apache mail?? 1

[adrumsolo4u]

i have been searching for any tutorial for setting up your own mail server, but none so far.
i want to use mozilla thunderbird, and have my current server host the email. does this sound stupuid or does anyone have an idea how to do what i'm talking about?

 

[thedaver]

Often your domain registrar will have a nice email server package as part of their other services. You may want to consider that if you're starting from ground zero on knowledge of running an email server.



D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[adrumsolo4u]

i have not bought a domain yet.
i have apache with php running on it, and have a dns account. the dns website has downloads on it for email. can i download this software, and use mozilla thunderbird, or do i need something else?

 

[RhythmAce]

If I understand you correctly, you want to be able to access mail from an existing pop mail account using your browser. Kind of like hotmail? If this is what you want, you might look into squirrelmail. This is a web based mail server ( I use the term server loosely ). Users can setup an account on squirrelmail and it will collect all their mail from an existing pop3 account. Mail can also be sent using an existing smtp account. All that being said, this has nothing to do with apache.

 

[adrumsolo4u]

i don't mean using a browser. i mean when mail is sent to say admin@mydomain.com i want that mail to be sent to MY server, and to have all the software needed to hold it and use Mozilla Thunderbird (which is like outlook express)
having a mail server is not completely critical, and it is something i can out off to a later time. i just would like to know how it would be done because i have found no website that is open to instructing anyone how to do it.
if by now you think i'm an idiot, it's okay, having this feature on my server would just be a bonus.

 

[RhythmAce]

OK - you through me by posting this in the apache forum. Mail servers and webservers have nothing is common. If you want a serious server, you will want to look into a good server platform like linux. Windows is too touchy. Most linux distros come with every type of server you could want, web server, smtp server, pop3/imap server, ftp server, (dns) name server and telnet/ssh just to name a few. If you must stay with windows, you will want to install a good wamp package. There are not a lot of free mail servers out there for windows however. Only two come to mind right now, xmail (

http://www.xmailserver.org)

and mailenable (

http://www.mailenable.com).

Both come with instruction on setting up the server. To get mail to come to your server or to be able to send mail, you will need a domain name. Then you will need to create dns records pointing the domain name and the name odf your mail server to your ip address. That ip address must be static. That means it cannot change. If it does, or if your isp blocks the ports used by the smtp and pop3 mail protocols, you will need to to use a dns pointer service such as dyndns or dns2go. Since you don't have a domain yet there is no need to get too specific but I hope you get the general idea.

 

[adrumsolo4u]

i get the general idea now. so basically, a mail server is completely different from my current web server. i have looked into Linux, even helped create a server with it. the problem i found is me + command prompt = bad. i DO NOT understand it yet, and it would be rather foolish of me to work on a system which i do not understand. If a problem were to arise, i would be completely at a loss.
i plan to learn Linux in the future, because i have heard so much about it's use for the internet, and being much more secure than windows.
so i guess i will just put off the mail server until i am comfortable in my knowledge of how to use linux. It would be nice if there was a way to NOT use command prompting to setup utilities on it, but i guess theres a reason it is that way: so idiots like me never get to use it.
but thank you for your help

 

[RhythmAce]

There are a few things you can do to help lessen the learning curve. Most linux distros come with a graphical interface or desktop environment such as gnome or kde. These will give your linux system somewhat of a Windows feel. There is a file browser which is a lot like Windows Explorer so you can get the lay of the land. You will find that both gnome and kde have gui interfaces for setting up most network and server configurations. There is also a remote admin tool called webmin that will let you administer your entire system from your browser either from localhost or remotely. However, when you decide to go live with your server, there will come a time when you will need to come here for help. If your browse most of the threads you will see that it comes in the form of command line stuff. Although the temptation is to stay where you are comfortable, you will have to get yourself used to the shell to be able to truly administer your servers.

 

[adrumsolo4u]

so with these "distros" can you download, unzip, install, and configure, without command prompting? because that would be pretty much wayy helpful.

 

[RhythmAce]

Any second now I expect no less than a million people in here recommending their favorite distro. Let me put an end to that foolishness right now. You want fedora. Nuff said. All kidding asside there is little difference between them. They all come with roughly the same packages. The biggest differnce is where they put stuff. They also tweak the configs of everything so it will work with their directory structure. For example, they all come with apache and even have the same version. The difference in most cases is to apache's configuration file, httpd.conf. The paths to all the configuration files will be different from one distro to the next but they work the same so we can all help each other no matter which one we end up with. Most of them are free to download and come in cd images called iso files. When you burn these iso files to cd, they will end up looking like a regular drive with directories and everything. Most of the recent distros come on four or more cds. Disc one of most distros is bootable. It will load the linux installer and everything is setup automatically for you. You just need to answer a few questions before the install actually begins. If you don't have a box that you can dedicate solely to linux, then you can use the dual boot install method. That is, you can leave Windows on the drive and allocate a percentage of it for linux. The installer will ask you how much of that available space it can use. After the install is complete, the boot loader will prompt you for which os you want to boot into. Later you can choose a default just incase the machine reboots when nobody is around. You can also set the amount of time it will wait before booting into the default os. The dual boot setup is not recommended for live servers but is very good for those who want to get hands on experience with linux but can't afford a spare computer. There is also a linux forum here at tek-tips. forum54 There is plenty of help ther for both the profesional and newbie alike.

 

[adrumsolo4u]

thank you for the info. I'll save that info you just gave me until i get my hands on another computer. Then i will not even bother with windows and install linux. should be interesting. for now it's back to work on PHP coding.
thank you guys for helping a complete newbie!