# read & send ISP mail - squirrelmail, sylpheed-claws, mut

## devi0s

I am a small step above a complete noob when it comes to Linux.  I am seeking guidance and very detailed information in setting up my system so I can read and send email addressed to and sent from my ISP email (POP/SMTP) account.

I already have Apace/PHP/SquirrelMail installed and working on my system.

I assume that I need some kind of scheduled process to download my ISP mail (download my mail from my ISP's pop mail server) on regular intervals and deliver it to the squirrelmail inbox.

I am also assuming that I need some sort of scheduled process to take mail that I send from squirrelmail and send it from my ISP account (connect to my isp's SMTP server and send all mail) on regular intervals.

I need to know what I need in addition to squirrelmail and how to configure these and squirrelmail to accomplish this.  The Gentoo Desktop Configuration help guide was unclear to me.  Assuming I get the help I need, I will attempt to contact the author and explain why it was unclear and give my reccomendations so I can pass along the favor to the community.

The guide seemed to suggest that fetchmail and courier-imap somehow came into the mix in some way that I do not understand.

Here's the extra credit question: Since I access my system remotely via web and ssh, and use a GUI when I'm local, can I also throw mutt and sylpheed-claws into this equation and have mutt/sylpheed/squirrelmail all share the same inbox and sent folders?  THAT would truly be an accomplishment and is something I would like to make happen if possible.  Minimally, I'd like to have sylpheed and mutt share the same folders and synchronize with the squirrelmail folders (keep in mind that some messages will be sent from squirrelmail, so syncronization is a two-way thing).  I would need some specifics on how to configure mutt and sylpheed-claws to share folders; my web searches and research and manual reading has been extremely frustrating due to my noobishness.

aTdHvAaNnKcSe for any assistance,

Devi0s

 :?:

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## ben

Hi,

First I should say it looks to me as if you were trying to build a supersonic jet to bring a postcard to the 200m away post office.

Let's sum up what I understand from your wishes:

1. Access to your mail stored at your isp's server

2. Access through GUI and/or terminal

In my analogie, you can go by foot, bicycle, motorbike,... here I'll developp some possibilities as well:

A. the simpliest way is to take any client (mutt, sylpheed, balsa...) and to access your mail at your isp through the IMAP protocol. That way the mail stay stored on the server, unless you expressly delete it. You can access concurrently from everywhere on the internet.

B. If you want something more complex, which is almost the default with people running linux then:

You will have a MTA running (postfix) for moving mails around, you will get regularly your mail from the isp through fetchmail. So fetchmail will feed postfix which will deliver to your local mailbox. If you choose maildir as mailbox format, then you will have less problem accessing your local box concurrently. Now you will have to use an MUA (client) to read those mail, and here comes mutt, sylpheed and so on. 

You also have the option to let procmail process the incoming mail before it hits your local mailbox so as to filter out spam, split the mails in different mailboxes...

C.You can build a server yourself.

In this case, you don't even need your isp's mail services.

You will have to buy you a name (mywonderdomainname.com), setup a DNS, tell postfix about this name.

Thenyou can forget the fetchmail part.

In this case, you may want to allow yourself access (through a kind of webmail) from every cybercafe. Then you need Apache and squirrelmail.

Note all software accessing to your mail, is a kind of view of your mailbox, then you don't have to worry about syncing boxes.

HTH

Ben

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## devi0s

You are precisely correct:

[quote]trying to build a supersonic jet to bring a postcard to the 200m away post office[/quote]

This is all for educational purposes.  If I can get everything to happen I describe in my post, it will serve as a good foundation for setting up my own site and mail and THEN setting up virtual hosting so that my roomate and I can each host a site with it's own mail...

So...

First of all, my stupid ISP does not support IMAP.  POP/SMTP only.

I sounds as if I need to emerge postfix, procmail, and fetchmail and then I will post again if/when I need help with the configuration.

How about the mutt&sylpheed sharing folders?  Any ideas on this one?  Just use postfix to copy all incoming mail to two folders?

Thanks much for your response.  I hope that you are able to help me out further as I try to dork up my system a bit more...

Devi0s

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## ben

Hi,

In this case, Welcome to gentoo  :Wink: 

So you want to emerge postfix, procmail, fetchmail: sounds good, but if your goal is education then let's begin: why did you choose those software instead of others?

For MTA you could use postfix but also qmail, ssmtp, sendmail and others (I use postfix)

For MDA you could use procmail, but it is optional, or maildrop or others (I use procmail)

Same for fetchmail but I don't know which

Now if you want anti-spam at the same time there is a lot of others but I use spamassassin

Before you emerge I would advice to take a look at those mother site www.postfix.org, www.qmail.org...

After you emerged, man postfix and take a look at main.cf.sample, man fetchmail, man fetchmailrc, man procmail, man procmailrc and so on.

Then we could go further when you have your mail system running.

For the other question, I though I already answered. Unlike in windows, in *nix you got one program doing only one thing but doing it right.

That mean that the client (mutt, which I use, or sylpheed or...) does not store your mail, it is your filesystem who does that. Then each client has "a view" on your mail (you could even use "less") , therefore ruining every necessity to copy the mails themselves.

I'd be happy to help you on thjs, so come back when you see fit (or are stuck)

Best luck

Ben

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## puggy

Also, Gentoo specific guides can be had.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/virt-mail-howto.xml - In your analagy, this is about equivalent to using the starship enterprise to handle your mail

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=56633&highlight=mail - This is probably what you want.

Puggy

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## ben

Well, I do hope that people asking here take a look the very good and complete documentation one can find at gentoo. 

Because I assume this, I mostly concentrate on explaining live why one would want to make things one way or the other.

Thanks for the awesome links

Cheers,

Ben

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## CRC

 *puggy wrote:*   

> Also, Gentoo specific guides can be had.
> 
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/virt-mail-howto.xml - In your analagy, this is about equivalent to using the starship enterprise to handle your mail
> 
> https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=56633&highlight=mail - This is probably what you want.
> ...

 

Starship enterprise indeed.  Now store all your email user information in an LDAP database  :Smile:   Been there, done that.  Handled web-mail stuff too.  As a sysadmin, I'd say the best way for an end-user to handle mail is "emerge evolution".  If you want web-mail, go to Yahoo and sign up for an account.

Postfix isn't an "emerge and go" system.  The problem I have with end-users trying to be system admins is that they have no idea of the security impact they have to the world at large.  Its primarily new Linux users with fast connections that become spam relays, ftp warez sites, remote ddos stations,  hack-hubs (someone tries hacking my box from yours because yours was already hacked).

I will say if you want to learn mail, postfix (or qmail) is going to be the way to go, not sendmail.  And maildir, not the old spool-file method.

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## ben

Your remark are very true up to the solution, where I diverge.

Nowadays PC are a million time more powerful than Enigma, and hundred time more powerful than enough to calculte a trip to the moon and back. At the same time more and more "normal people" are using them.

If you don't know how to take advantage of such power, others will.

The solution of this problem is, I am afraid, not "emerge evolution". It is more about education. By hiding the complexity of the system, we do not make sure it is safe at all. I am quite positive at one time or another that  ssmtp will be installed by means of a depedency, say without knowledge of the user, let alone have him configuring it.

You are a sysadmin, you know the power and danger of those technologies. Why not share a part of this knowledge with us?

Ben

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## puggy

 *CRC wrote:*   

>  *puggy wrote:*   Also, Gentoo specific guides can be had.
> 
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/virt-mail-howto.xml - In your analagy, this is about equivalent to using the starship enterprise to handle your mail
> 
> https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=56633&highlight=mail - This is probably what you want.
> ...

 I consider webmail as a useful addon but no substitute for a mail client, I like having squiirelmail there if I need it. *Quote:*   

> Postfix isn't an "emerge and go" system.  The problem I have with end-users trying to be system admins is that they have no idea of the security impact they have to the world at large.  Its primarily new Linux users with fast connections that become spam relays, ftp warez sites, remote ddos stations,  hack-hubs (someone tries hacking my box from yours because yours was already hacked).

 May I reccommend www.ordb.org as a good check to see if your a spam relay. *Quote:*   

> I will say if you want to learn mail, postfix (or qmail) is going to be the way to go, not sendmail.  And maildir, not the old spool-file method.

  There's no point in sendmail anymore anyway as postfix emulates most of the sendmail functions so even if you do 

```
sendmail somenoe@somewhere.com

blah blah message

.
```

 postfix will handle it and send it.

I'm not keen on evolution myself aspecially as I use KDE. I like to use KMail and I find the GnuPG integration very good.

Puggy

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