Can't setup Email

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#1 Fri, 09/28/2012 - 19:13
MichaelS

Can't setup Email

Hi,

I would like help get a Virtualmin email account setup with an email client.

I've searched through the forums and google, and email seems to be very problematic. I've setup email on many systems and devices and alost 99% of the time follow this format;

server = mail or smtp.hosting-account.com or ip address user = user or user@hosting password = password port = usual port numbers connection = SSL/TLS

This takes about 2 minutes to do, but for virtualmin, hours with no success.

The part I'm confused about in every thread or search I find about Vm is no one lists an example like I listed above to get it work. I shouldn't have to look over 20 settings and check logs just to setup a simple email account. Sorry just a little rant. Virtualmin is great, but this is one feature I cannot get to work.

Thanks,

Michael

Fri, 09/28/2012 - 20:21
MichaelS

I found some of the issues were firewall related as I like to keep as many ports closed as I can. So now incoming messages work, but I still get this error when I try to reply to a test message;

An error occurred sending mail: The mail server sent an incorrect greeting: Cannot connect to SMTP server xxxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:587), connect error 10061 (xxx's are the same ip)

Thanks

Mon, 10/01/2012 - 06:07
MichaelS

Sorry, but I have to give up on the Mail side of Virtualmin. I need to transfer the emails to google apps, but I have no way of access the emails.

The emails and files are on the server, but I am completely stuck. I will pay someone to help me to gain some sort of access to these email. 48 hours and I am nowhere further than I was before.

I've already setup the google apps accounts but haven't adjusted any records until I get past this.

Mon, 10/01/2012 - 09:08
andreychek

Howdy,

You should be able to access your email via IMAP (on port 143 or 993).

Once that's working, you could use a desktop client to copy the messages from one location to another.

Alternatively, you could use a tool such as imapsync or imapcopy to transfer your email via the command line.

I know you're frustrated, but if you're stuck, we can help :-) It shouldn't take much to get email working on a new system.

If it's not working, just let us know what errors you're seeing in your mail logs when you connect.

-Eric

Tue, 10/02/2012 - 11:43
mikeburns

I'm having the same problem (exatly the same, and usually everything works fine with mail.xxx.com or smtp.xxx.com and user@domain or user)

I checked here: http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/email/pop-and-imap and saw that perhaps my username is user.tld instead if user@domain, but the problem is following:

I can connect to IMAP fine using username=user, port=143 and address=imap.domain.tld (which is a valid CNAME DNS entry), but when I send an email to user@domain.tld, I get the following error:

An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: 5.1.1 user@domain.tld: Recipient address rejected: User unknown in virtual mailbox table. Please check the message recipient user@domain.tld and try again.

And sending email (SMTP) using username=user, port=25 OR 587, address=stmp.domain.tld (also valid CNAME) doesn't work. I've of course tried different username conventions and different verification methods (STARTTLS - Normal Password, SSL/TLS - Normal Password (also with encrypted password variants) to no avail.

Are there certain settings for POSTFIX that I should be aware of? I would have thought that the mail features for virtualmin/webmin would work "out of the box".

MAIL LOG: I get the following warning in mail.log:

warning: SASL authentication failure: cannot connect to saslauthd server: No such file or directory

Fri, 10/05/2012 - 20:15
andreychek

It sounds like saslauthd doesn't have it's files where Postfix is looking for them... the first step is to just make sure saslauthd is running. You can do that with this command:

/etc/init.d/saslauthd restart

If that doesn't help -- what does this command show:

ps auxw | grep saslauthd

And also, which distro are you using?

-Eric

Mon, 10/08/2012 - 16:39
daro2012

Hi all,

I totally agreed with above comments saying that Webmin/Virtualmin should have a working mail system after their installations.

I have very frustrated as i cannto work out to get my simple mail server system (postfix, dovecot, squirrelmail, and virtualmin - for createing email accounts). Please see what I have done to my mail server at this link:

https://www.virtualmin.com/node/23575

It works perfectly if I just use web-based email applications such Squirrelmail and Roundcub; you can send/receive/forward emails whatever you want.

The major issue comes when you want to set an external SMTP application to use that server, for example, Ms Outlook. This is because the procedures I did in the above link do not include any changes to the configurations of postfix, dovocot or squirrelmail.

If any expert around can help us to set up and configure external SMTP authentication correctly, I think all of newbies will win!

Many thanks for your kind contribution.

Cheers

Daro

Thu, 10/11/2012 - 20:55
MichaelS

Eric,

I'm not getting any errors, I cannot connect to any port, my hands are tied, and my clients needs their previous emails.

Almost every "trick/solution" that I have tried does not work, which is why I was asking for help. I know you or someone who knows the system well can look it over and spot the issues in a few minutes, whereas I do not have time to allow one issue to put all my other work on hold. My client is patient but annoyed that they have not been able to access their old emails. I l already switched them to google apps so that could have emails for their business, but along with not access the emails., mail( ) is not working...so I know something is seriously wrong. I have other accounts that use Virtualmin and have been smooth, but I really really really need help with this one.

Thank You

Fri, 10/12/2012 - 08:36
MichaelS

Quick question while your answering my issue....is there a way to get email notifications when some replies to this thread? I'm not sure if I missed that option.

Thanks and I'm hoping we can resolve this today. If you need me to post anything within my settings for you or anyone else on here that can help, please let me know.

Thank You.

Fri, 10/12/2012 - 14:02
andreychek

Howdy,

Normally, subscriptions to a forum thread are automatically enabled to any you post to... if for some reason that's not set, you may want to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to where it says "Subscriptions", and make sure you have it enabled for this thread.

Regarding your email issue --

I'm not getting any errors, I cannot connect to any port, my hands are tied, and my clients needs their previous emails.

Well, you should be getting some sort of error, even if it's only an error in your client when it can't connect to a port.

However, if you aren't seeing any errors in your mail logs, and connection attempts to any ports aren't working, that may suggest that connections aren't reaching your server... which could be an issue with a firewall.

Is there a firewall running in front of your server that could be blocking incoming requests?

Or is your server itself running a firewall?

However, knowing what error you get in your desktop client when trying to connect to your server would help. Thanks!

-Eric

Thu, 10/18/2012 - 22:14
MichaelS

Hi Eric,

Sorry for the late reply. I would like to try to resolve this today (Friday) .

I have looked at the logs for the mail and the folder was empty, but since a few days ago I now have an empty statistics file in the mail log folder.

I checked ports and the firewall and nothing is being blocked.

I was able to create a test account weeks ago. I could email out the account, but could not connect with outlook or thunderbird which is even easier since it sets up the account for you.

I will would like to go from scratch of all the possible steps I need to go through to access those emails.

Fri, 10/19/2012 - 12:26
andreychek

Howdy,

I have looked at the logs for the mail and the folder was empty, but since a few days ago I now have an empty statistics file in the mail log folder.

Just to be sure, are you looking in the file "/var/log/maillog"? I believe I recall that you're using CentOS, and that's where CentOS stores it's email logs.

I was able to create a test account weeks ago. I could email out the account, but could not connect with outlook or thunderbird

It'd be great to know what error you're receiving in your email client when trying to access your server.

I will would like to go from scratch of all the possible steps I need to go through to access those emails.

There are many ways to configure an email client to connect. The easiest way to move forward would be for you to let us know specific details about the problems you're having, including any error messages you see -- both in your mail client and in the logs in /var/log/maillog -- and we can use those to assist you in troubleshooting.

One other thing -- could you post the output of these commands:

netstat -anlp | grep :25
netstat -anlp | grep :465
netstat -anlp | grep :587
postconf -n

That would provide some additional insight into how your system is configured. Thanks!

-Eric

Fri, 10/19/2012 - 21:41
MichaelS

Your right, lost focus. Here is some of the mail log from the last few days;

176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 15:44:20 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[32044]: disconnect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 15:47:40 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[32046]: statistics: max connection rate 1/60s for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 15:44:19 Oct 18 15:47:40 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[32046]: statistics: max connection count 1 for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 15:44:19 Oct 18 15:47:40 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[32046]: statistics: max cache size 1 at Oct 18 15:44:19 Oct 18 16:27:09 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[7985]: connect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 16:27:10 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[7985]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176]: 554 5.7.1 smtp@k888.tw: Relay access denied; from=dfteryeh@hotmail.com to=smtp@k888.tw proto=SMTP helo=<199.241.189.131> Oct 18 16:27:10 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[7985]: lost connection after RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 16:27:10 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[7985]: disconnect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 16:30:30 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[7987]: statistics: max connection rate 1/60s for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 16:27:09 Oct 18 16:30:30 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[7987]: statistics: max connection count 1 for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 16:27:09 Oct 18 16:30:30 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[7987]: statistics: max cache size 1 at Oct 18 16:27:09 Oct 18 17:08:43 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[16316]: connect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 17:08:43 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[16316]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176]: 554 5.7.1 smtp@k888.tw: Relay access denied; from=dfteryeh@hotmail.com to=smtp@k888.tw proto=SMTP helo=<199.241.189.131> Oct 18 17:08:44 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[16316]: lost connection after RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 17:08:44 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[16316]: disconnect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 17:12:04 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[16318]: statistics: max connection rate 1/60s for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 17:08:43 Oct 18 17:12:04 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[16318]: statistics: max connection count 1 for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 17:08:43 Oct 18 17:12:04 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[16318]: statistics: max cache size 1 at Oct 18 17:08:43 Oct 18 17:49:41 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[24548]: connect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 17:49:42 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[24548]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176]: 554 5.7.1 smtp@k888.tw: Relay access denied; from=dfteryeh@hotmail.com to=smtp@k888.tw proto=SMTP helo=<199.241.189.131> Oct 18 17:49:42 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[24548]: lost connection after RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 17:49:42 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[24548]: disconnect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 17:53:02 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[24550]: statistics: max connection rate 1/60s for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 17:49:41 Oct 18 17:53:02 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[24550]: statistics: max connection count 1 for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 17:49:41 Oct 18 17:53:02 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[24550]: statistics: max cache size 1 at Oct 18 17:49:41 Oct 18 18:38:14 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[1912]: connect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 18:38:15 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[1912]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176]: 554 5.7.1 smtp@k888.tw: Relay access denied; from=dfteryeh@hotmail.com to=smtp@k888.tw proto=SMTP helo=<199.241.189.131> Oct 18 18:38:15 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[1912]: lost connection after RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 18:38:15 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[1912]: disconnect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 18:41:35 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[1915]: statistics: max connection rate 1/60s for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 18:38:14 Oct 18 18:41:35 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[1915]: statistics: max connection count 1 for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 18:38:14 Oct 18 18:41:35 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[1915]: statistics: max cache size 1 at Oct 18 18:38:14 Oct 18 19:25:13 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[11850]: connect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 19:25:14 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[11850]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176]: 554 5.7.1 smtp@k888.tw: Relay access denied; from=dfteryeh@hotmail.com to=smtp@k888.tw proto=SMTP helo=<199.241.189.131> Oct 18 19:25:14 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[11850]: lost connection after RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 19:25:14 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[11850]: disconnect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 19:28:34 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[11852]: statistics: max connection rate 1/60s for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 19:25:13 Oct 18 19:28:34 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[11852]: statistics: max connection count 1 for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 19:25:13 Oct 18 19:28:34 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[11852]: statistics: max cache size 1 at Oct 18 19:25:13 Oct 18 20:22:26 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[25621]: connect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 20:22:27 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[25621]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176]: 554 5.7.1 smtp@k888.tw: Relay access denied; from=dfteryeh@hotmail.com to=smtp@k888.tw proto=SMTP helo=<199.241.189.131> Oct 18 20:22:27 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[25621]: lost connection after RCPT from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 20:22:27 tracibunkers postfix/smtpd[25621]: disconnect from 114-42-128-176.dynamic.hinet.net[114.42.128.176] Oct 18 20:25:47 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[25623]: statistics: max connection rate 1/60s for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 20:22:26 Oct 18 20:25:47 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[25623]: statistics: max connection count 1 for (smtp:114.42.128.176) at Oct 18 20:22:26 Oct 18 20:25:47 tracibunkers postfix/anvil[25623]: statistics: max cache size 1 at Oct 18 20:22:26 Oct 19 04:11:40 tracibunkers postfix/postfix-script: stopping the Postfix mail system Oct 19 04:11:40 tracibunkers postfix/master[18300]: terminating on signal 15 Oct 19 04:11:41 tracibunkers dovecot: Killed with signal 15 Oct 19 04:18:38 tracibunkers postfix/postfix-script: starting the Postfix mail system Oct 19 04:18:38 tracibunkers postfix/master[10227]: daemon started -- version 2.3.3, configuration /etc/postfix

I will have to try to connect to get those errors again.

netstat -anlp | grep :25

tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:25 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 10227/master

netstat -anlp | grep :465

tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:465 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 10227/master

netstat -anlp | grep :587 = no output postconf -n

alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes command_directory = /usr/sbin config_directory = /etc/postfix daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix debug_peer_level = 2 home_mailbox = Maildir/ html_directory = no inet_interfaces = all mail_owner = postfix mailbox_command = /usr/bin/procmail-wrapper -o -a $DOMAIN -d $LOGNAME mailq_path = /usr/bin/mailq.postfix manpage_directory = /usr/share/man mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost, horseandman.48-14.com newaliases_path = /usr/bin/newaliases.postfix queue_directory = /var/spool/postfix readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.3.3/README_FILES sample_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.3.3/samples sender_bcc_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/bcc sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix setgid_group = postdrop smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks permit_sasl_authenticated reject_unauth_destination smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 550 virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual

Fri, 10/19/2012 - 22:19
andreychek

Thanks for all the info!

I see a lot of "Relay access denied" errors in your mail log.

Many email clients don't setup authentication for outgoing emails by default, that's an option that needs to be enabled.

If that's not enabled, that's the error you'd see in the logs.

I'd recommend starting there -- verifying that in your email client's settings, that it's setup to authenticate for Outgoing SMTP messages.

-Eric

Sat, 10/27/2012 - 17:30
MichaelS

Hi Everyone,

My client decided to move back to cpanel in order to access those emails.

They rarely use the control panel but they were also annoyed to not have access to their previous emails. Everything else was working, but once the email system breaks, it's a nightmare to fix.

Thanks Any ways :)

Michael

Sat, 11/03/2012 - 11:15
MichaelS

Personal opinion;

Virtualmin is a good panel to work with, but you guys really need to fix the email side of it. Fortunately all of my customers that use Virtualmin uses Google Apps for email and not Virtualmin's setup.

The customer that I had the email issue with left my company from all this frustration and is now hosted by a competitor. Not good. This looks bad on my company, not yours. I know everyone tried to help, but I manage many customers and found some of the responses lacking any form of help. I was willing and asked to pay for help which I know would have taken an hour or less since you know the system, and instead I was bounced back to the thread...not impressed.

I know your company is not directly responsible for what happens within my company, but this is not cool.

Live and Learn.

Sat, 11/03/2012 - 17:49
Locutus

It's odd that you're having such problem with email under Virtualmin. I'm using it for two years now, and setting up email accounts was mostly a breeze.

If it's still relevant, can you reiterate what the exact problem currently is?

When you post screen logs, please enclose them in [code][/code] tags, so they retain their linebreaks and are printed in monospace font.

Thu, 11/08/2012 - 18:53
MichaelS

Hey Locutus....of Borg

Overall I like Virtualmin and there are a few times when I did use the emails and had no issues. I have just been more comfortable setting up emails in Google Apps, and the clients love it.

I'm just not sure what went wrong this one time and asking for help just seem to hit road blocks even though I wanted to pay for help.

I just setup another client last night with Virtualmin and it's been smooth sailing since.

One of those days :)

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