Configuring the SMTP Server

There is a lot of good documentation about how to configure the SMTP server so I won't repeat it here. The first place to look would be the help file ( \WinNT\Help\mail.chm). There also are some good articles that I found on the Microsoft web site. Here is one:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/periodic/period99/smpt2000.htm

The examples I use will describe some of the settings but you should use Microsoft's documentation for the details of configuring the SMTP server.

A Caveat

One caveat here. When you configure the SMTP server, you can select the location of the drop directory. This is where it places the messages it receives. For this version of the POPAgent, this must be the default C:\InetPub\MailRoot. The reason is that I can't find where this information is kept in the Windows 2000 registry. So the POPAgent is hardwired to look in the default location. If you change this location, it just won't work.

Configuring the POP3S and POPAgent Services

POP3S Server

The POP3S server is configured using the EMWAC IMS Control Panel applet. If you change any on the settings, you must restart both the POP3S and POPAgent services. The Control panel applet gives you a reminder about this when you close it.

There are only two tabs required for configuring the POP3 settings. In the first, Directories, You have to define the Mailbox Directories. There are two methods, the default %HOME%/INETMAIL/INBOX. This places the InBox in the users home directory of his profile. This doesn't seem to work to well on my Win2000 system for a couple of reasons. I think the first is a problem with access privileges which have changed since IMS was first written. The second is that not all the users that send and receive email on my system have a local profile. This is only created if they logon at the console. For the most part, when they collect their email from my server it's usually over the LAN or the Internet.

So to make things real simple, use the second method that's described in the IMS documentation. It doesn't require you to setup any profiles for the users that will be using email server and it works whether they logon to the console or remotely. This method uses the C:\Mail\%USERNAME% template. Also, to keep things all together, you can use the same directory structure as the SMTP server. In that case, use C:\InetPub\MailRoot\Users\%USERNAME% for the template.

Click the Automatically Create Mailbox option on. That way the POP3S server or agent will create the required user mailboxes for you as they receive new mail.

The Mail Spool Directory doesn't have a lot of meaning to the POP3S server other than that's where it places the logfiles if you turn that option on. Again if you want to place the log files in a standard place, Windows NT places them in %systemroot%\LogFiles. So point this directory to C:\WINNT\System32\LogFiles. The POP3S server will create a subdirectory called Pop3log and place it's log files there. To turn logging on go to the Logging tab of the EMWAC IMS applet and select POP3 Log Enabled.

The final item back on the first page is the Postmaster. This is where failed messages are sent. I'm not sure if this pertains to the POP3S server, but put a valid username of the person responsible for the system there. Administrator is the default. If you leave at that, be sure to collect his mail.

POPAgent

The POPAgent uses the same settings as the POP3S server. It knows where to place the messages (Mailbox Directory configured above) so that the POP3S server can find them. It will create the mailboxes if that item is checked and it places its log file in the Mail Spool Directory in the POPAgent subdirectory. It uses the POP3 Log Enabled flag to decide if it should create a log file.

There is one more item for the POPAgent service. On the Misc tab of the EMWAC IMS applet you should enter the domains that this system Accept Mail For:. The POPAgent checks for two conditions; the domain of the email address must be listed in Accept Mail For: and the user must have a valid user account on the system. Any messages found in the drop directory that don't meet these two requirements are placed in the Badmail directory. Check the Microsoft documentation for other uses of the Badmail directory.

IMSUsers Group

Any user that you want to be able to receive mail must belong to the IMSUsers group. In Windows 2000, use the Advanced tab of the Users and Passwords Control Panel applet to add a new group. The group also must have the Logon as a batch job privilege. Use the Local Security Setting Control Panel Applet to add the IMSUsers group to this policy. Pick Local Policies > User Rights Assignment, then double click Logon as a batch job item. Click Add and add the IMSUsers group to the policy. That sound backwards doesn't it.

Note:

The IMS POP3S server validates the username and password on the local system it's running on. With this in mind, all the users will have to have an local account on the computer that the POP3S server runs on. If you have a NT domain (different from Internet domain name) or Active Directory (AD) model, the POP3S server will only work on a domain controller (DC) that can validate users.