Setting up Email

[stephenfleming]

I'm running OS X Server on a G4 with a dedicated T1. Oodles of RAM and disk space. Mostly it's sitting idle.

I'd really like to start running a mailserver on it. The "Server Admin" client *seems* to allow me to set everything up, but if I try logging in with Entourage (using either POP or IMAP), there's never anything there. I'm sure I'm doing something obvious wrong, but I've read the pages in the online manual, and I'm stumped.

Has anyone gotten this running, and would you be willing to share a few pointers? Thanks!

[Craig R. Arko]

Well, I'm going to be setting up just such an environment later this week, so I should have some input for you.

What do you have for a DNS configuration?

[stephenfleming]

> What do you have for a DNS configuration?

My ISP (Mindspring) has assigned me a range of eight static IP addresses. One is for the router, one is for the G4 running OS X Server, and the others are for miscellaneous other Macintoshes and a printer. (Yes, I can print over the Net; no, I'm not going to tell you the IP address! Toner and paper cost money! :p )

As far as DNS... I'm just using Mindspring's DNSs... saw no reason to enable that on my own machine. Was I wrong?

[Craig R. Arko]

Do they have the MX record set up for your domain to route mail to your server?

[stephenfleming]

> Do they have the MX record set up for your domain to route mail to your server?

Yep. And, in fact, when I send mail to that domain, the Server Admin control panel gives me an accurate count of the messages received! So I think the Internet part is fine. But if I try to retrieve them, there's nothing there... which means there's something wrong with my OS X Server setup.

[Gwyrrdin]

hi...

first...om have only OS X Server 10.0.4...

haven't dared to upgrade yet.

But the applemail server sucks bigtime....

I have compiled fetchmail to retrieve bulk mail from our ISP, fetchmail delivers it to sendmail...sendmail delivers the mail to the users and I use imapd to enable imap acces of the users to their mailboxes...

I have 20 users on that server (small office) en works fine. With entourage and outlook on pc's....no problem at all.

That didn't work with Apple Mail Server....

Gwyrrdin

[beastie]

Apple-supplied sendmail configs are broken, files are missing, and directory attributes are wrong.

Read these step-by-step instructions on how to get sendmail running properly:
http://www.ish.com.au/solutions/sendmailOSX.html

[stephenfleming]

Wow. Thanks for the detailed information. That sounds like a project for the weekend.

But would problems with sendmail affect *incoming* mail?

[macubergeek]

Don't know how unix handy you are, but you might also consider Postfix as a drop in Sendmail's place mta. It is more secure and easier to setup and configure. You will have to download and configure it though.
http://www.postfix.org/

and to download macos x version:
http://www.caos.aamu.edu/pub/MacOS_X/BSD/Server/Mail/postfix/

here's a book on this excellant program:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672321149/qid%3D1012301957/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F0%5F1/002-7498838-7124807

good luck

[bluehz]

I would have to second that vote for Postfix SMTP server. I tried for a week to get sendmail working effectively with no luck. With a little help from some informative website - I was able to compile and install Postfix in about an hour. I use WebMin (http://www.webmin.com) to manage a lot of UNIX stuff on my OS X box and it includes a module for Postfix which makes config and running Postfix quite easy.

After 3 failed attempts I also managed to get the free Qpopper (http://www.eudora.com/qpopper_general/) POP3 server compiled and running.

[macubergeek]

Interesting, I'll have to check out Opopper...you wouldn't happen to know if it supports encrypted ssh/ssl type connections would you?

[bluehz]

RE: SSL - I am not sure if it does or not. I suspect if you compile it with the right options it does. There is an extensive PDF included with the source describing the available options.

[Craig R. Arko]

Originally posted by stephenfleming
I'm running OS X Server on a G4 with a dedicated T1. Oodles of RAM and disk space. Mostly it's sitting idle.

I'd really like to start running a mailserver on it. The "Server Admin" client *seems* to allow me to set everything up, but if I try logging in with Entourage (using either POP or IMAP), there's never anything there. I'm sure I'm doing something obvious wrong, but I've read the pages in the online manual, and I'm stumped.

Has anyone gotten this running, and would you be willing to share a few pointers? Thanks!

Stephen:

I got the mail server up and running yesterday. It seems to be working OK. The one thing I did find out was how to enable a given user's mail account.

In Server Admin => General => Users & Groups => Show Users & Groups List; you double-click the name of the user you want, select 'Mail Service' from the popup menu, and enable the account and set other options there.

To test, send a message from a working mail account to <user@machine.domain.com> and see if it gets there. If it does, but <user@domain.com> doesn't, then you know it's a DNS problem.

I used the user's shortname to address mail, but the long name may work if it doesn't contain spaces.

[macubergeek]

check out Stepwise:
http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/Workbench/eart.index.html

[cntrytwist]

I've got a Mac osx server up and running with no problems. If you wish to e-mail me directly, you may. cntrytwist@mac.com We can go over configurations and what not. Very simple once the DNS was right.