imap not working

[throttlemeister]

I'm afraid I need a little help. My imap is not working. I am getting an error message "Connection to imap server failed" when using the webmail interface. It appears to work on the localhost, but not from a different computer.

This is very frustrating. I spend the entire afternoon trying to get my smtp server to accept mail from outside, and now that finally works, imap stopped working (it did work before).

And yes, it is turned on in mail server settings.

Anyone have any hints?

 

[wingnut1979]

I'm afraid I need a little help. My imap is not working. I am getting an error message "Connection to imap server failed" when using the webmail interface. It appears to work on the localhost, but not from a different computer.

This is very frustrating. I spend the entire afternoon trying to get my smtp server to accept mail from outside, and now that finally works, imap stopped working (it did work before).

And yes, it is turned on in mail server settings.

Anyone have any hints?

the fact that you can hit it from localhost but not from a remote device screams "firewall" at me

 

[throttlemeister]

I would normally agree... except the firewall is turned off. I have a firewall in my router, so the OS X server doesn't need it.

It is very weird. I can get mail on the server itself, but I cannot from a second computer on the LAN, nor from the outside world. I am very much at a loss.

 

[wingnut1979]

how bout if you use a client on a remote computer? instead of webmail

 

[throttlemeister]

Same thing. It refuses to connect.

 

[wingnut1979]

try adding this: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1419 and see if that helps you out - gives a few more config options on mine - sorta like it was back in SL

 

[throttlemeister]

try adding this: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1419 and see if that helps you out - gives a few more config options on mine - sorta like it was back in SL

Already found that. It is a necessity to have as the entire manual makes reference to that tool, and not the server app.

I found another weird thing: if I create another user, the system will not receive mail for it. It throws: "550 550 5.1.1 <email_address>: Recipient address rejected: User unknown in relay recipient table (state 14)."

So, right now, imap does not work other than on the local machine and I am able to send and receive email for one user, but not for the other. I had less problems in the past installing sendmail from scratch and building custom m4 scripts to create a complicated config with multiple hosts and spam/virus checking built in. I can install and configure a Linux system that does everything I want in under 2 hours from the commandline, but this has taken me a full day of messing with it and I don't even appear close to getting it working. I thought it was a good idea to get a mini server with OSX Server installed as it appeared to fit my needs, but I am second guessing now. I cannot believe what a crap product OSX Server is. It is sooo un-apple. It is so counter intuitive and user un-friendly.


Is there any way to reset the entire server config short of reinstalling the system?

 

[hwojtek]

Try accessing the webmail with http instead of https and disable SSL in imap server preferences. If it works unsecure way, you have a mess with your certificaties.

 

[throttlemeister]

Haven't even started with things like https or ssl. My philosophy is to start simple and when that is working properly, add bells and whistles if you want.

Biggest thing is I can't get the darn thing to properly receive mail from the internet.

 

[hwojtek]

Setting up webmail with IMAP: go to your terminal session on the server and

$ sudo /etc/squirrelmail/config/conf.pl

The webmail "client" is configured using this script and has nothing to do with IMAP as configured from Server Admin.

Getting the mail from the internet: go the easy way, install webmin and configure fetchmail using the webmin interface.

 

[throttlemeister]

Got it fixed!

1) I did not have a directory server installed - I only 2 macs, so why bother? Well, as it turns out, even though it is an option during setup to not use a directory server, it doesn't seem to particularly like doing things local. At least when it comes to mail server. The mail server doesn't pick up local users other than the initially created administrator. Properly setting up a local master ldap made life a lot easier. I just added the users using the workgroup manager, added the workgroup group and adding the email address to the short names made everything working honky dory. That last step is really important.

2) Connection issues were caused by a screwed up DNS config. After the reinstall, the DNS was properly setup again and after setting the local DNS as primary in the DHCP server on my router, everything works both locally and remote.

I still think OSX Server is very un- like. Most tools needed and described in the OSX Server manual are not present until downloaded from some obscure kb article, it requires manual hacking config files through Terminal to get virtual hosts working and settings are all over the place. They make it look really simple, but unlike regular OSX which anybody can use, Server does require knowledge of servers, so at least you know where to look to fix things. They make things look easy with the Server.app, but I doubt Average Joe will be able to set this up for anything other than a 100% internal home server without real domain and incoming connections from the internet.