[Dovecot] questions of how to connect to pop3s

[David Warden]

On Nov 12, 2010, at 12:09 PM, Scott Berry wrote:

> 
> 
> Hello there,
> 
> I am new to Dovecot and I am using version1.2.12.  I have included the
> dovecot -n output:    
> 
> root at ubuntuSnoopBear:/home/scott# dovecot -n
> \# 1.2.12: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
> # OS: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae i686 Ubuntu 10.10 
> log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S 
> protocols: pop3 pop3s
> listen: 995
> ssl_key_password: nerdie1tech
> login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
> login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3-login
> login_greeting: pilotalknet.dyndns.org ready.
> mail_privileged_group: mail
> mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock
> mail_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3
> mail_plugin_dir: /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/pop3
> auth default:
>  passdb:
>    driver: pam
>  userdb:
>    driver: passwd
> 
> 
> What I need to ensure is that everything is correctly set for a pop3s
> server. I also need to know how to tell someone how to configure their
> mail client as the pop3 and smtp server.  For example do I say
> pop.pilotalknet.ldyndns.org and smtp.pilotalknet.dyndns.org?   The
> hostname is:
> 
> pilotalknet.dyndns.org
> 
> also is it still possible to check the working of the connection via a
> telnet connection doing:
> 
> telnet pilotalknet.dyndns.org:995
> 
> or do I have to do something different?  what I am achieving with the
> telnet connection is to ensure the pop server comes up with the greeting
> from dovecot.
> 
> Thanks much.
> 

You won't be able to use telnet to connect to pop3s since it will try speaking SSL right away, which telnet doesn't understand. Instead, you can check that it's working by using openssl's s_client mode, which is basically telnet+SSL. This page has easy instructions:

http://www.anta.net/misc/telnet-troubleshooting/pop.shtml

As for configuring mail clients, you must create DNS records for pop.<yourdomain> and smtp.<yourdomain> for people to be able to connect to them. Otherwise they would have to connect to your hostname.

-David Warden