[gentoo-user] Multi-user pop3 mail delivery

[gentoo-user] Multi-user pop3 mail delivery

[Ralph Slooten]

Hi Guys.

I am trying to replace a server setup at one of our client's offices.
They have a domain name, and an email account - both hosted by a 3rd
party. This third party gives them a single pop3 account where all
email is stored (for all <users>@domain.com), downloadable by a single
user login.

Now the old setup (which I had nothing to do with) uses fetchmail to
poll the server every 10 minutes, and then forwards the mail to the
smtp on the localhost.

I have tried to replicate this, but am hitting several disadvantages,
one being that all spam messages sent to non-existing users are
forwarded to the local postmaster account. I keep thinking that there
must be a much more logical way to do this. When I try it without
setting the postmaster messages are not bounced.

How is this setup normally done? The local server has postfix running,
but is *not* accessable from outside directly (firewalled). Mail will
have to be polled I guess.

I am using the following fetchmail conf:

set postmaster "postmaster" set bouncemail set properties "" set
syslog set invisible set daemon 600 poll pop3.server.com
    protocol POP3
    checkalias
    timeout 30
        envelope "Received:"
    localdomains mydomain.com
    user accountuser pass accountpass to * here
    smtphost localhost
    smtpaddress mydomain.com
    fetchall;

Any advice?

Thanks in advance,
Ralph
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[gentoo-user] Re: Multi-user pop3 mail delivery

[Ralph Slooten]

Another problem I am having is that when two users are specified, one
existing, and another (non-existing, or even another domain) the
message goes to postmaster, and not to the specified user.

On 17/11/06, Ralph Slooten <axllent@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Guys.
>
> I am trying to replace a server setup at one of our client's offices.
> They have a domain name, and an email account - both hosted by a 3rd
> party. This third party gives them a single pop3 account where all
> email is stored (for all <users>@domain.com), downloadable by a single
> user login.
>
> Now the old setup (which I had nothing to do with) uses fetchmail to
> poll the server every 10 minutes, and then forwards the mail to the
> smtp on the localhost.
>
> I have tried to replicate this, but am hitting several disadvantages,
> one being that all spam messages sent to non-existing users are
> forwarded to the local postmaster account. I keep thinking that there
> must be a much more logical way to do this. When I try it without
> setting the postmaster messages are not bounced.
>
> How is this setup normally done? The local server has postfix running,
> but is *not* accessable from outside directly (firewalled). Mail will
> have to be polled I guess.
>
> I am using the following fetchmail conf:
>
> set postmaster "postmaster" set bouncemail set properties "" set
> syslog set invisible set daemon 600 poll pop3.server.com
>     protocol POP3
>     checkalias
>     timeout 30
>         envelope "Received:"
>     localdomains mydomain.com
>     user accountuser pass accountpass to * here
>     smtphost localhost
>     smtpaddress mydomain.com
>     fetchall;
>
> Any advice?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Ralph
>
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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Multi-user pop3 mail delivery

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 13:38:12 +1300, Ralph Slooten wrote:

> Another problem I am having is that when two users are specified, one
> existing, and another (non-existing, or even another domain) the
> message goes to postmaster, and not to the specified user.

Are you running a local MTA? If o, this is set in the MTA's config; for
example in Postfix you would set "luser_relay=someuser".


-- 
Neil Bothwick

If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Multi-user pop3 mail delivery

[Ralph Slooten]

Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 13:38:12 +1300, Ralph Slooten wrote:
> 
>> Another problem I am having is that when two users are specified, one
>> existing, and another (non-existing, or even another domain) the
>> message goes to postmaster, and not to the specified user.
> 
> Are you running a local MTA? If o, this is set in the MTA's config; for
> example in Postfix you would set "luser_relay=someuser".

Yes, I can also specify this in the fetchmailrc, but it doesn't solve
the problem that userA does not receive his mail if userB is not known.
All this does (I believe) is forward the unknown users to another
machine. There is no other machine to forward to as all the users are on
this current machine itself. The unknown users I am referring to are
other users from different domains (not ours) included in the To and CC
fields.

I did a lot more searching around after my initial post, and have
discovered that this kind of setup is by default hopeless for multi-user
mail, and multi-drop is just a make-do solution for those who have no
choice. We will move this customer to an hosting company who does
support separate mailboxes themselves, allowing each individual user to
download only their mail, and not all in one go and have to re-split it
all up again. It's

Thanks,
Ralph
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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Multi-user pop3 mail delivery

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 09:42:43 +1300, Ralph Slooten wrote:

> > Are you running a local MTA? If so, this is set in the MTA's config;
> > for example in Postfix you would set "luser_relay=someuser".  
> 
> Yes, I can also specify this in the fetchmailrc, but it doesn't solve
> the problem that userA does not receive his mail if userB is not known.

So if a mail is sent to A and B and only A is a valid user, both copies
go to postmaster?

> All this does (I believe) is forward the unknown users to another
> machine. There is no other machine to forward to as all the users are on
> this current machine itself.

Not so, it forwards all mail for unknown users at one of your domains to
a specified user, so I have "luser_relay=neil" to get all such mail sent
to myself.

> The unknown users I am referring to are
> other users from different domains (not ours) included in the To and CC
> fields.

Ah, I see now. Having never used fetchmail in multi-drop mode (RTFMing
is a good way of making sure I don;t even attempt things like this) I
don;t know where you'd go next.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

An expert is nothing more than an ordinary person away from home.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Multi-user pop3 mail delivery

[Ralph Slooten]

> So if a mail is sent to A and B and only A is a valid user, both copies
> go to postmaster?

Exactly. This wasn't a problem as one employee would sift through the
postmaster email every day, that was until spammers started spamming
randomly generated addresses at their domain. She received all these
too :-/

> Not so, it forwards all mail for unknown users at one of your domains to
> a specified user, so I have "luser_relay=neil" to get all such mail sent
> to myself.

Ahh, I se what you mean. This howerver would lead to the same issue I
have above .. over populating the email with fake addresses and a load
of spam.

Before we get into the spam topic ... this is being sorted soon ;-)

> Ah, I see now. Having never used fetchmail in multi-drop mode (RTFMing
> is a good way of making sure I don;t even attempt things like this) I
> don;t know where you'd go next.

It is not fetchmail's fault ...it's multidrop... an email account was
never designed for several users, as in several accounts coming into
one, and then being split again after download. This is in fact what
is happening. MUltidrop is simply a "solution" to the problem, bt
it'snot failproof and stuff goes wrong. I thought there might be a
better way to solve the problem though, but the solution is simple:
get them onto a real system ;-)

Anyway, thanks for your input!

Greetings,
Ralph
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