Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-17 Thread Matt LaPlante
On Dec 17, 2007 4:03 AM, Ted Mittelstaedt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> > -Original Message-
> > From: Matt LaPlante [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 2:18 PM
> > To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> > Cc: Andrew Falanga; Rob; FreeBSD Questions
> > Subject: Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use
> >
> > >
> > > It's a chicken and egg problem.
> > >
> > > There's nothing wrong with writing an extremely strict standard.
> > > The issue is the implementation.
> > >
> > > If your server implementation is so strict that most clients have
> > > difficulty, then users will find something else and your standard
> > > will end up on the dustbin.
> > >
> > > It's better to start out with a strict standard and a forgiving
> > > server implementation, then as it falls into mainstream use, work
> > > with the client developers to correct their stuff.
> >
> > You've effectively described dovecot here.
>
> No, I haven't.
>
> > Its codebase is perhaps
> > designed to be very strict, however the same codebase also includes
> > configurable 'workarounds' (enabled by default in many distros) for
> > clients that are not up to spec.  They're trivial to toggle and well
> > documented.
> >
>
> If you download and compile dovecot then is the default config template
> that is shipped with it enable the workarounds?  No.  The excuse that
> "enabled by default in many distros" is merely an excuse.  Nobody who
> is serious about building a server for a lot of clients is going to
> be using some precompiled version, they are going to compile from
> source so that if a security hole is discovered they can patch it
> immediately.

They're also going to actually *look* at the configuration and tailor
it.  What kind of fool goes to the trouble of building his own
software without also customizing the configuration to his
specifications?

>
> IF the switches DISABLED the "lax" behavior, and the defaults in the config
> templates were to not have the switches triggered, then it would meet the
> definition of a forgiving server implementation.  But it doesen't even
> go that far.
>
> > So, this meets both criteria that it will "just work" with clients
> > now, and the clients themselves could theoretically (good luck with
> > Outlook) fix their code in the future.
>
> Outlook works just fine in IMAP mode with uw-imap, both regular Outlook
> and Outlook Express.
>

I never said it doesn't.  Dovecot works fine with Outlook and Outlook
Express too (both IMAP and POP3).  Imagine that, IMAP servers that
successfully service IMAP clients.

> > As far as I'm concerned, it's
> > a fairly ideal environment,
>
> It is good you spell out that this is your personal ideal.
>
> > and I'm glad the developer has gone to the
> > trouble to 1) stick to standards in the core code and 2) made a point
> > of documenting and providing workarounds for buggy clients.
> >
>
> It is a lot of extra work to encapsulate all the "alleged bugs"
> in separate code so you can provide "switches" for stick-up-their
> -asses-admins to flip.  That is work that should have gone into
> speeding up the code.  It is utterly wasted effort unless your goal
> is to allow admins who have penis envy the ability to jerk people around
> for their choice of e-mail clients.
>
> It isn't the mailserver administrator's business if Joe Idiot User
> who doesen't know any better chooses to use Outlook 97 as an IMAP
> client, to deny Joe Idiot access to the mailserver.  The admin does
> not need to be playing silly games like this, setting up his server
> so that only some clients can work with it, others can't, then telling
> people their software of choice has bugs and fuck you, don't use it.
>
> Programmers jobs are to makes things work for users.  If Mickeysoft's
> programmers cannot write a decent IMAP client, then if the developer
> of an IMAP server can write around the problem, then he should do it
> and embed the fix in the server code without calling it out in a
> config switch.
>
> The situation is absolutely no different with hardware drivers.  Take
> a look at for example the comments in the ne2000  (ed) driver code, or
> the DEC/Intel 21143 network card driver code (or man page)  There are
> a number of very badly borked up hardware implementations of those
> network chipsets.  Yet, do the driver authors of the ed or dc
> driver make the admins flip switches in the 

RE: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-17 Thread Ted Mittelstaedt


> -Original Message-
> From: Matt LaPlante [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 2:18 PM
> To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> Cc: Andrew Falanga; Rob; FreeBSD Questions
> Subject: Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use
> 
> >
> > It's a chicken and egg problem.
> >
> > There's nothing wrong with writing an extremely strict standard.
> > The issue is the implementation.
> >
> > If your server implementation is so strict that most clients have
> > difficulty, then users will find something else and your standard
> > will end up on the dustbin.
> >
> > It's better to start out with a strict standard and a forgiving
> > server implementation, then as it falls into mainstream use, work
> > with the client developers to correct their stuff.
> 
> You've effectively described dovecot here. 

No, I haven't.

> Its codebase is perhaps
> designed to be very strict, however the same codebase also includes
> configurable 'workarounds' (enabled by default in many distros) for
> clients that are not up to spec.  They're trivial to toggle and well
> documented.
>

If you download and compile dovecot then is the default config template
that is shipped with it enable the workarounds?  No.  The excuse that
"enabled by default in many distros" is merely an excuse.  Nobody who
is serious about building a server for a lot of clients is going to
be using some precompiled version, they are going to compile from
source so that if a security hole is discovered they can patch it
immediately.

IF the switches DISABLED the "lax" behavior, and the defaults in the config
templates were to not have the switches triggered, then it would meet the
definition of a forgiving server implementation.  But it doesen't even
go that far.
 
> So, this meets both criteria that it will "just work" with clients
> now, and the clients themselves could theoretically (good luck with
> Outlook) fix their code in the future.

Outlook works just fine in IMAP mode with uw-imap, both regular Outlook
and Outlook Express.

> As far as I'm concerned, it's
> a fairly ideal environment,

It is good you spell out that this is your personal ideal.

> and I'm glad the developer has gone to the
> trouble to 1) stick to standards in the core code and 2) made a point
> of documenting and providing workarounds for buggy clients.
>

It is a lot of extra work to encapsulate all the "alleged bugs"
in separate code so you can provide "switches" for stick-up-their
-asses-admins to flip.  That is work that should have gone into
speeding up the code.  It is utterly wasted effort unless your goal
is to allow admins who have penis envy the ability to jerk people around
for their choice of e-mail clients.

It isn't the mailserver administrator's business if Joe Idiot User
who doesen't know any better chooses to use Outlook 97 as an IMAP
client, to deny Joe Idiot access to the mailserver.  The admin does
not need to be playing silly games like this, setting up his server
so that only some clients can work with it, others can't, then telling
people their software of choice has bugs and fuck you, don't use it.

Programmers jobs are to makes things work for users.  If Mickeysoft's
programmers cannot write a decent IMAP client, then if the developer
of an IMAP server can write around the problem, then he should do it
and embed the fix in the server code without calling it out in a
config switch.

The situation is absolutely no different with hardware drivers.  Take
a look at for example the comments in the ne2000  (ed) driver code, or
the DEC/Intel 21143 network card driver code (or man page)  There are
a number of very badly borked up hardware implementations of those
network chipsets.  Yet, do the driver authors of the ed or dc
driver make the admins flip switches in the driver to make the driver
work with their particular borked-up chipset implementation?  No.
They write the driver code to work with all implementations, even
the borked up ones.

The dovecot author is engaged in technopolitics.  It is a very bad
thing to do.  Whether the authors of bad IMAP client software deserve
this is beside the issue.  You need to understand that the ONLY lever
that the Open Source community has to keep the giants like Microsoft
paying some kind of attention to published standards so that everyone's
stuff can interoperate, is the moral superiority lever.  In other words,
the Open Source community simply does not engage in predatory,
circle-the-wagons, use-my-stuff-or-else behavior.  We have worked a
LONG time to get to this point.  As a result of this, when there IS
a problem between the commercial stuff - like for example Microsoft's
Networking, and the O

Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-15 Thread Matt LaPlante
On Dec 14, 2007 11:45 PM, Ted Mittelstaedt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> > -Original Message-
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Andrew Falanga
> > Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 7:35 PM
> > To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> > Cc: Rob; FreeBSD Questions
> > Subject: Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use
> >
> >
> > On Dec 13, 2007 10:06 PM, Ted Mittelstaedt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > > > The developer is very adamant about writing dovecot strictly to
> > > > the letter of the IMAP specification.  He's also discovered many
> > > > of the popular clients have bugs, and are unable to work (or at
> > > > least have issues) with an IMAP server that goes purely by the rules.
> > > >
> > > > He refused to "break" his software to work around bugs on the
> > > > client side, but ultimately compromised by writing in
> > > > work-arounds that you can enable in the config file.  You can
> > > > enable them all if you like.
> > > >
> > >
> > > Which is a really dumb attitude since the dovecot developer was
> > > not the author of the IMAP standard and probably was in diapers
> > > when the standard was first written:
> >
> >
> > I agree with your sentiment that, "who can use a server that no client can
> > connect to?"  However, that being said, why write a standard you don't
> > intend to adhere too?  It's a crying shame that folks write standards for
> > things like IMAP and e-mail client providers don't follow them.  I wished
> > more people were like this fellow who writes Dovecot!  If more people were
> > strict about server interfaces, then perhaps more vendors would
> > write their
> > code to the standard instead of those who write the standards
> > enabling poor
> > compliance by "dumbing" down their servers.
> >
>
> It's a chicken and egg problem.
>
> There's nothing wrong with writing an extremely strict standard.
> The issue is the implementation.
>
> If your server implementation is so strict that most clients have
> difficulty, then users will find something else and your standard
> will end up on the dustbin.
>
> It's better to start out with a strict standard and a forgiving
> server implementation, then as it falls into mainstream use, work
> with the client developers to correct their stuff.

You've effectively described dovecot here.  Its codebase is perhaps
designed to be very strict, however the same codebase also includes
configurable 'workarounds' (enabled by default in many distros) for
clients that are not up to spec.  They're trivial to toggle and well
documented.

So, this meets both criteria that it will "just work" with clients
now, and the clients themselves could theoretically (good luck with
Outlook) fix their code in the future.  As far as I'm concerned, it's
a fairly ideal environment, and I'm glad the developer has gone to the
trouble to 1) stick to standards in the core code and 2) made a point
of documenting and providing workarounds for buggy clients.

I personally use dovecot (+postfix) with great success.  Dovecot is
modern, featureful, well documented, and its SASL impementation is
particularly useful with postfix.  I've had no difficulty with clients
not being able to connect.

>
> We don't want to end up like Microsoft - which writes very lax
> and contradictory standards, then makes up strict implementations.
> Then every new release of their stuff breaks things.
>
>
> Ted
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.17.2/1184 - Release Date: 12/14/2007
> 11:29 AM
>
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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-15 Thread Gerard
> On December 14, 2007 at 11:25PM Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

[ snip ]

> It is dangerous to put any webmail application on a mailserver
> for a couple reasons.  First it is possible for users of the
> app (assuming the app has the ability to save mail) to overflow
> directories on the mailserver.  However more seriously, any
> www application is always subject to security issues - a hole in
> the application, even if the apache version your using is secure -
> allows spammers to relay through your mailserver.  Mailservers are
> of course, the most desired of spam relays.

If you are using Postfix, placing the following in the 'main.cf' file can
significantly reduce the potential regarding relaying from Apache. Of course,
insure that the group is correct.

authorized_submit_users = !www, static:all


-- 
Gerard
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RE: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-14 Thread Ted Mittelstaedt


> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Andrew Falanga
> Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 7:35 PM
> To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> Cc: Rob; FreeBSD Questions
> Subject: Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use
>
>
> On Dec 13, 2007 10:06 PM, Ted Mittelstaedt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > > The developer is very adamant about writing dovecot strictly to
> > > the letter of the IMAP specification.  He's also discovered many
> > > of the popular clients have bugs, and are unable to work (or at
> > > least have issues) with an IMAP server that goes purely by the rules.
> > >
> > > He refused to "break" his software to work around bugs on the
> > > client side, but ultimately compromised by writing in
> > > work-arounds that you can enable in the config file.  You can
> > > enable them all if you like.
> > >
> >
> > Which is a really dumb attitude since the dovecot developer was
> > not the author of the IMAP standard and probably was in diapers
> > when the standard was first written:
>
>
> I agree with your sentiment that, "who can use a server that no client can
> connect to?"  However, that being said, why write a standard you don't
> intend to adhere too?  It's a crying shame that folks write standards for
> things like IMAP and e-mail client providers don't follow them.  I wished
> more people were like this fellow who writes Dovecot!  If more people were
> strict about server interfaces, then perhaps more vendors would
> write their
> code to the standard instead of those who write the standards
> enabling poor
> compliance by "dumbing" down their servers.
>

It's a chicken and egg problem.

There's nothing wrong with writing an extremely strict standard.
The issue is the implementation.

If your server implementation is so strict that most clients have
difficulty, then users will find something else and your standard
will end up on the dustbin.

It's better to start out with a strict standard and a forgiving
server implementation, then as it falls into mainstream use, work
with the client developers to correct their stuff.

We don't want to end up like Microsoft - which writes very lax
and contradictory standards, then makes up strict implementations.
Then every new release of their stuff breaks things.

Ted
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.17.2/1184 - Release Date: 12/14/2007
11:29 AM

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RE: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-14 Thread Ted Mittelstaedt


> -Original Message-
> From: Heiko Wundram (Beenic) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 2:57 PM
> To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use
>
>
> Am Freitag, 14. Dezember 2007 23:14:32 schrieb Ted Mittelstaedt:
> > As I said I did a survey of all known web clients earlier this
> > year that did not require a specific server - I might have even
> posted it
> > to the list.  But I guess that's a challenge to some people to "prove" I
> > don't know what
> > I'm talking about. ;-)
> >
> > If you feel you must avoid "c-client" you can do it
> > the following way:
> >
> > 1) The webmail that comes with SquirrelMail I would be surprised if it
> > uses it - but, that webmail is inseparable from the SquirrelMail SMTP
> > server and cannot be installed separately.  I didn't test it because of
> > that.
>
> Sorry to say this, but you do not know what you're talking about.
> SquirrelMail
> is a stand-alone webmail application, which has nothing to do and is not
> affiliated with any form of SMTP server.
>

I'm glad to know that.  I'll have to take a look at it then.

>
> Anyway, what you're probably referring to is the Courier webmail module
> (called somewhat similarly) SqWebMail
> (http://www.courier-mta.org/sqwebmail/), which really does not
> use cclient,
> as it accesses the mailboxes (in Maildir format) directly, but
> this comes at
> the price that the WebMail-server (and application) must have
> some form of
> read/write _filesystem access_ to all user's mailboxes being able
> to access
> the WebMail application, which generally is not what I as a
> responsible admin
> want to have; either, all mail accounts have to share the same
> UID/GID as the
> web application, or the web application requires some form of mod_suid
> functionality, which is not okay in either case.
>

It is dangerous to put any webmail application on a mailserver
for a couple reasons.  First it is possible for users of the
app (assuming the app has the ability to save mail) to overflow
directories on the mailserver.  However more seriously, any
www application is always subject to security issues - a hole in
the application, even if the apache version your using is secure -
allows spammers to relay through your mailserver.  Mailservers are
of course, the most desired of spam relays.

> As I said earlier, it's a felt fact (I have no hard evidence to
> support this)
> that SquirrelMail and IMP are the most commonly used and
> installed WebMail
> applications out in the wild, and you'll find almost no mail-server
> administrator who hasn't heard of these two. And both of them (can) use
> cclient indirectly through PHP, and at least until the last time
> I set up a
> mail-server with IMP (which is around a year ago) didn't have a pure PHP
> implementation of the IMAP protocol.
>

I think OpenWebmail is probably equal or surpassing one of those.
In terms of features, OpenWebmail has all the other webmail apps
out there beaten - except for IMP, and possibly squirrelmail, but
I don't know enough about squirrelmail to rate it.

In the last analysis, the most users will gravitate towards the
webmail app that has the most features.

Ted
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.17.2/1184 - Release Date: 12/14/2007
11:29 AM

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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-14 Thread Andrew Falanga
On Dec 13, 2007 10:06 PM, Ted Mittelstaedt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> > The developer is very adamant about writing dovecot strictly to
> > the letter of the IMAP specification.  He's also discovered many
> > of the popular clients have bugs, and are unable to work (or at
> > least have issues) with an IMAP server that goes purely by the rules.
> >
> > He refused to "break" his software to work around bugs on the
> > client side, but ultimately compromised by writing in
> > work-arounds that you can enable in the config file.  You can
> > enable them all if you like.
> >
>
> Which is a really dumb attitude since the dovecot developer was
> not the author of the IMAP standard and probably was in diapers
> when the standard was first written:


I agree with your sentiment that, "who can use a server that no client can
connect to?"  However, that being said, why write a standard you don't
intend to adhere too?  It's a crying shame that folks write standards for
things like IMAP and e-mail client providers don't follow them.  I wished
more people were like this fellow who writes Dovecot!  If more people were
strict about server interfaces, then perhaps more vendors would write their
code to the standard instead of those who write the standards enabling poor
compliance by "dumbing" down their servers.

Ok, I'm off my soap box.

Andy
-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is it such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-14 Thread Heiko Wundram (Beenic)
Am Freitag, 14. Dezember 2007 23:14:32 schrieb Ted Mittelstaedt:
> As I said I did a survey of all known web clients earlier this
> year that did not require a specific server - I might have even posted it
> to the list.  But I guess that's a challenge to some people to "prove" I
> don't know what
> I'm talking about. ;-)
>
> If you feel you must avoid "c-client" you can do it
> the following way:
>
> 1) The webmail that comes with SquirrelMail I would be surprised if it
> uses it - but, that webmail is inseparable from the SquirrelMail SMTP
> server and cannot be installed separately.  I didn't test it because of
> that.

Sorry to say this, but you do not know what you're talking about. SquirrelMail 
is a stand-alone webmail application, which has nothing to do and is not 
affiliated with any form of SMTP server.

Check out SquirrelMail:

http://www.squirrelmail.org/

Quoting from there:

"""
What is SquirrelMail?

SquirrelMail is a standards-based webmail package written in PHP. It includes 
built-in pure PHP support for the IMAP and SMTP protocols, and all pages 
render in pure HTML 4.0 (with no JavaScript required) for maximum 
compatibility across browsers. It has very few requirements and is very easy 
to configure and install. SquirrelMail has all the functionality you would 
want from an email client, including strong MIME support, address books, and 
folder manipulation.
"""

As I explained earlier, SquirrelMail uses the PHP IMAP extension, which in 
turn uses cclient to access IMAP mailboxes, if you don't use the pure PHP 
IMAP implementation bundled with it (which I didn't know it had until 
rechecking their site just now; all the setups of SquirrelMail I did so far 
used the IMAP extension directly and there was a dependency on it earlier 
AFAIR).

Pretty much the same thing goes for IMP (i.e., the Horde WebMail plugin); I'll 
save you the link to the page now, I guess you can use Google.

Anyway, what you're probably referring to is the Courier webmail module 
(called somewhat similarly) SqWebMail 
(http://www.courier-mta.org/sqwebmail/), which really does not use cclient, 
as it accesses the mailboxes (in Maildir format) directly, but this comes at 
the price that the WebMail-server (and application) must have some form of 
read/write _filesystem access_ to all user's mailboxes being able to access 
the WebMail application, which generally is not what I as a responsible admin 
want to have; either, all mail accounts have to share the same UID/GID as the 
web application, or the web application requires some form of mod_suid 
functionality, which is not okay in either case.

As I said earlier, it's a felt fact (I have no hard evidence to support this) 
that SquirrelMail and IMP are the most commonly used and installed WebMail 
applications out in the wild, and you'll find almost no mail-server 
administrator who hasn't heard of these two. And both of them (can) use 
cclient indirectly through PHP, and at least until the last time I set up a 
mail-server with IMP (which is around a year ago) didn't have a pure PHP 
implementation of the IMAP protocol.

-- 
Heiko Wundram
Product & Application Development
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RE: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-14 Thread Ted Mittelstaedt


> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Heiko Wundram
> (Beenic)
> Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 7:46 AM
> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use
>
>
> Am Freitag, 14. Dezember 2007 16:27:42 schrieb RW:
> > On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:06:25 -0800
> >
> > "Ted Mittelstaedt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > Consider also that the majority of webinterfaces to mailservers
> > > are written using the uw-c-client imap libraries.  So you go ahead
> > > and install dovecot - then watch when you install a webinterface
> > > the port manager sucking in the uw imap stuff anyway.  Might as
> > > well run the uw imap server if your going to run the uw libraries.
> >
> > None of the major webmail clients appear to depend on cclient
> > 
>
> _The_ major webmail clients (Horde-IMP and SquirrelMail come to
> mind as the
> most used ones immediately) are written in PHP and require the
> IMAP extension
> for PHP (to do IMAP), which in turn depends on cclient, so basically the
> major webmail clients do depend on cclient (even though indirectly).
>
> Why the cclient dependency (for the IMAP extension of PHP)
> doesn't show up in
> your grepping of ports I don't know, but it's an easy check for
> you to test
> that the IMAP extension for PHP either comes with cclient
> bundled, or with a
> dependency on it that's slightly hidden in the Makefile.
>

As I said I did a survey of all known web clients earlier this
year that did not require a specific server - I might have even posted it to
the list.  But I guess that's a challenge to some people to "prove" I don't
know what
I'm talking about. ;-)

If you feel you must avoid "c-client" you can do it
the following way:

1) The webmail that comes with SquirrelMail I would be surprised if it
uses it - but, that webmail is inseparable from the SquirrelMail SMTP
server and cannot be installed separately.  I didn't test it because of
that.

2) Openwebmail is one of the few webmails that can -directly- access
the mailboxes through the filesystem - of course you have to configure
it to do this - and I think the port of it has the PHP imap extension
listed as a dependency anyway.  Neomail is the predicessor to openwebmail
and is the same - of course, it has several known security holes.

3) Nullsoft webmail is pop3 only and does not use the c-client libs.
There are significat problems with running webmail using a pop3 backend.

4) ilohamail wrote his own imap library and does not use c-client.  Its
not a bad webmail but the developer lost interest in it a while ago.
you need to load it from the CVS.  signatures in the cvs distro are broken,
everything else works.

Ted

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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-14 Thread Heiko Wundram (Beenic)
Am Freitag, 14. Dezember 2007 16:27:42 schrieb RW:
> On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:06:25 -0800
>
> "Ted Mittelstaedt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Consider also that the majority of webinterfaces to mailservers
> > are written using the uw-c-client imap libraries.  So you go ahead
> > and install dovecot - then watch when you install a webinterface
> > the port manager sucking in the uw imap stuff anyway.  Might as
> > well run the uw imap server if your going to run the uw libraries.
>
> None of the major webmail clients appear to depend on cclient
> 

_The_ major webmail clients (Horde-IMP and SquirrelMail come to mind as the 
most used ones immediately) are written in PHP and require the IMAP extension 
for PHP (to do IMAP), which in turn depends on cclient, so basically the 
major webmail clients do depend on cclient (even though indirectly).

Why the cclient dependency (for the IMAP extension of PHP) doesn't show up in 
your grepping of ports I don't know, but it's an easy check for you to test 
that the IMAP extension for PHP either comes with cclient bundled, or with a 
dependency on it that's slightly hidden in the Makefile.

-- 
Heiko Wundram
Product & Application Development
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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-14 Thread RW
On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:06:25 -0800
"Ted Mittelstaedt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Consider also that the majority of webinterfaces to mailservers
> are written using the uw-c-client imap libraries.  So you go ahead
> and install dovecot - then watch when you install a webinterface
> the port manager sucking in the uw imap stuff anyway.  Might as
> well run the uw imap server if your going to run the uw libraries.

None of the major webmail clients appear to depend on cclient

$ find /usr/ports/ -name Makefile | xargs grep "mail/cclient"
/usr/ports/mail/cclient/Makefile:# $FreeBSD: ports/mail/cclient/Makefile,v 1.41 
2007/10/01 04:03:01 marcus Exp $
/usr/ports/mail/imap-uw/Makefile:# This port must have the same SSL settings as 
mail/cclient, which it depends on
/usr/ports/mail/imap-uw/Makefile:LIB_DEPENDS=   
c-client4.9:${PORTSDIR}/mail/cclient
/usr/ports/mail/mailsync/Makefile:LIB_DEPENDS=  
c-client4.9:${PORTSDIR}/mail/cclient
/usr/ports/mail/p5-Mail-CClient/Makefile:LIB_DEPENDS=   
c-client4.9:${PORTSDIR}/mail/cclient
/usr/ports/mail/postilion/Makefile:LIB_DEPENDS= 
c-client4:${PORTSDIR}/mail/cclient
/usr/ports/mail/prayer/Makefile:BUILD_DEPENDS=  
${LOCALBASE}/lib/libc-client4.a:${PORTSDIR}/mail/cclient
/usr/ports/mail/tkrat2/Makefile:
c-client4.9:${PORTSDIR}/mail/cclient
/usr/ports/www/ismail/Makefile:LIB_DEPENDS+=
c-client4.9:${PORTSDIR}/mail/cclient

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RE: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Ted Mittelstaedt


> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Rob
> Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 11:42 AM
> To: Andrew Falanga
> Cc: FreeBSD Questions
> Subject: Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use
>
>
> Andrew Falanga wrote:
> > sounds like everyone is sold on dovecot.  Great!.  I've a few
> questions. 
> > anyone explain to me what problems they have with mail clients
> attaching?
> > See http://wiki.dovecot.org/Clients .  This shows some
> interesting problems
>
> The developer is very adamant about writing dovecot strictly to
> the letter of the IMAP specification.  He's also discovered many
> of the popular clients have bugs, and are unable to work (or at
> least have issues) with an IMAP server that goes purely by the rules.
>
> He refused to "break" his software to work around bugs on the
> client side, but ultimately compromised by writing in
> work-arounds that you can enable in the config file.  You can
> enable them all if you like.
>

Which is a really dumb attitude since the dovecot developer was
not the author of the IMAP standard and probably was in diapers
when the standard was first written:

http://www.imap.org/about/history.status.html

And in addition, who can use a server that no client can connect to?

So there are a lot of mail clients that have IMAP bugs.  So what?
What is important?  Users being able to manipulate mail on the
server with their client of choice, or a server that is almost
impossible to connect to?

Consider also that the majority of webinterfaces to mailservers
are written using the uw-c-client imap libraries.  So you go ahead
and install dovecot - then watch when you install a webinterface
the port manager sucking in the uw imap stuff anyway.  Might as
well run the uw imap server if your going to run the uw libraries.

Ted
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RE: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Ted Mittelstaedt


> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gerard Seibert
> Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 9:46 AM
> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use
>
>
> > On December 13, 2007 at 11:40AM Andrew Falanga wrote:
>
> [ snip ]
>
> > Second, how do programs like dovecot manage users?  Does each
> user of the
> > e-mail system need to be a user of the FreeBSD system
> (installed locally)?
>
> No, Dovecot can handle virtual users just fine. I use it in
> conjunction with
> Postfix. You might want to read up on how to use virtual users
> with Dovecot
> and Postfix. Both sites offer extensive help and the both of
> their respective
> forums will be glad to assist you.
>
>

Keep in mind with the FreeBSD db files for the password files,
the old problems with linear searches of large passwords do not
exist any longer.  There is no benefit to virtualize users on
a FreeBSD mailserver unless your bound and determined to use
modified tools for every bit of management you want to do on the
server - or unless your working with hundreds of thousands of
users and a mailserver cluster.

Ted
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RE: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Ted Mittelstaedt

We run large mailservers with uw-imap quite well.  uw-imap has no
problems dealing with 500MB mailboxes with 15,000 or more messages
in them.

Ted

> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Andrew Falanga
> Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 12:31 PM
> To: User Questions
> Subject: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm working on setting up a server for both WWW and e-mail.  We're using
> apache 2.2 w/PHP support (for phpWebSite) and for e-mail I'd like to stay
> with sendmail for the MTA, but I've not used any servers that
> will allow for
> POP and IMAP.  What in the ports would be good suggestions from those here
> who've used them?
>
> thanks,
> Andy
>
> --
> A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
> Q: Why is it such a bad thing?
> A: Top-posting.
> Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
> ___
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>
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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Rob

Andrew Falanga wrote:

sounds like everyone is sold on dovecot.  Great!.  I've a few questions. 
anyone explain to me what problems they have with mail clients attaching?
See http://wiki.dovecot.org/Clients .  This shows some interesting problems


The developer is very adamant about writing dovecot strictly to the letter of 
the IMAP specification.  He's also discovered many of the popular clients have 
bugs, and are unable to work (or at least have issues) with an IMAP server that 
goes purely by the rules.

He refused to "break" his software to work around bugs on the client side, but ultimately compromised by writing in work-arounds that you can enable in the config file.  You can enable them all if you like.  


 -R
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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Support (Rudy)

Andrew Falanga wrote:

Hi,

I'm working on setting up a server for both WWW and e-mail.  We're using
apache 2.2 w/PHP support (for phpWebSite) and for e-mail I'd like to stay
with sendmail for the MTA, but I've not used any servers that will allow for
POP and IMAP.  What in the ports would be good suggestions from those here
who've used them?


Everyone has mentioned dovecot -- maybe I should check it out -- but I have been using courier-imap 
for 5 or 6 years and like that POP/IMAP package.  All clients connect fine, it does SSL 
(POPs/IMAPs) and never gives me any trouble.  The multiple rc.d files are kinda silly.  I've been 
using it on a mail machine to serve 200 domains and about 2,500 email addresses -- never seems to 
crash, never requires restarts.


Oh, and I use sendmail as the MTA (with 
clamav/milter-regex/sid-milter/milter-greylist).

- Rudy
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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Eric Crist

On Dec 13, 2007, at 12:36 PM, Daniel Bye wrote:


On Thu, Dec 13, 2007 at 09:40:50AM -0700, Andrew Falanga wrote:
sounds like everyone is sold on dovecot.  Great!.  I've a few  
questions.  I
went and looked it up on freshports.org and found the main web  
site.  Can
anyone explain to me what problems they have with mail clients  
attaching?
See http://wiki.dovecot.org/Clients .  This shows some interesting  
problems

and I'd like to know if everyone using dovecot sees these problems.


I use mutt 1.4.2.3i, which works without problems. I have also used
Thunderbird with it, as does my business partner, and spotted no  
issues

there either.



Second, how do programs like dovecot manage users?  Does each user  
of the
e-mail system need to be a user of the FreeBSD system (installed  
locally)?


As Gerard said, dovecot can handle virtual users. There are several  
ways

to do this - probably the most scalable will be SQL and LDAP, although
you can use passwd-file as well. There's some good documentation on  
the

web site, particularly http://wiki.dovecot.org/Authentication.

Dan



Sorry if this has been suggested, I'm coming in to the conversation  
late.  There is a very detailed how-to on www.purplehat.org on setting  
up a Postfix server with dovecot and mysql.  They even walk you  
through setting up spam filtering and anti-virus.


HTH
-
Eric F Crist
Secure Computing Networks


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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Daniel Bye
On Thu, Dec 13, 2007 at 09:40:50AM -0700, Andrew Falanga wrote:
> sounds like everyone is sold on dovecot.  Great!.  I've a few questions.  I
> went and looked it up on freshports.org and found the main web site.  Can
> anyone explain to me what problems they have with mail clients attaching?
> See http://wiki.dovecot.org/Clients .  This shows some interesting problems
> and I'd like to know if everyone using dovecot sees these problems.

I use mutt 1.4.2.3i, which works without problems. I have also used 
Thunderbird with it, as does my business partner, and spotted no issues
there either. 

> 
> Second, how do programs like dovecot manage users?  Does each user of the
> e-mail system need to be a user of the FreeBSD system (installed locally)?

As Gerard said, dovecot can handle virtual users. There are several ways
to do this - probably the most scalable will be SQL and LDAP, although
you can use passwd-file as well. There's some good documentation on the
web site, particularly http://wiki.dovecot.org/Authentication.

Dan

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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Gerard Seibert
> On December 13, 2007 at 11:40AM Andrew Falanga wrote:

[ snip ]

> Second, how do programs like dovecot manage users?  Does each user of the
> e-mail system need to be a user of the FreeBSD system (installed locally)?

No, Dovecot can handle virtual users just fine. I use it in conjunction with
Postfix. You might want to read up on how to use virtual users with Dovecot
and Postfix. Both sites offer extensive help and the both of their respective
forums will be glad to assist you.


-- 
Gerard
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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Andrew Falanga
On Dec 13, 2007 9:27 AM, Monah Baki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> I'll 3rd it too, been using it for 2 years, amazing.
>
>
> > Daniel Bye wrote:
> >>> with sendmail for the MTA, but I've not used any servers that will
> >>> allow for
> >>> POP and IMAP.  What in the ports would be good suggestions from those
> >>> here
> >>> who've used them?
> >>
> >> dovecot is excellent - easy setup, stable and reliable, provides IMAP
> >
> > I'll 2nd Dovecot.  Been running it for IMAP for 3 years or more. See
> > ports/mail/dovecot and www.dovecot.org
>

sounds like everyone is sold on dovecot.  Great!.  I've a few questions.  I
went and looked it up on freshports.org and found the main web site.  Can
anyone explain to me what problems they have with mail clients attaching?
See http://wiki.dovecot.org/Clients .  This shows some interesting problems
and I'd like to know if everyone using dovecot sees these problems.

Second, how do programs like dovecot manage users?  Does each user of the
e-mail system need to be a user of the FreeBSD system (installed locally)?

Thanks,
Andy


-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is it such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Monah Baki
I'll 3rd it too, been using it for 2 years, amazing.


> Daniel Bye wrote:
>>> with sendmail for the MTA, but I've not used any servers that will
>>> allow for
>>> POP and IMAP.  What in the ports would be good suggestions from those
>>> here
>>> who've used them?
>>
>> dovecot is excellent - easy setup, stable and reliable, provides IMAP
>
> I'll 2nd Dovecot.  Been running it for IMAP for 3 years or more. See
> ports/mail/dovecot and www.dovecot.org
>
>   -R
>
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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-13 Thread Rob

Daniel Bye wrote:

with sendmail for the MTA, but I've not used any servers that will allow for
POP and IMAP.  What in the ports would be good suggestions from those here
who've used them?


dovecot is excellent - easy setup, stable and reliable, provides IMAP


I'll 2nd Dovecot.  Been running it for IMAP for 3 years or more. See 
ports/mail/dovecot and www.dovecot.org

 -R

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Re: Suggestions please for what POP or IMAP servers to use

2007-12-12 Thread Daniel Bye
On Wed, Dec 12, 2007 at 01:31:11PM -0700, Andrew Falanga wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm working on setting up a server for both WWW and e-mail.  We're using
> apache 2.2 w/PHP support (for phpWebSite) and for e-mail I'd like to stay
> with sendmail for the MTA, but I've not used any servers that will allow for
> POP and IMAP.  What in the ports would be good suggestions from those here
> who've used them?

dovecot is excellent - easy setup, stable and reliable, provides IMAP
and POP support and works well with e.g. squirrelmail. It's not as full
featured as the Cyrus or courier IMAP servers, but if you don't need
shared mailboxes etc, it's definitely worth a look.

Dan

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