Users cannot log into Mail server

[alfatec]

I am running OSX Server 10.3.5 with Postfix as my Mail server. Now up until 3 days ago my postfix installation was running fine, all users could access the mail server and send and receive mail, internally and externally. As part of our monthly maintenance we did a permissions check and restarted the server. On restart we noticed that the users could no longer log into the mail server but could log into the OSX Server. I can Telnet into the local host port 25 and can actually send an email through Telnet but if I try and configure the local mail client on the server to log into the mail server it states that the user name or password is incorrect. I know the username and password is correct because users can log into the main server and postfix uses the same details. Any help would be most grateful as users are getting irate at the moment.

 

[ericbrunson]

Users do not use postfix to retrieve email. It is usually handled by a POP or IMAP server process.

 

[jkupski]

As eric noted, this isn't a postfx problem. If I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying that your users can login to the server (are you talking via telnet, ssh, rlogin, or do you mean SMB/Appletalk/NetWare/whatever?) but cannot login to the POP3 daemon to retrieve mail. Is this right?

Also, what do you mean by "permissions check.

 

[alfatec]

Sorry if I did not explain myself correctly. The problem is that users cannot login to the POP3 daemon to retrieve mail but can log into the server using SMB etc. It accepts the username but rejects the password. If you open mail client on the OSX Server and bring up the user and try and connect you can see the process and when it gets to 'sending the password' it then comes back with a box asking for the password. I know the password is correct as I have just logged into the OSX server using SMB.

 

[ericbrunson]

What pop server does OSX run? You'll probably have better luck on an OSX forum or one for the specific pop server.

 

[jkupski]

Once again, I agree with eric. OS X people, or someone who knows the POP daemon you're using is far more likely to be able to offer useful help.

I'm still curious, though, what you mean by "permissions check." Do you have some script that runs and resets permissions on various files (or maybe do something similar by hand?) Maybe something accidentially had a read or execute bit removed, or is no longer suid that needs to be?

 

[PhoneNewbie]

From the client, can you telnet to the server via:

telnet my.cool.server 110
user myusername
pass mypassword

What error does it give? If you can't complete the first line, your pop3 daemon isn't running. If it can't complete the others, your pop3 daemon might not be looking at the same pw file as your SMB daemon. Most times, those are separate files.

 

[alfatec]

OK I can telnet into the server on port 110 and the pop server opens. It also accepts my username but it does not accept my password. So I agree with you that the SMB daemon is not looking at the same PW file. Do you know how I check which PW file the SMB should be checking.

 

[ericbrunson]

Why do you think SMB has anything to do with it? What IMAP server is running? That's the config you need to be concerned with. Does OSX use PAM?

 

[ngsoonfong]

OS X Server uses cyrus for POP and IMAP. Maybe you can try to telnet to the mail server using 110. If you can get inside, that means that POP is ok. If cannot, you have to trouble shoot cyrus.