Topic: Dumb question regarding IMAP login

[toothandnail]

I've just started experimenting with SME Server 7.3. Setup was excellent, and most of the stuff I've set up seems to be working. I've been able to drop the box that I installed in in place of an OpenBSD machine acting as a mail server/firewall/router for a small domain.

I do have one problem, which I suspect is something I have either done incorrectly or simply missed doing. Attempting to log into the mail server with an email client from the local network fails every time - entering user name and password comes up with a login failure and prompts for login details again. The mail client is Seamonkey (on a SuSE Linux box). I've tried both mail.domainname.co.uk and the IP of the SME box, but both fail in exactly the same way. Seamonkey is set to use port 143, which I believe is the normal default port for IMAP.

The server is working, both to send and receive mail, and I can access the mail through the Horde webmail interface, both locally and remotely. What I haven't managed to do is login with a normal email client. I disabled POP3 during configuration, since I wanted to replace an existing IMAP server.

Can anyone suggest what it is that I've done wrong? Or what information I need to supply so someone can spot my error 

Other than this (hopefully small) glitch, I'm most impressed with SME - the install was quick and the services are just what I need...

paul.

[haymann]

Here is a link to the email section in the manual. Can you verify that you have enabled IMAP? It is also important to note that IMAPS is the preferred and default setting for IMAP. You will need to use port 993.
Welcome to the community!
Ryan

[toothandnail]

Here is a link to the email section in the manual. Can you verify that you have enabled IMAP? It is also important to note that IMAPS is the preferred and default setting for IMAP. You will need to use port 993.

Thanks. I've read through the email section, though possibly with less attention that I should....

I've got IMAP enabled, set as 'allow private'. From the configuration file, I've got this:

Code: [Select]

imap=service|ConcurrencyLimit|400|ConcurrencyLimitPerIP|12|TCPPort|143|access|private|status|enabled   
imaps=service|ConcurrencyLimit|400|ConcurrencyLimitPerIP|12|TCPPort|993|access|private|status|enabled
I haven't tried IMAPS access, though from the config, I would assume that both IMAP and IMAPS are enabled. Next time I get the chance, I'll try port 993 and see if that gets any further.

Welcome to the community!

Thanks Ryan. And thanks for the rapid response....

paul.

[imcintyre]

ToothandNail;

I was using Firefox for my home network internal IMAP (not IMAPS) email client. I had installed Seamonkey but not used it. I opened it up, went through the account set up and it worked immediately. So it works, there might be something in your settings.

Ian

[toothandnail]

I was using Firefox for my home network internal IMAP (not IMAPS) email client. I had installed Seamonkey but not used it. I opened it up, went through the account set up and it worked immediately. So it works, there might be something in your settings.

I think you must be right, but I can't work out what I've got set wrong. The mail server itself obviously works, and the users that I've set up also seem to work, since both can access the server via the webmail client.

My attempts to use the Seamonkey mail client involved changing the address (the original IMAP server was accessed by IP) to mail.domainnme.co.uk and entering the password assigned to the user on the SME box.

One odd thing that I do notice. Even though I'm fairly sure that I entered the user name in all lower case, the  address of mail sent via the webmail system has come through with the username having its first letter uppercased. Is this normal, or have I got something screwed up? Unfortunately, the system is remote from me (and not running full time until we can sort the mail problem out), so I'll have to phone Ken to get him to check the user to make sure it really is 'ken' rather than 'Ken'.

Reading the docs, I see that two pseudonyms are predefined, which should be available as email addresses. I'll see if I can get Ken to set up a mail account using one of those and see if it makes any difference. He normally only uses ken@domainname.co.uk as his email address, so I'll get him to try ken.drinkwater@domainname.co.uk.

I've also set up my test box so that I can try it, though my setup is somewhat different - I don't have my own domain, and just collect mail from the POP servers of two different ISPs. Still, I should be able to interpose my SME test setup between my router/firewall and the rest of my network. I want to test the file sharing anyway - I've had problems accessing Samba shares from OS/2, and I still have an OS/2 box in my network. Also be interesting to see how easily I can access the shares from my more normal Zenwalk Linux boxes.

Hopefully someone can spot whatever stupidity it is I've committed while setting up the SME server....

paul.

[raem]

toothandnail

Your settings look OK.
The fact that webmail works OK implies your mail system is configured correctly.

Have you made any or lot's of behind the scenes tweaking of settings via command line ?
If you have only configured things in server manager, then it should be OK.

Can you try another email client eg Thunderbird or Outlook Express on a Windows workstation ?
Can you ping mail.yourdomain.com from a workstation command prompt ?

Please check all settings in your email client, perhaps you have authentication enabled when it should not be etc etc.

[toothandnail]

Your settings look OK.
The fact that webmail works OK implies your mail system is configured correctly.

  Thanks. I thought that would have to be the case. It was reassuring to find that webmail was working. Prior to finding that, I wasn't sure whether the mail server itself was working.

Have you made any or lot's of behind the scenes tweaking of settings via command line ?
If you have only configured things in server manager, then it should be OK.

So far, the only changes I've made have been made via the server manager. Some direct on the server box, some from a workstation (Firefox was a bit easer to use than eLinks..).

Can you try another email client eg Thunderbird or Outlook Express on a Windows workstation ?

I'll see what Ken can do. He's got a laptop, though I've no idea what he runs on it. I'll be back there next week, and can try using Outlook - I think XP will still boot on my laptop  and if not, I think I still have Thunderbird installed in the older version of Zenwalk.

Can you ping mail.yourdomain.com from a workstation command prompt ?

I'll get Ken to try that as soon as he brings the server back up (at the moment, he's back to the OpenBSD box).

Please check all settings in your email client, perhaps you have authentication enabled when it should not be etc etc.

I'll get Ken to check. For POP servers, the Seamonkey default is 'never' for authentication, not sure what it is for IMAP.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll let you know once I can go through a few of them...

paul.
[/quote]

[imcintyre]

I recently (today) was having a problem very similar to this as I had to reconfigure my network as I started with a new isp and combined modem/router. I could make the webmail work but not the Thunderbird or Outlook express. I was hoping that there was a solution here but not.

After 3 hours of serarching/reading etc, the thing I finally tried was replacing my incoming/outgoing servers mail.mydomainname.ca with the internal address of the server, i.e.192.168.1.2

The thing fired right up and downloaded 120 emails. I haven't seen this anywhere in the wiki or manuals.

Anybody with comments?

Paul; Does this help solve your problem?

I guess that I should add that I recently changed from;

Modem
  |
SME gateway/server
 |
clients

to

Modem/firewall/router
  |                |
SME server   clients
only

[raem]

imcintyre

replacing my incoming/outgoing servers mail.mydomainname.ca with the internal address of the server, i.e.192.168.1.2
The thing fired right up and downloaded 120 emails

Sounds like your local DNS is not configured correctly
With your new arrangement you have to let the sme & router know about each other, I think you may need to configure either sme or the router to be the DNS server, and then configure the domains accordingly.

I'd be setting sme to be the DNS server, so that means you need to reconfigure the router to get DNS info from sme.

[william_syd]

After 3 hours of serarching/reading etc, the thing I finally tried was replacing my incoming/outgoing servers mail.mydomainname.ca with the internal address of the server, i.e.192.168.1.2

The thing fired right up and downloaded 120 emails. I haven't seen this anywhere in the wiki or manuals.

Anybody with comments?

Isn't this a 'feature' of NAT?

NAT, in it's simplest form, does not allow you to look out of your network and then back in if the source/destination are on the same network segment/subnet.

You could use a 'hosts' file on your clients.

[imcintyre]

Thanks for your answers, I don't want to hijack this post as I thought that I might have an answer for the original posters questions.

Previously I had a dynamic address and have now gone to a fixed address. I was using zoneedit to updaye my address.

I guess what you're saying I should do is forward the DNS service from my router to my sme server, and then change my router to get it's dns information from the sme server (in server only mode). I should also update this information with my name registrar. After that I should ditch my zoneedit account.

Thanks for your insight.

Ian

[toothandnail]

Thanks for your answers, I don't want to hijack this post as I thought that I might have an answer for the original posters questions.

  Thanks for the thought. I can't say I found an answer, but I did get round the problem - creating a new mail account in Seamonkey allowed me to log into the SME Server IMAP server. No idea why the new account was needed though...

I guess what you're saying I should do is forward the DNS service from my router to my sme server, and then change my router to get it's dns information from the sme server (in server only mode). I should also update this information with my name registrar. After that I should ditch my zoneedit account.

It looks as though I may want to do something similar, since I'm putting my 'test' SME system into my home system for a while. Useful information.

paul

[imcintyre]

I finally figured out how to put my new modem (2wire 2700 hg-b) into modem only mode and restored my network to

modem
   |
   |
SME Server
   |
   |
wap
   |
   |
CLIENTS

Everything now works perfectly with no complications. For the simple (like me) this is the way to go.