[Dovecot] [OT] Apple Mail.app access to localhost imap when no network

Alan Schmitt alan.schmitt at polytechnique.org
Tue Nov 23 12:20:45 EET 2004


Le 23 nov. 04, à 11:01, Rob Davies a écrit :

>> | did try 127.0.0.1, and it did not work. Otherwise I might not have 
>> an IP address, as I'm not connected to any network.
>
> Maybe this is problem no viable network, also what are you using as 
> your MTA. Dovecot is just the storage device, MTA is what actually 
> receives mail through smtp and delivers it throughout your network. So 
> mail is saying OK I do not recognise this server I will work offline, 
> ie no viable /home or other area where mail is stored on IMAP machine 
> or its address, hence the workstation you are using?

I'm using postfix (running locally as well) as MTA. The goal here is to 
have full local access to mail, even when there is no network (this is 
why I have dovecot running on the machine).

>> Well, I'm able to login using "telnet localhost 143", so I guess this 
>> is not really the problem. Somehow Apple Mail is convinced that it 
>> cannot connect to localhost.
>
> Have you tried other mail clients, I suspect you will find the same 
> problem.I am not certain as I have never tried to run an IMAP email 
> server of my working desktop. For this single computer environment, I 
> always used POP and utilised ISP's email servers or other generous 
> soles variations.

I will try mutt tonight, but I'm pretty sure it's going to work.

> IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. It is a method of 
> accessing electronic mail or bulletin board messages that are kept on 
> a (possibly shared) mail server. In other words, it permits a "client" 
> email program to access remote message stores as if they were local. 
> For example, email stored on an IMAP server can be manipulated from a 
> desktop computer at home, a workstation at the office, and a notebook 
> computer while traveling, without the need to transfer messages or 
> files back and forth between these computers. (www.imap.org)

I agree with all this, and here the server is "localhost", which is 
perfectly accessible (at least by telnet). I guess Mail.app developers 
have not considered this possibility, so they just test for network 
connectivity instead of access to the server.

Thanks a lot.

Alan Schmitt
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