LinuxQuestions.org
Help answer threads with 0 replies.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Server
User Name
Password
Linux - Server This forum is for the discussion of Linux Software used in a server related context.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 01-13-2011, 10:57 AM   #1
tibberous
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2004
Posts: 56

Rep: Reputation: 15
Setting up CentOS email


I'm trying to setup a couple POP accounts in CentOS. I started doing a tutorial that had me install dovecot, and now I have dovecot running but I can't connect at all.

Does anyone know of a simple way to get email up and running? It seems like it should be easier than the 14 step tutorials I was finding on Google.

Also, should I leave dovecot or try and remove it?
 
Old 01-13-2011, 11:09 AM   #2
szboardstretcher
Senior Member
 
Registered: Aug 2006
Location: Detroit, MI
Distribution: GNU/Linux systemd
Posts: 4,278

Rep: Reputation: 1694Reputation: 1694Reputation: 1694Reputation: 1694Reputation: 1694Reputation: 1694Reputation: 1694Reputation: 1694Reputation: 1694Reputation: 1694Reputation: 1694
http://www.linuxmail.info/mail-server-setup-centos-5/

I used this to set up my Dovecot instance.
 
Old 01-13-2011, 08:13 PM   #3
tibberous
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2004
Posts: 56

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
Doesn't help - I don't have a GUI.

You'd think there would just be a couple commands to setup basic email.
 
Old 01-14-2011, 05:11 AM   #4
Noway2
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2007
Distribution: Gentoo
Posts: 2,125

Rep: Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781
Unfortunately, no. Setting up a mail system is one of the more complex things that a Linux user can try to accomplish. In your case, you are only setting up the POP/IMAP portion, which I am really not certain will make things easier or harder.

When you say you can connect at all, lets start by checking a few basic things.
1 - Do you have the proper ports open in your firewall, both server (software) level and hardware (router) level?
2 - is the dovecot process running? What is the output of pd aux | grep dovecot?
3 - Is the process listening on a port? What is the output of netstat -pta | grep dovecot (probably need to run as root)
4 - do a restart of Dovecot. Then look at your syslog, mail.log, etc and see if there are any error messages associated with Dovecot. If so, what are the error messages?
 
Old 01-14-2011, 11:49 AM   #5
tibberous
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2004
Posts: 56

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
Thanks for trying to help, but last night I said "fuck it" and installed Google Business email. Got it up and running, and integrated into my scripts in probably am hour - $100 a year for two emails.

I still need to figure out how to setup a mail server though. We are launching a multi-domain, hosted CMS, and $50/email/year is way to much.
 
Old 01-15-2011, 09:29 AM   #6
Noway2
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2007
Distribution: Gentoo
Posts: 2,125

Rep: Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781Reputation: 781
I can understand why you would feel that way. Setting up a mail server is usually a difficult and frustrating task that requires integration with a lot of different systems including DNS, data bases, anti-virus, and a host of daemon processes and configuration files all with an arcane syntax.

Here is a some advice for when you decide to try again. The most popular email system seems to be Postfix. It is feature rich and works very well, with a large support base of plug ins for all sorts of features. I personally use it and host multiple virtual domains (accounts not tied to Linux user accounts), web mail, domain key filtering, anti-spam and anti-virus. I then use Dovecot for POP/IMAP and SASL Authentication. My webmail, POP, and IMAP connections use TLS for encryption. My accounts are hosted via a MySQL backend and I manage the accounts with a PHP application called Postfixadmin. From the description of your needs, I think this would work well for you. I use it in combination with a tool called Amavisd-new that co-ordinates many of the plugins. To get a basic server up and running, Postfix pretty much works out of the box. However, it can get complicated to install all the other features I mention above. It will take time to figure out and get working and you will become very good a reading log files and finding subtle problems while starting and stopping processes. In the process you WILL get frustrated with it at times.

Other options that are fairly popular include Zimbra and Citadel. I believe that both of these are a lot easier to setup. One of them is free for limited use, but for enterprise purposes gets a little more expensive.

Once you get your own mail system up and running you will face a set of challenges associated with getting other providers to recognize you as a valid email sender. This will take time, patience, and investigation. You will need to register with some services like Hotmail, add at least an SPF record for Yahoo, and add a google_id for gmail.

When you decide that you are ready, there are plenty of tutorials and how to documents available. You need to be careful with them and try to understand what you are doing rather than copying them verbatim. Often times the settings won't be exactly what you need, correct for your installation, or even contain 'errors' caused by web-page translations like substitution of ` and '. There is also lots of help available on the forums.
 
Old 01-15-2011, 10:23 AM   #7
okcomputer44
Member
 
Registered: Jun 2008
Location: /home/laz
Distribution: CentOS/Debian
Posts: 246

Rep: Reputation: 53
Have a look those sites:

http://www.linuxmail.info/category/postfix/

http://www.linuxmail.info/category/dovecot/

I got running a postfix server and dovecot with LDAP backend and webmail of course.
But that site contains the basic postfix and dovecot that you need.

Laz
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
CentOS 5.5 Email Server MX Settings BassSpy Linux - Server 4 07-19-2010 06:26 AM
Email server- CentOS or Debian tuananh87vn Linux - Server 5 03-20-2009 03:29 PM
email subaddressing under CentOS 5.2/Postfix quiescere Linux - Software 4 03-20-2009 02:36 AM
email forwarding problem CentOS johncereus Linux - General 15 07-11-2006 05:15 PM
setting up email sycamorex Linux - Newbie 2 03-05-2006 07:44 AM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Server

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:04 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration