Topic: Cannot collect pop3 email from ISP

[rod123]

I’ve set up SMEserver in server only mode and would like to send/receive mail for a small number of  LAN clients using an ordinary ISP (Wanadoo) email account.  SMEserver has a static address on the LAN and the internet connection is through a Linksys WAG54G router, which provides DHCP.  The WAN IP address is dynamic, and I don’t particularly want the mail server to be exposed to WAN requests.

E-mail can be sent to/from LAN clients with no problems, but can only be sent to external clients.  Pop3 mail collection somehow fails - I have clearly misunderstand something here and would appreciate comments on the following e-mail setup:

E-mail retrieval mode:  multi-drop
POP and IMAP server access: allow public access
Address of Internet provider's mail server:  smtp.freeserve.net (OK for Wanadoo)
Secondary mail server:  pop.freeserve.net (OK for Wanadoo)
Mail connection every 5 minutes
POP user account (for multi-drop):  pop.freeserve.net (OK for Wanadoo)
POP user password (for multi-drop): *******

Thanks

[girkers]

I feel you need to check that your ISP supports multi-drop (or catch-all) as I have found some call it.

This is generally (in Oz anyway) only when you are using  a business email account not a general pop account.

You could also check your Mail logs in the Log control panel.

[del]

Hi Rod,
E-mail retrieval mode: multi-drop
POP and IMAP server access: allow access from local network only (unless you want connect from outside the network)
Address of Internet provider's mail server: smtp.freeserve.net (OK for Wanadoo)
Secondary mail server: pop.freeserve.net (OK for Wanadoo)
Mail connection every 5 minutes
POP user account (for multi-drop): user@freeserve.net (OK for Wanadoo)
POP user password (for multi-drop): *******

Pop user account should be the name that you would use to log into the email account, not a pop server.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Del

[rod123]

Thanks girkers and del for your replies.

As far as I can tell, Wanadoo does not support multi-drop (in fact I've really only just understood what this means).  I'll try a few changes here.

del - well spotted - my apologies - I copied the wrong info into this entry and the account name is as it should be.

Cheers

Rod

[rod123]

I've now followed the suggestions, but still cannot collect pop3 mail.

Does anyone know if there is a way for SME server to collect email from a simple pop3 ISP hosted mail server?

Rod

[cbakken]

Hi!
I've done this om my smeserver v5.5 for quite some time.
You have to use fetchmail, and write a configfile which fetchmail will use. In this file you also tell fetchmail to operate as a daemon, and specify how often mail shall be pulled from the external pop3 server. Se my file at the bottom of this post. You also have to make a script and put in /etc/rc7.d/, else mail collecting will have to be manually restarted after a server reboot. Example on such a script is also below here.

script to put in /etc/rc7d : (name it S99fetchmail and chmod +x)

-----------------
#!/bin/sh

fetchmail -f /etc/.fetchmailrc
-----------------

.fetchmailrc file: (put it whereever you defined in the previous file)
------------------
#The next lines pull mail from the ext. popserver and sends it #to users on your server
poll pop.yourisp.com with protocol POP3 user johndoe is john  here password "somepass" fetchall;
poll pop.yourisp.com with protocol POP3 user sally is sally here password "otherpass" fetchall;
#This next line makes fetchmail get new mail every 10 minutes
set daemon 600
------------------

regards
Christian

[del]

I have collected email from a single pop address using the settings as you said, I have never had to configure anything other than what's in the server manager panel. Just a thought, do you have a useron your sme server  with the same name as thge wanadoo user, eg. if your freserver email was: bill@freeserve.net do you have a Bill on your sme server? I believe that sme sorts the collected email according to the bit before the @ and if there is no user with that name the email will be sent the admin account. I maybe wrong this is how mine works.
Check the admin email account to see if the email is there. In the email panel set the Forwarding address for administrative notices:to a user on the server.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Del

[rod123]

Hi

Thanks for your suggestions.

I'm very pleased to say that it is now collecting pop mail without problems, as found by del.  Not sure why, and collection is set to multi-drop.

cbakken - thanks - your method looks interesting, but it doesn't seem to be necessary in my case.

Regards

Rod