Topic: Rename admin account

[CmdLn]

A word of warning for those who want to make this change - Changing the primary domain name changes the mail server name in the mail server modules.

If you are using SSL and Outlook like we do you will get a message something like "The server you are connected to is using a security certificate that cannot be verified: The target principle name is incorrect".

I wasnt popular this morning when everybody got to work!

[stephdl]

I believe that you can adapt your certificate to your new domain : http://wiki.contribs.org/Certificates_Concepts#How_to_change_your_certificate

[CmdLn]

Another side effect - Mail from webmail goes out as user@yourdomain.local so recipients cannot reply.

[CmdLn]

This is all a massive hack and inconvenience just to get 1 users email sorted out. It really would be much better if you could just rename the admin user or even choose one you want at install time. At the very least I think they should consider renaming the admin user to something less common like sme-admin in the next distro.

[janet]

CmdLine

Another side effect - Mail from webmail goes out as user@yourdomain.local so recipients cannot reply.

This is mentioned in the Pseudonyms section of the manual, near the end IIRC.
You need to login to webmail as each user & change the profile to reflect the domain they are using, so their return address is name@yourdomain.com etc.

You do need to think through the ramifications of changing the main server domain.

[janet]

CmdLine

This is all a massive hack and inconvenience just to get 1 users email sorted out.

It has been hardcoded in sme server for 15 years, so will take some effort to change.

It is really far simpler for you to stop using the admin name for business administration purposes.
You have been given workarounds, if you don't like the work involved to utilise those, then stop using the admin address.
You should be able to temporarily redirect that in external DNS records.

Otherwise feel free to offer to pay a developer to implement the necessary code changes to get the functionality you want. That would not happen until at least sme 9.1 as developers are now in a "no changes" phase trying to get sme 9.0 out.

[CmdLn]

You do need to think through the ramifications of changing the main server domain.

The reason I didn't like this solution initially was because of possible unforeseen ramifications, but I foolishly believed I that changing the primary domain was a simple fix.

Changing my employers mind about using an address that he has been using for years is going to be impossible.

Surely I am not the only person who needs this functionality? Seems to me like people are reading this thread?

I realise I wont get this changed and mainly still comment on this topic to help anybody else who needs the same thing. Maybe if there is enough interest the developers will take notice.

[CmdLn]

The problem I have with changing every webmail profile is I dont know most of the user passwords because I used lat-shadow to transfer the user passwords from the previous RedHat box. Is there a way to change a Webmail user profile for another user without actually logging in as that user?

[stephdl]

Maybe if there is enough interest the developers will take notice.

Developers need rather more help to test their development and more people in bugzilla than ideas to waste the few free time they have...IMHO

Moreover i worry it is a huge NFR you are asking.

[Stefano]

just a question (I  sincerely don't know all the internals): whea a user is created, does happen something at HOrde level? I mean, user profile in horde is created on demand at the first login in webmail or on user creation?

the idea is to add a script that creates a new identity on user creation and on new domain creation

or, at least, it would be helpful to have a script to manually invoke..

in any case, CmdLine, time to go to bugzilla and open NFR.. but don't hold your breath..

[janet]

CmdLine

You chose to use sme server, so live with it's limitations, and tell your boss that too !

The admin user issue is something that thousands of sme server users have learnt to live with for 15 years. It's not going to be changed because you suddenly want it. As stephdl says, the developers are far too busy with limited time they have, to be chasing & fixing relatively unimportant issues for an individual, or few, for which there are suitable workarounds.

Is there a way to change a Webmail user profile for another user without actually logging in as that user?

IIRC user settings for webmail (horde/imp) are stored in mysql database tables. You may be able to manually tweak those tables.

[idp_qbn]

CmdLine

Changing my employers mind about using an address that he has been using for years is going to be impossible.

Are you sure? Have you tried?
People and organisations (even very large ones) change email addresses all the time and their clients/friends cope.

Give it a go - it may be a lot easier than you think. And a lot easier than trying to change the server code.
I mean, would you call Mr Microsoft and asking to stop using "Administrator" on Windows systems?

Cheers
Ian

[CmdLn]

Although I see all your points here this is Linux right? It's open software and we can do what we want without permission from "Mr Microsoft". I am not asking to change the name of root, just the name of a standard Linux user that could be anything. I think it makes sense for SME because in my 20 years or so of tech (mainly for small and medium businesses) I have seen the email addresses like accts, admin, sales, billing, info, contact, support, reception, etc used over and over again. Why would you use a common email address as the name for the administrator of a mail server? For example Wordpress uses wp-admin which can be renamed to anything. Even "administrator" would be a less likely hit than admin IMHO.

I also find it hard to believe that this is "hard coded". This is open software isn't it? I would be willing to make this change myself if I could get some help with it, but for now I just need keep my boss and my users happy. You are right I chose SME server and I chose it because its nice and clean and stable in my experience.

So back to the point, I am thinking of going back to using my real domain as primary to get out of this dirty mess that affects everybody on the domain. I want to go with Janets first suggestion which was to use the mailsorting contrib to send the system mails to another user. Does anybody know of any reason not to do this? I see it uses procmail or maildrop, is there any overhead using these programs or does SME already do this?

[Stefano]

users must be educated..

back to the point, you already have the solution.. work to make it works at 100%, don't go back

[johnp]

From a security standpoint, I would agree with Stefano.

work to make it works at 100%, don't go back

With no disrespect, it seems to me that you didn't do enough investigation before moving to SME. I've found that if you learn to live within the rules, SME is both highly stable and secure.

Whether you feel that a locked admin name is a short coming, the power of the templated system out weights that premise IMHO