pop, imap, webmail with exim

[bluethundr]

Hello again,

While waiting for an answer to my other query, I'd like to pose this question.

I would like to setup my exim 4.2 MTA for use with POP and IMAP. Could anyone suggest a good combination of apps to use for this purpose?

I would also like to implement webmail. What can I use to enable webmail for my exim based mail server?

Thanks in advance!
-t

[CrucifiedEgo]

Courier and Dovecot are the two most used POP/IMAP servers. I use dovecot because it seems to have a simpler configuration layout.

Webmail is as simple as installing your system of choice, and pointing it to localhost:143 for imap. sudo apt-get install squirrelmail will install squirrelmail in /usr/share/squirrelmail, and you can use a symbolic link in /var/www to access it.

[Philio]

Courier is incredibly easy to configure as well, it works with little or no configuration.

You should probably look at both and see which you get on with the best they are both widely used and easy to setup.

There are loads of webmail software packages you could use, SquirrelMail works but the interface is horrible! Horde has a better interface, however if you would rather have an webmail program with a nice interface and more of the usability of a desktop email client check out Round Cube.

[bluethundr]

Thanks, Philio! I am interested in running webmail, but I really DO want a nice interface. I'll check out RoundCube first I think! What's the aptitude install command?

[Philio]

I don't think you can install it from apt, it's quite simple to install though. It uses PHP and a MySQL database if you don't have either of these you will need to install them, you'll need php5-imap as well without a doubt.

Just download the package from their website:

http://roundcube.net/downloads

And unpack it somewhere in your webroot e.g. /var/www/webmail

You then need to create a database and a MySQL user with access to the database.

If you then go to http://localhost/webmail you should see the setup guide.

There is a detailed installation guide on their website here too:

http://trac.roundcube.net/wiki/Howto_Install

If you using a virtual host just install to your virtual host path rather than the default above.

[Philio]

Oh it is in the repos, but not the latest version.

sudo apt-get install roundcube

You need a database package for it too, ONE of the following depending on your database:

sudo apt-get install roundcube-sqlite
sudo apt-get install roundcube-mysql
sudo apt-get install roundcube-pgsql

[bluethundr]

Thanks again! Great info! Actually, my site is mostly a TWiki. TWiki has a long, gnarly, non-standard config file. It has NO DocumentRoot and NO listen directive, yet somehow just "works" (puzzles me a bit just _how_ it works however).

Think it might be possible to put the whole of the TWiki site into a Virtual Host directive so I can add my wembail site?

[Philio]

Did it automatically update the Apache config files?

[bluethundr]

the apache config is autogenerated when you install it via aptitude. it's a long long long byzantine config file lacking a DocumentRoot directive and a Listen directive but still just "works" under apache 2.2.9!

[Philio]

I guess the best thing to do would be to create a vhost and see if it works

Would like to think if this is all done via apt that it wouldn't screw things up!