Is there any way to set up a home mail server that will download my messages from a webmail account?

this is my guide to setting up a pop3 Server On Fedora with IlohaMail

1. Edit the /etc/dovecot.conf file to include the following line (if you want all services running then include them all, if only one then include only the one running that you want)

'protocols = imap imaps pop3 pop3s'

2. start/restart the dovecot server by the command

'/etc/init.d/dovecot start'

thats how simple setting up a mail server on 'fedora core 4' is now for the webmail client, Ilohamail.

3. Now download the lastest version from, http://blog.ilohamail.org/ then make the folder /usr/lib/ilohamail/ and unzip the downloaded file into the folder you just created.

4. Once you have unpacked it, then place a link in the root directory of the apache web server.

'ln -s /usr/lib/ilohamail/IlohaMail/source/ /var/www/html/ilohamail'

5. Now change the ownership of the folder so people surfing the web can access it.

'chown apache:apache -R /usr/lib/ilohamail/IlohaMail/source/'

and allow them full access rights

'chmod -R a+rwx /usr/lib/ilohamail/IlohaMail/source/'

6. make sure that apache is running

'/etc/init.d/httpd start'

7. Then go to http://ip-address-of-your-machine/ilohamail/

8. Once at this site you may notice there is an option of language, service (imap/pop3) and server, if you don't want your clients to be able to change or see these options then edit the file

'/usr/lib/ilohamail/IlohaMail/conf/login.php'

the file it's self should have plently of instructions on what to do.

there you go, a functional pop3 server running on fedora core with a webmail client.

for more of my how to guides, please visit my blog at my local LUG website

http://tlug.dnho.net/?q=node/146

i hope thats what your looking for

I don't think that's what I'm looking for. I want a server at home that will download my e-mail messages from an existing webmail service, that I can then access from my laptop and PDA. Thoughts?

U should ask or find information pertaining to pop/imap and smtp server address of the webmail on the website. then configure your client app like outlook/thunderbird/whatever it may be to connect to the servers and download ur mails to your pc. there's options to configure it to download it to ur pc or leave it on the server.

are your trying to get a mail service like hotmail to download onto a client like thunderbird?

or are your trying to sync to mail servers together?

because there are programs that will allow you to download hotmail onto outook i have one of them at home, but i can't remember it's name.

I'm wanting to set up a server at my house, that will get the e-mail off of a webmail site(www.spiekerfamily.com, mail.spiekerfamily.com), that will then allow me to sync my laptop and PDA to the server. I have thunderbird set up on my laptop now to download the messages off of the server, but I'd like to have them in one central location. My pda is a zaurus, so I can't really sync it w/ anything(or rather, I can but not w/ e-mail)