Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 18:54:18 +0000 (UTC)
From:  Jim Mirick <jrmpublic@...thlink.net>
To: popa3d-users@...ts.openwall.com
Subject:  Re: connecting via Thunderbird

Uwe Dippel <udippel@...> writes:

> 
> Jim Mirick wrote:
> 
> > A little more diagnosis:  /var/log/messages has some things from popa3d, as 
> > when I log on as root and then execute popa3d from the command line to
> > look at my mailbox (I say USER JRM etc.).
> 
> Amazing. Now everything is through and said ... .
> 
> Do we agree on some basics here ? Does RHEL eventually start popa3d by 
> default ? can you do some 'ps ax | grep pop' before and after you start it ?
> 
> And then, what does "I can connect via command line" mean ? what do you 
> type ? Be specific, please !
> 
> Did you try to telnet from the client (the one you run Thunderbird on) 
> to the server ?
> 
> What distro does the client (the one running Thunderbird) use ? Also 
> RedHat ?
> It might help you could install nmap on that machine and then issue some 
> 'nmap -v 123.123.123.123' (replace 123.123.123.123 with the IP of the 
> server).
> 
> And add the 'some things from popa3d' for us to see, please !
> 
> > However, if I log on to Linux as JRM and try to execute popa3d it says 
> > "command not found", even if I cd to /usr/sbin where the executable is.
> 
> Try to run it as root, instead !
> 
> By now I could as well suggest to de-install and purge all configuration 
> (no idea how to do on RedHat, sorry), and install from scratch.
> 
> > So I suspect there is a permissions problem.  I have changed the permissions
> > for popa3d in /usr/sbin to "everybody can execute" it still won't execute it
> > for anybody except root.
> 
> That sits on another sheet of paper. root is the correct user to execute 
> popa3d for the time and purpose being.
> 
> > Is there a config file for popa3d somewhere?  I can't find one.  How does it
> > know what to do?
> 
> I don't know about RedHat, but it doesn't need one, basically. It 
> 'knows' what to do: read from the mail-spool on request on port 110.
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Uwe
> 
> 

I appologize again for being a Unix newbie and thank you for your patience.
In order of importance:

1. nmap reports that port 110 is not open, after considering it I just tried
"service popa3d start" and voila it now says started.  I reran nmap and there
it is, port 110 open.  So I go back to the client at it all now works.  I can
now breathe again.  Glad I had a Fedora box to run this from!  My t-bird is
on a Windows box.

2.  I guess it has to be manually started, as does postfix, if I reboot.  I
was fooled because I could go in as root and  enter popa3d    and it responds 
+OK   and then I can enter commands such as USER   etc.  So, I thought it
was started, obviously not.

3.  All of the documentation I have on this is the MAN output so - in effect
- I didn't realize how simple it was.  I didn't know to treat it as a service,
I just guessed; I suppose its obvious to everybody else but not me.

Thank you all again for all your help, this is a cute little piece of
software, I am so used to MS bloatware and I don't know how to deal with 
something this straightforward.

jim

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