Mail server help

Hi

I have a dedicated server running BIND, Apache, PHP, etc.

Its all working fine, and hosts several domains.

I would like to set it up to host a mail server too, so that mail can be sent to a number of addresses on these domains, and also from them. I want to use sendmail and squirrelmail, as well has having it setup to allow external software (such as outlook) use it.

Ive never ventured into mail servers before, and frankly its confusing the hell out of me.

The best help I could find was at sendmail dot org /tips/virtualHosting (url rewritten as I am a new user) which I have followed, but its kind of left me at a dead end.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with the rest of the journey

Many thanks,

Corin

Welcome to Dev Shed.

How has it left you at a dead end? If you've started setting up a mail server, please let us know where exactly you're having a problem.

As for allowing a client such as Outlook or Squirrelmail (squirrelmail is also a client), I'd suggest using dovecot with sendmail.

What OS are you running?

Also if you'd like, I can suggest a good GUI to help set thing up...

Hi

Im running Fedora 6

Sendmail was already installed, and ive now followed that turorial I linked you to, but if you read it you'll see it doesn't really go on far enough...

I have no idea how to setup the services I need (smtp? pop? imap?), how to add/remove email addresses, user accounts, and so on.

As to a gui, in general I find setup is far more stable doing it yourself than a gui (hence Ive run the dns/apache/etc all myself, rather than using plesk, directx, etc), but if there was an effecting gui I might not be against it - would far rather do command line though.

bump ;(

I understand how much people like getting immediate answers, but please give it some time... no need to bump your thread.

Check out webmin with virtualmin. Webmin is a free GUI that helps you maintain your server... Virtualmin makes things extremely easy to manage virtual servers to add users and domains and such.

With FC6, Dovecot should already be installed to manage POP/IMAP. To start Dovecot, type:
service dovecot start

There generally shouldnt be a need to configure Dovecot... default settings should be fine.

I'd rather not use webmin

If dovecot cna deal with pop/imap thats great, but how can I actually give users access to login, and assign them email addresses? :|

Oh and regarding dovecot:

To install dovecot, type:
yum install dovecot

then to start it and ensure it starts at each reboot:
service dovecot start
chkconfig dovecot on

As far as Virtual hosting, check out this link. Scroll down to the section regarding multiple domains.

You can download and install Squirrelmail from here.

If you have particular questions with any of the above, let me know.

If you look at my first link I've actually already followed that virtual hosting bit, and I have done all of that, but it doesnt explain how I can give myself or someone else access to receieve/send with those emails

Have you also looked at this link? This goes into detail the configuration of sendmail. Here's a summary of what needs to be done:
1) Configure Sendmail to accept email from all of the domains on your server. This is done through the mailer table.
2) You then need to create user accounts which you can create through the aliases. Once a user is setup on the server, and your server is set as a mail server, the users will be able to receive email. You don't necessarily need to do anything special for them to receive after they are created. Just associated them in the alias file to the appropriate domain... for example, make sure you associate joe@domain.com to joe@domain.com
You can create seperate skeleton files that will associate a different directory structure based on the domain you're adding a user to.
3) To accept POP/IMAP, just start dovecot.
Also in the sendmail config, there'll be a line regarding SMTP... set that to mail.domain.com

Unfortunately it's hard to explain exactly how to setup a mail server without extensive tutorials... which is why I keep pointing you to links. If you go through the link in this post, it should help you get your Sendmail configurated correctly. If you have questions about any particular section or line, let me know. I know it's extremely long, but if you're planning on running a mail server, you should understand how each part works...

If need be, I can probably get you a script that will create email accounts on the fly.. but first, get the sendmail config working.. then we can worry about easy and convenient ways of adding users.

Hope this helps...

So will each email user need a new linux user account?

If you're going to host multiple domains, you would most likely want to create the aliases referencing @domain.com, so that you could have:
joe@domain1.com
joe@domain2.com
joe@domain3.com

etc.

If I understand your question correctly, each linux user you create will also be an email user... Depending on what exactly you want your server to be used for, you can create individual linux users without an email account being created, but not vice versa. In other words, you can create a user called joe who wouldn't be able to access email, but you couldnt create joe@domain1.com (for email) without him being a "Linux" user. You can restrict whom you want to actually be allowed shell access into your server by editing the passwd- file. You would need to change /bin/bash (or /bin/sh) to /bin/nologin (or /bin/false).

OK thanks

Say Ive created a linux user called mail_domain_user - can I make the pop/imap login easier? Or can they just use the email address to login?

I have installed dovecot, and configured it as in this article:

http://wiki.dovecot.org/HowTo/SimpleVirtualInstall

However I guess I've done something wrong, or am missing stuff, as I'm getting (yes, i used the actual user/pass that I put in my passwd file)



Am I missing some steps or something?