Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

l008com · 08:38 PM

Has anyone ever set up the mail services with OS X Server successfully? I've tried twice and failed. Can someone perhaps walk me through it. I need to get the mail up and running so I can start hosting my own email, instead of using mac.com email. Plus for my web pages, @mydomain.com looks so much better.

Camelot · Aug 16, 2002, 01:33 PM

Maybe you should be specific in letting us know what you've done so far and what doesn't work. There's many facets to "setting up mail" and without knowing what stage you're at, and what you've already done, there's no way anyone can advise.

For example, I assume you've got sendmail running and accepting mail, right?

Is it a POP/IMAP server you need to install so that users (you) can get mail off the server?

Is it DNS assistance you need, so that other people can send mail to your domain?

It it sendmail configuration you need so that sendmail knows what mail to accept or reject?

l008com · Aug 16, 2002, 05:31 PM

Well I guess I need it all. What i did so far was turn everything on, and give all users mail access. I turned on SMTP server and POP3 server. I haven't touched sendmail, i thought SMTP was used instead? I need to be able to receive and send mail. So if you have advise i'll listen. But so far when I send mail to my accounts, i cna see that the mail server receives it using the Server Admin app, but when I log in with my program, i don't get anything.

Camelot · Aug 17, 2002, 01:23 AM

First, you have to make sure that sendmail knows to keep the mail and not forward it on to another mail server. This is usually done by adding your domain(s) to the file /etc/mail/local-host-names.

If that's working, mail to your users should end up in /var/mail/

Confirm if that's working, then we'll move onto pop and getting the mail back off the machine.

You say that you can see the mail server receiving mail... how are you doing this? Are you reading the mail log? If so, pasting a sample few lines here might help show what's happening.

l008com · Aug 17, 2002, 11:41 AM

Originally posted by Camelot:
First, you have to make sure that sendmail knows to keep the mail and not forward it on to another mail server. This is usually done by adding your domain(s) to the file /etc/mail/local-host-names.

If that's working, mail to your users should end up in /var/mail/

Confirm if that's working, then we'll move onto pop and getting the mail back off the machine.

You say that you can see the mail server receiving mail... how are you doing this? Are you reading the mail log? If so, pasting a sample few lines here might help show what's happening.

No the Server Admin app lets you see how many messages have been sent and received, and how many people are connected at once etc etc. Also, I have 3 (so far) domain names I am going to use, how do I add them in that file you mentioned? Just with commas between them, or with a return after each? What is the format?

Rickster · Aug 18, 2002, 12:01 AM

Okay, you two are talking about completely different things here.

l008com seems to be asking for help with AppleMailServer, the (you might have guessed) Apple-supplied mail server that comes with OS X Server. It's definitely not the best server out there -- it has no support for aliases, and is said to be unstable and have a spam hole or two. I'm afraid I can't help you much with getting it running.

Camelot's talking about an often-used alternative to AppleMailServer: using sendmail. It's nasty unixy software with no friendly configuration GUI, but it works darn well. (Heck, it's what the Internet mail system is based on.) Sendmail only handles SMTP and mail routing, though, not POP or IMAP: for the latter, you can either have sendmail deliver to AppleMailServer and let it serve POP/IMAP (it says how in the Administrator's Guide, or better, install UW imapd.

There was a good tutorial posted recently about how to get sendmail and imapd put together on OS X, but I can't seem to find it now...

l008com · Aug 18, 2002, 12:08 AM

Camelot seems to have te expirience here, so I'll listen to his suggestion, sendmail if thats what i should use. But my domains aren't that popular, and I am going to be the only person using hte mail server. I am going to have many accounts, and I do get ALOT of email (no spam) but we're not talking about a huge thing here.

sra · Aug 18, 2002, 07:08 PM

Sendmail is wonderful, if you want to devote enough of your life to it to learn how to write its configuration file (I have actually written substantial parts of one...).

But for administrators who want a powerful, flexible mail service that's easy to configure and maintain, try CommuniGatePro. Yes, it costs money, but not nearly as much as your psychiatrist bills will be otherwise.

l008com · Aug 18, 2002, 07:13 PM

I really just wanna use either the included mail programs that come with OS X Server, or a combination of those and sendmail. That is one of the main reasons I'm using OS X Server. I'll PM Camelot and ask him to return so I can get this show on the road here.

Camelot · Aug 21, 2002, 04:24 AM

Sorry, I forgot about Apple's Mail server. Ran it once, then switched back to sendmail.

My comments were based on sendmail, not Apple's Mail service. I don't recall if Apple's Mail service supports multiple domains. I never used it long enough. I know sendmail does, though.

It's definitely harder to configure, but you can do way more with it.

l008com · Aug 21, 2002, 07:15 AM

Can you continue telling me how to set it up please, cause I gota set it up anyway for ubb.

l008com · Aug 21, 2002, 11:14 PM

OK I've done a little research, and setting up sendmail seems way more complicated than I need for email for a single person. So what I want to do is a simple basic sendmail setup, just so my UBB can send emails out, then i want apple's own mail servers for all of my own mail, incoming and outgoing. I still can't get apple's to work, its the strangest thing.

l008com · Aug 21, 2002, 11:52 PM

I just tried reading the OS X Administrator manual to see how to set up the mail, and now I still have no mail AND I'm ****ing pissed! Can someone please help me get this ****ing **** running?

Maneki Neko · Aug 22, 2002, 04:27 PM

Originally posted by l008com:
I just tried reading the OS X Administrator manual to see how to set up the mail, and now I still have no mail AND I'm ****ing pissed! Can someone please help me get this ****ing **** running?

What do you need help with? AMS is pretty easy to configure. Do you have all your DNS records setup properly?

l008com · Aug 22, 2002, 08:02 PM

I don't know, i think i turned on everything, but i can't send or receive mail. I have three web sites and i want email on 3 different domains. If you walk me through the whole thing, i'll tell you where there are problems.

l008com · Aug 22, 2002, 10:22 PM

OK after reading through the manual, I guess I need to configure my DNS stuff first. I have 3 domains right now pointing to my computer, and that will increase eventually. So DNS stuff and MX tables etc. I don't know where these are or how to edit them, the manual isn't clear at all. That could possibly be my only problem, since I seem to have all the GUI based mail setting set up just right.

Rickster · Aug 26, 2002, 12:57 PM

See http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...ar_server.html for help.

l008com · Aug 26, 2002, 02:35 PM

Originally posted by Rickster:
See http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...ar_server.html for help.

Thats no good, that doesn't tell you how to get Apple's mail services running. The ones that come with OS X Server that is. I did what they said to get sendmail running, but it looks like I still can't send mail through it, I emailed myself through my forum, and have yet to get the mail.

Chris in Madison · Aug 26, 2002, 05:28 PM

Has the Server Admin Guide not helped you configure your DNS and/or Mail stuff? I've just started reading it and it seems pretty comprehensive, but then again, I've not set one up yet, either.

http://a320.g.akamai.net/7/320/51/17...rver_v10.2.pdf

Best regards,
Chris

l008com · Aug 26, 2002, 06:11 PM

Yes I have the Server Admin guide. I have the 10.1 guide though, not 10.2, since that is what I'm on. It says the first step is to configure the DNS and MX records. But it doesn't tell you how to do this. I have no idea. If anyone does, that would be greatly appreciated. I have 3 different domains pointing to my machine, all of which are going to be accepting mail, all on my one server.

tooki · Aug 28, 2002, 01:55 PM

You can make sendmail a LOT friendlier by installing WebMin. I know that you UNIX geeks out there think it's a sissy tool, but it's great for us beginners.

Webmin lets you configure most aspects of a UNIX server using a web interface, and it works pretty darn well! (And it's free, and it officially supports OS X... it's not some hack. It has not, however, been updated for 10.2 yet.)

tooki

tooki · Aug 28, 2002, 01:58 PM

P.S. Click here to see what Webmin's sendmail configuration tool looks like.

l008com · Aug 28, 2002, 09:04 PM

Interesting I may have to check that out.