Topic awaiting preservation: Email server won't accept passwords???

From a previous post, I have started setting up an email server. I am running:

Slackware 10 and Courier-IMAP at the moment.

The Courier-IMAP comes with it's own IMAP, SMTP and POP3 servers. So, I am using those.

I try to telnet into the port for SMTP (143) and when I give my password I get:
-ERR Invalid Command

I set up a mail client to see if I could send or receive mail and the sending part is fine. Works great. The receiving part I can't get it to log in.
I have searched the internet and searched books, asks people and nothing......

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks in advance!

Later,

C:\

port 143 is NOT the port for SMTP. SMTP uses port 25. 143 is the IMAP port.

yes you are correct sir. however, I try to log into SMTP via telnet and still can not get it going.

if i run netstat -vat on the email server it shows that the smtp, imap and pop3 are listening to the right ports.

It is as if the authdaemond is not running....

Later,

C:\

OK....I got the thing to send mail to the server so I can send and receive from the server, but I can not send an email to that address via Yahoo or Hotmail.

Got any clue as to why this is???

Thanks!

Later,

C:\

not without looking at your mx records.

well right now the MX Records are pointing to a different email address.

I guess that has something to do with it? Sorry for my ignorance in this, but I've never done an email server before. But I am pretty happy that I've gotten this far

Later,

C:\

huh? MX Records point at ip adresses as far as I know.

yeah....I'm really tired. I meant that it was point to mail.myfirstserver.com right now.
I need to get in touch with the webhost and have them add to the MX Record so I can test everything and then finalize it with just one server name.

OK...I think I have everything. I just need to do the mx record thing, set up squirrelmail and then spam assassin. woooo.........this has been an adventure

Later,

C:\

MX records (typically) point to an alias ('A' record). The alias points to an IP address.

SMTP is, by RFC, anonymous. So no login is required.

You should be able to do the following from a telnet session to verify that the SMTP part is working:

1. telnet to the IP address, or the alias, over port 25. For example "telnet 123.234.345.456 25" and press enter. You should get a response from the SMTP server.
2. type 'helo' and press enter. You should get a 250 response from the server (250 is an 'ok' response).
3. type 'mail from:me@fakedomain.com' and press enter. You should get a 250.
4. type 'rcpt to:me@mydomain.com' and press enter. Again, you should get a 250 response. If you use a domain name OTHER than the one the SMTP server is configured for, and you still get a 250, the server is an open relay (a target for spammers).
5. type 'DATA' and hit enter
6. type a simple message, followed by a line break, then a dot, then another line break. That should send the message.

If all of this works, the SMTP server is working. If not, post your results.

Thanks pugzly. I have been trying to find these types of commands via google and guess that i wasn't putting in the right search query....

anyway. yes, all that works just like you said it would. That makes me happy

Now, I just need to get in touch with our webhost and have them add this IP address to the MX record for testing. After all the bugs are worked out, I will make this the permanent email server.

Is there anything else that I should be checking? I guess the reason I can not accept emails from outside of the server itself is because of the MX Record? I guess that's it. Thanks for all the help !

Later,

C:\

You are correct. The MX record is what the sending system would query to determine where to send the mail. Once your MX record points to that IP address, you should see mail coming in via that server.

You can have more than one MX record, too. Having a backup is a good idea.

Thanks Pugzly. I wil make sure that the webhost has a backup the mx record.

soon we will be doing everything in house and have all the webservers, file servers, and email servers here.
We now have one file server, one web server running the shopping cart and now the email server is almost done.
After that another web server will be implemented and that will be that.

wooo.........don't know how you do it Pugzly. This is some work Good stuff though.

Thanks for all your help!

Later,

C:\

quote:

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wooo.........don't know how you do it Pugzly.

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Well, being an MCSE for NT, 2000, and 2003 with specialties in Exchange 4.0, 5.0, 5.5, 2000, and 2003 helps! :-)

Yeah...I guess it would.

No linux stuff eigh.........shame

Thanks for all your help. Greatly appreciate it!!!!

Later,

C:\