Dovecot

Dovecot is a popular IMAP and POP3 server software.

Installation

Install the Dovecot features that you want

 apt-get install dovecot-XXX 

XXX = the program which you wish to install

For example:

Install IMAP protocol (recommended)

 apt-get install dovecot-imapd 

Install POP3 protocol (not recommended)

 apt-get install dovecot-pop3d

Configuration

The Dovecot configuration directory is located in

 /etc/dovecot

After installing dovecot it is recommended to open the file and save it with another name, for instance XXX.conf.save, since the original configuration file is good to have as backup and reference.

According to the default configuration we use the configuration files located in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/ . If you want to, you can make the configurations directly into /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf .

conf.d/10-auth.conf

In the bottom end of the file you will find links to other configuration files for logging in. We use the system login info.

 #!include auth-deny.conf.ext
 #!include auth-master.conf.ext
 
 !include auth-system.conf.ext
 #!include auth-sql.conf.ext
 #!include auth-ldap.conf.ext
 #!include auth-passwdfile.conf.ext
 #!include auth-checkpassword.conf.ext
 #!include auth-vpopmail.conf.ext
 #!include auth-static.conf.ext

conf.d/10-mail.conf

In this file we define the mailbox location.

mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u

Allow removing e-mail in Dovecot:

mail_privileged_group = mail

conf.d/10-master.conf

We enable ports for the POP3 protocol (Install dovecot-pop3d if you haven't):

service imap-login {
 inet_listener imap {
   port = 143
 }
 inet_listener imaps {
 #  port = 993
 #  ssl = yes
 }
}

We enable ports for the POP3 protocol (Install dovecot-pop3d if you haven't):

service pop3-login {

 inet_listener pop3 {
   port = 110
 }
 inet_listener pop3s {
 # port = 995
 #  ssl = yes
 }
}

Define the smtp authorizing on the server.

service auth {
...
  # Postfix smtp-auth
  unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth {
    mode = 0666
        user = postfix
        group = postfix
}

conf.d/10-ssl.conf

If you enable SSL secured connections, you should define the SSL certificate and enable SSL here.

ssl = yes

 ssl_cert = </etc/dovecot/dovecot.pem
 ssl_key = </etc/dovecot/private/dovecot.pem

Dovecot AD

A good manual can be found from the ICT-academy wiki (Finnish)

Testing

You can test making a telnet connection to the server, for example

 telnet localhost 110

 telnet localhost 143

Login for example

 gg LOGIN [username] [password]

In other words, replace [username] and [password] with your own credentials. They are the same as Debian login credentials.

List e-mails

 gg LIST "" "*"

List e-mails from inbox

 gg EXAMINE INBOX

Open e-mail 1

 gg FETCH 1 BODY[]

Logout

 gg LOGOUT