as root and post it?

nxny,

Removed Posfix but the messages still wont send. Funny thing is it will que the message but never would deliver it. Out of frustration, I blew the installation away and i will be doing a fresh install tonite. I was leaning more toward the idea that something corrupted the installation. Could it be the presence of postfix et all? Also I was getting the error messages in my /var/log/messages that:

Starting qmail
qmail-send supervise not running
qmail-smtpd supervise not running

I am gonna install qmail and test to make sure it actually delivers before installing pop3 and imap.


I will keep you posted and thanks for all the help and if you have any suggestions, kindly let me know before i begin, coz if it doesnt work, I will start going door to door and steal turkeys.. hee hee hee

Thanks!

I agree, I think you installed too many things at once and now we dont know where to start from.

If I were you, I'd wipe it and start all over again. Starting with Qmail. I somehow got this impression that DJB wrote the tcpserver package because he didn't consider inetd secure enough at that time to run his apps. Which is a nice thing, but the non-standard directory structure that his tools seem to follow pisses me off to no end. I still have to uninstall it that uspci-tools or whatever, cuz I dont absolutely need it and everytime I see it i just hate to see non-LSB directories under my root directory. Unless I'm a power user ( that is, my server delivers at least 30 emails a minute ) , I'd stick with xinetd to run qmail smtpd. The rc script that initializes the other qmail processes are started from my /etc/rc.d/init.d

Qmail installation, as I see it is simple and straight. The rest of the stuff that 'lifewithqmail' throws in there are a bit hairy when it comes to installation. Too many tools and you'd have no clue where to start debugging from. I'd follow the README.*, INSTALL.* and TEST.* files that comes with the souce to get qmail going.

If you're a home user, you might need the .forward, but I'm absolutely certain that not many people who arent ISP admins ( with multiple domains to worry about )would bother to install vpopmail and the like.

If you want, we can do this together. I'm done with qmail already, so once you get there, we'll get the IMAP server going.

nxny,

Thanks a bunch bro. I was going to do exactly that. That is install from the README and INSTALL files that come with the source. When i am done with the install i will let you know so we go grom there. I appreciate all the input .