Scott Silva wrote:

on 3-27-2008 12:04 PM Giulio Troccoli spake the following:

...

I have just installed CentOS 5.1 on my home server and I am trying to set a mail server.

I have diligently followed the instructions on the Wiki - How To on the CentOS website (http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/postfix). However I cannot send internal email (I haven't yet tried externally).

Do you have any suggestions on what to check? To test it I used two normail user: giulio and federica. I logged in as federica and sent an email to giulio with the mail programme. Is this correct (i.e. using the mail programme)?

There is one thing that I don't quite understand from the instructions. In section 3.1 it's suggested to set

mynetworks = 192.168.0.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8

in the /etc/postfix/main.cf file. My home network however is 192.168.69.0 and actually the IP assigned to any computers in the networks start from 192.168.69.20. So I changed mynetworks to 192.168.69.0/24 and also 192.168.69.19/30 (as my server IP address is actully 192.168.69.25). I don't think this is the cause of my problem anyway, because it didn't work even with the value suggested by the Wiki page.

192.168.69.0/24 should be the proper setting here. 192.168.69.19/30 is not a proper network. Are you absolutely sure that you did every step in the howto?

I used mail to send a test message and it worked fine ( after I read the man page -- I haven't used mail to send a message for 20 years or more!).

There must be other errors in your postfix config.

When you start postfix, does it throw any errors in the logs?

The 192.168.69.19/30 was just a test after 192.168.0.0/24 and 192.168.19.0/24 both failed (i.e. I could send an internal email). To make clearer this is what I have in my main.cf file

mynetworks = 192.168.69.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8

Starting Postfix does not throw any errors.

I can download emails using POP3 with postfix and davecot, can't I? I don't have to use IMAP, right?

Giulio

Scott Silva wrote:

on 3-27-2008 12:46 PM Giulio Troccoli spake the following:

...

Scott Silva wrote:

...

on 3-27-2008 12:04 PM Giulio Troccoli spake the following:

...

I have just installed CentOS 5.1 on my home server and I am trying to set a mail server.

I have diligently followed the instructions on the Wiki - How To on the CentOS website (http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/postfix). However I cannot send internal email (I haven't yet tried externally).

Do you have any suggestions on what to check? To test it I used two normail user: giulio and federica. I logged in as federica and sent an email to giulio with the mail programme. Is this correct (i.e. using the mail programme)?

There is one thing that I don't quite understand from the instructions. In section 3.1 it's suggested to set

mynetworks = 192.168.0.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8

in the /etc/postfix/main.cf file. My home network however is 192.168.69.0 and actually the IP assigned to any computers in the networks start from 192.168.69.20. So I changed mynetworks to 192.168.69.0/24 and also 192.168.69.19/30 (as my server IP address is actully 192.168.69.25). I don't think this is the cause of my problem anyway, because it didn't work even with the value suggested by the Wiki page.

192.168.69.0/24 should be the proper setting here. 192.168.69.19/30 is not a proper network. Are you absolutely sure that you did every step in the howto?

I used mail to send a test message and it worked fine ( after I read the man page -- I haven't used mail to send a message for 20 years or more!).

There must be other errors in your postfix config.

When you start postfix, does it throw any errors in the logs?

The 192.168.69.19/30 was just a test after 192.168.0.0/24 and 192.168.19.0/24 both failed (i.e. I could send an internal email). To make clearer this is what I have in my main.cf file

mynetworks = 192.168.69.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8

Starting Postfix does not throw any errors.

I can download emails using POP3 with postfix and davecot, can't I? I don't have to use IMAP, right?

Dovecot is the server that provides POP3 and IMAP to the users. Postfix is the server that moves mail from place to place.

so you logged in as federica and sent an email to giulio. Did you then log in as giulio and try to read the mail?

I did

I haven't used mail in so long I am not sure if it works with maildir. I think it reads from /var/spool/mail or /var/mail directly, but you have set postfix to deliver to Maildir stores. You can also install squirrelmail on the server and apache, and then just log in to http://yourserver/webmail and read mail that way. But you would also have to make sure dovecot is set up.

Actually both, as /etc/mail is a symlink to /etc/spool/mail. I wasn't expecting to find my email there but I did expect to be able to use Thunderbird to download my emails. So maybe there is something wrong with Dovecot....

Have you thought of just using something like SME server (based on CentOS 4) as your server? It does most of the work for you, and has a very user friendly admin system through web pages.

Ok, so maybe I've take the wrong path. This is what I am trying to achieve.

I want a mail server, obviously, with the ability to use both POP3 and IMAP. I usually download my emails on my laptop (and the other users, like federica, on their PCs), but I want also to be able to install a webmail (most likely squirrelmail). Finally I want to install majordomo to manage some MLs.

What do you suggest then?

John R Pierce wrote:

Giulio Troccoli wrote:

...

Finally I want to install majordomo to manage some MLs.

check out Mailman as an alternative to the very archaic majordomo. this centos list is hosted by mailman

Thanks for the hint. That is still far away. I have to sort postfix/dovecot out first.

on 3-27-2008 1:36 PM Giulio Troccoli spake the following:

Scott Silva wrote:

...

on 3-27-2008 12:46 PM Giulio Troccoli spake the following:

...

Scott Silva wrote:

...

on 3-27-2008 12:04 PM Giulio Troccoli spake the following:

...

I have just installed CentOS 5.1 on my home server and I am trying to set a mail server.

I have diligently followed the instructions on the Wiki - How To on the CentOS website (http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/postfix). However I cannot send internal email (I haven't yet tried externally).

Do you have any suggestions on what to check? To test it I used two normail user: giulio and federica. I logged in as federica and sent an email to giulio with the mail programme. Is this correct (i.e. using the mail programme)?

There is one thing that I don't quite understand from the instructions. In section 3.1 it's suggested to set

mynetworks = 192.168.0.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8

in the /etc/postfix/main.cf file. My home network however is 192.168.69.0 and actually the IP assigned to any computers in the networks start from 192.168.69.20. So I changed mynetworks to 192.168.69.0/24 and also 192.168.69.19/30 (as my server IP address is actully 192.168.69.25). I don't think this is the cause of my problem anyway, because it didn't work even with the value suggested by the Wiki page.

192.168.69.0/24 should be the proper setting here. 192.168.69.19/30 is not a proper network. Are you absolutely sure that you did every step in the howto?

I used mail to send a test message and it worked fine ( after I read the man page -- I haven't used mail to send a message for 20 years or more!).

There must be other errors in your postfix config.

When you start postfix, does it throw any errors in the logs?

The 192.168.69.19/30 was just a test after 192.168.0.0/24 and 192.168.19.0/24 both failed (i.e. I could send an internal email). To make clearer this is what I have in my main.cf file

mynetworks = 192.168.69.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8

Starting Postfix does not throw any errors.

I can download emails using POP3 with postfix and davecot, can't I? I don't have to use IMAP, right?

Dovecot is the server that provides POP3 and IMAP to the users. Postfix is the server that moves mail from place to place.

so you logged in as federica and sent an email to giulio. Did you then log in as giulio and try to read the mail?

I did

...

I haven't used mail in so long I am not sure if it works with maildir. I think it reads from /var/spool/mail or /var/mail directly, but you have set postfix to deliver to Maildir stores. You can also install squirrelmail on the server and apache, and then just log in to http://yourserver/webmail and read mail that way. But you would also have to make sure dovecot is set up.

Actually both, as /etc/mail is a symlink to /etc/spool/mail. I wasn't expecting to find my email there but I did expect to be able to use Thunderbird to download my emails. So maybe there is something wrong with Dovecot....

...

Have you thought of just using something like SME server (based on CentOS 4) as your server? It does most of the work for you, and has a very user friendly admin system through web pages.

Ok, so maybe I've take the wrong path. This is what I am trying to achieve.

I want a mail server, obviously, with the ability to use both POP3 and IMAP. I usually download my emails on my laptop (and the other users, like federica, on their PCs), but I want also to be able to install a webmail (most likely squirrelmail). Finally I want to install majordomo to manage some MLs.

What do you suggest then?

Do you have any linux administration experience? If not, I would still recommend smeserver http://www.smeserver.org

It has mailman under its contributed software which is miles ahead of majordomo and years more current. http://wiki.contribs.org/Main_Page

Anne Wilson wrote:

On Thursday 27 March 2008 19:04:02 Giulio Troccoli wrote:

No, you are misunderstanding this. Your line needs to be

mynetworks = 192.168.69.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8

The /24 denotes a Class C network, which yours is, and the final part is the loopback address.

Those were just testing when what suggested didn't work. My main.cf now has exactly what you say.

Now for the mail sending. Have you got a file called 'transport' under /etc/postfix? And one called transport.db? This last one is what tells postfix where to send things. The transport file needs lines like

lydgate.lan smtp:[192.168.0.40] .lydgate.lan smtp:[192.168.0.40]

• smtp:[smtp:mailhost.zen.co.uk]

where the first two lines define that anything addressed to anyone@lydgate.lan is local, and should be delivered onto my imap server. The last one sends everything else to my ISP.

When they are ready, you just run 'postmap transport' and it creates the database.

I didn't know this. I change the transport file and done 'postmap transport'. I have also restarted postfix, just in case, but still no joy. However, are those your settings so that I should have something like

troccoli.it smtp:[192.168.69.25] .troccoli.it smtp:[192.168.69.25] * smtp:[smtp:tiscali.co.uk]

where 192.168.69.25 is the IP address of my mail server?

You also need to make sure that your system knows you want to use postfix.sendmail, instead of just sendmail.

I have previously run system-switch-mail and chose postfix.

Giulio

Anne

---

---

CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

Anne Wilson wrote:

On Thursday 27 March 2008 20:00:29 Giulio Troccoli wrote:

...

Anne Wilson wrote:

...

Now for the mail sending. Have you got a file called 'transport' under /etc/postfix? And one called transport.db? This last one is what tells postfix where to send things. The transport file needs lines like

lydgate.lan smtp:[192.168.0.40] .lydgate.lan smtp:[192.168.0.40]

• smtp:[smtp:mailhost.zen.co.uk]

where the first two lines define that anything addressed to anyone@lydgate.lan is local, and should be delivered onto my imap server. The last one sends everything else to my ISP.

When they are ready, you just run 'postmap transport' and it creates the database.

I didn't know this. I change the transport file and done 'postmap transport'. I have also restarted postfix, just in case, but still no joy. However, are those your settings so that I should have something like

troccoli.it smtp:[192.168.69.25] .troccoli.it smtp:[192.168.69.25]

•  smtp:[smtp:tiscali.co.uk]
  
  

where 192.168.69.25 is the IP address of my mail server?

That should be fine.

...

...

You also need to make sure that your system knows you want to use postfix.sendmail, instead of just sendmail.

I have previously run system-switch-mail and chose postfix.

That would make the necessary links. Now, if postfix can send your mail out, either to local or to your isp, what happens to the local mail. and how are you going to read it? In my system it is then forwarded to procmail, which sorts it into the relevant folders under dovecot's structure.

I have tried both mail and Thunderbird. mail of course doesn't work because it read from /var/spool/mail while postfix puts the email in Maildir. However I would have thought that I could download the emails with Thunderbird (on my laptop).

I hope you're not saying I have to install procmail too. I'd like to keep the system as simple as possible: postfix, dovecot, squirrelmail and majordomo (later) are enough.

Giulio

Giulio Troccoli wrote:

I have tried both mail and Thunderbird. mail of course doesn't work because it read from /var/spool/mail while postfix puts the email in Maildir. However I would have thought that I could download the emails with Thunderbird (on my laptop).

I have a similar setup, but I use mbox instead of Maildir. I keep my inbox in /var/spool/mail and have my folders in ~/Mail. I can use Thunderbird (or any client) through dovecot and mail (or mutt etc) locally. Squirrelmail is also happy with this setup.

//Morten

Kai Schaetzl wrote:

Giulio Troccoli wrote on Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:00:29 +0000:

...

•  smtp:[smtp:tiscali.co.uk]
  
  

That has to be the FQDN of your provider's smarthost.

What's a FQDN? Doesn't that open my server for realy anyway?

As for your problem with sending mail: logs are usually the best source for troubleshooting. On CentOS it's /var/log/maillog.

Right. this is what it says

Mar 27 22:00:49 localhost postfix/pickup[19570]: 8E92423D0086: uid=501 from=<federica> Mar 27 22:00:49 localhost postfix/cleanup[19742]: 8E92423D0086: message-id=20080327220049.8E92423D0086@mail2.troccoli.it Mar 27 22:00:49 localhost postfix/qmgr[19035]: 8E92423D0086: from=federica@troccoli.it, size=331, nrcpt=1 (queue active) Mar 27 22:00:49 localhost postfix/lmtp[19745]: 8E92423D0086: to=giulio@troccoli.it, orig_to=<giulio>, relay=none, delay=0.04, delays=0.02/0.01/0.01/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to mail2.troccoli.it[/var/lib/imap/socket/lmtp]: Connection refused)

on 3-27-2008 3:38 PM Giulio Troccoli spake the following:

Giulio Troccoli wrote:

...

I have just installed CentOS 5.1 on my home server and I am trying to set a mail server.

I have diligently followed the instructions on the Wiki - How To on the CentOS website (http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/postfix). However I cannot send internal email (I haven't yet tried externally).

Do you have any suggestions on what to check? To test it I used two normail user: giulio and federica. I logged in as federica and sent an email to giulio with the mail programme. Is this correct (i.e. using the mail programme)?

There is one thing that I don't quite understand from the instructions. In section 3.1 it's suggested to set

mynetworks = 192.168.0.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8

in the /etc/postfix/main.cf file. My home network however is 192.168.69.0 and actually the IP assigned to any computers in the networks start from 192.168.69.20. So I changed mynetworks to 192.168.69.0/24 and also 192.168.69.19/30 (as my server IP address is actully 192.168.69.25). I don't think this is the cause of my problem anyway, because it didn't work even with the value suggested by the Wiki page.

Thanks for you help Giulio

Well,

after putting the correct settings in /etc/postfix/main.cf

mynetworks = 192.168.69.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8

AND commented out the line

#mailbox_transport = lmtp:unix:/var/lib/imap/socket/lmtp

restarted postfix and I can download my email with Thunderbird. I cannot read them on the server with mail but I don't care about that

Thanks everybody for your help Giulio

Welcome to what might become your biggest nightmare! A mailserver attached to the internet. ;-P

Spammers will probably find you within a week.