ok...i've managed to struggle through configuring POSTFIX and get successfully send/receive mail from the root....

however the issue I'm current experiencing is whenever a Windows mail client (ie. Outlook) tries to retrieve mail.....or even on the Linux box itself, having configured Netscape for POP3....it returns the following:

[PASS command did not succeed. Mail server 192.168.1.200 responded = BAD AUTHENTICATION]


ok, so short of stating the obvious, I'm able to knock on the door, but don't have the key (or perhaps a lock) to access the mail server.....where do I look from here?

It just means that the POP3 Username/Password combination you have provided is incorrect. Check the spelling of the username and the password. You can also try telnetting to your server on port 110 from the Windows machine and try to log on manually (first type USER username then type PASS password).

ok....tested via telnet as suggested....was able to telnet into the mail server....user name accepted....but since received ERR BAD LOGIN.

ok....so I reset the password for the user to something else...and tested again....same message ERR BAD LOGIN.

now what I'm thinking is that perhaps the users, which I created solely for email purposes only in the group [mail-users-only] don't have sufficient reads to retrieve mail....

will continue putzing around with it....thanks for your feedback....

EUREKA......she works!!!

performed telnet testing as previously suggested....saw none of my account works EXCEPT the one initially created during my Red Hat install.....

so....blew out all the users, and re-created them....and ba-da-bing!! POP3 authentication works flawlessly....

Using RedHat? Be careful, RedHat assumes some things when it creates the user mailboxes. It sets the group writable. That could be an issue... Check /var/spool/mail and make sure that all the files are only read-writable by their owner. Otherwise other users could start reading other users' mail, if you changed the accounts' groups.