Topic: Can't collect mail via pop3

[Clive]

I cant collect mail from my pop3 mail box, this is located on a dedicated box.
connecting via a dial-up account via ISDN.

I can send mail no problem via my SMTP server

In the e-mail retrival section, I have setup the following:

E-mail retrieval mode = Multi drop
Delegate mail server = no entry
Secondary mail server is my pop3 mail box like = mail.xyxzz.co.uk

Pop3 username = xxxxx

Pop3 user password = xxxxxxx

But I can never collect the mail from the pop3 box am I missing somthing.

Thank you

Reagrds
Clive (UK)

[guestHH]

Hi Clive,

Which version of MITEL SME are you using ?

Anyway, try this:

Edit the file '/etc/crontab'
You will see that startmail is called several times. Change the word 'startmail' with 'fetchmail'.

Let us know what happens now if you try to collect mail...

Regards,
guestHH

[David Hardy]

I had similar problems with SME 5.1.2 when Freenet upgraded their mailservers:

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=4578.msg15928#msg15928

I understand that the version of fetchmail in SME 5.5 has been patched, I've downloaded the iso and installed that. It works a treat.

HTH


David.

[Clive]

Hi,

Thanks for the information, I am using version 5.5.

Tried your solution but still cant collect pop3 mail.

Regards

Clive

[Norrie]

Clive,

You're not the only one having this problem.  I'm having this problem with my home server too.  If you look in the bug list you'll see this...

Fetchmail which is triggered on ip-up fails w syntax error
Applies to version: 5.5
Fixed in version:  
Problem: The email-ipup event is calling /etc/fetchmail directly, rather than /etc/startmail. This means that "SMTP" is not defined in the environment, and so the fetchmail configuration is incomplete.
The logs indicate a fetchmail parse error

    fetchmail:-:13: parse error at fetchall

 
Workaround: Manually retrieve mail from the command line
    # /etc/startmail


I think this is the same bug.  However, manually running startmail doesn't work either.
Can anyone offer any more help please?  I'm not sure where to go from here.

System:

SME 5.5
Blades applied
Security update installed
ISDN

Many thanks
Norrie

[David Hardy]

Clive / Norrie,

Have you tried running fetchmail from the command line?

fetchmail -a -p pop3 -v --auth password pop3.isp.co.uk

You should see the interaction between your e-smith and the isp's mail server as a series of messages rushing up the screen.

If it doesn't work at all, see http://www.e-smith.org/bugs/index.php3?op=showBug&bugID=83 which I guess will be fixed in update 3.

In view of the quite crippling nature of this bug, it may be worth considering dropping back to 5.1.2 until its fixed.

Sorry I can't be more positive - being a newbie with only a few months experience myself I'm quite often well out of my depth with all of this!

David.

[Charlie Brady]

David Hardy wrote:

> Have you tried running fetchmail from the command line?
>
> fetchmail -a -p pop3 -v --auth password pop3.isp.co.uk
>
> You should see the interaction between your e-smith and the
> isp's mail server as a series of messages rushing up the
> screen.

Better is to get fetchmail to log more info to syslog:

/sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop fetchmail \
 Verbosity --verbose
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event email-update

> If it doesn't work at all, see
> http://www.e-smith.org/bugs/index.php3?op=showBug&bugID=83
> which I guess will be fixed in update 3.

That problem is fixed in update 2.

Charlie

[Charlie Brady]

guestHH wrote:

> Edit the file '/etc/crontab'
> You will see that startmail is called several times. Change
> the word 'startmail' with 'fetchmail'.

That's pretty much guaranteed not to work, and will probably make things worse.

Charlie

[Norrie]

Hi,  thanks for your replys.
ok, I did this...

[root@phumper root]# fetchmail -a -p pop3 -v -u myaccount --auth password mail.myisp.net
Enter password for myaccount@myispl.net:
fetchmail: 5.9.0 querying myispl.net (protocol POP3) at Mon 26 Aug 2002 11:14:38 PM BST
fetchmail: POP3< +OK POP3 Ready maxproxy2
fetchmail: POP3> USER myaccount
fetchmail: POP3< +OK USER myaccount set
fetchmail: POP3> PASS *
fetchmail: POP3< +OK You are so in
fetchmail: POP3> STAT
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 0 0
fetchmail: No mail for myaccount at myisp.net
fetchmail: POP3> QUIT
fetchmail: POP3< +OK
fetchmail: normal termination, status 1
[root@phumper root]#

I also entered another account's details which started to download mail ok but I terminated the download with ctrl-c because my server isn't set up to retrieve mail from this account.

So, does this mean that fetchmail is working ok and that there's a configuration fault somewhere?

Returning to 5.12 won't help as the ISDN support works in 5.5

Thanks again for the replys but more more help would be great.
All the best

Norrie
8o)

[David Hardy]

OK,

This is my last shot .....

Charlie says its fixed in update 2 - download the rpms and try that.

If it still doesn't work, how about tackling it laterally, switch off multidrop and:

1. Sign up for dynamic dns with mail support at www.no-ip.com ($29 p.a.)
2. Then either
      a) use their ddns client to refresh your status when you go online.
or
      b) have a static IP so their end checks whether or not you are there.
3. Have your email come whooshing in when the other end finds you.

More detail here http://www.no-ip.com/services/mail/backup.

I don't know if this will get you around the bug or just deliver you to the threshold of problems that I have no idea about - perhaps Charlie or someone else with more knowledge than me can comment.

Please note that I have a static IP so have no experience whatsoever with any dynamic IP updating client software at all.

Good Luck!!!!

[Norrie]

Hi.  Thanks for your replys.

This morning I ran...

fetchmail -a -p pop3 -v -u myaccount --auth password mail.myisp.net

And this time a couple of messages were collected.  However, they didn't appear in my webmail page.

I also ran...

/sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop fetchmail \
Verbosity --verbose
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event email-update

...as Charlie suggested but I don't know what this is supposed to do. (doh!)  I tried to look in the sysinfo file but couldn't find it.

I applied the available blade and update 2 as soon as I set the SME box up and before I entered any mail settings.

So,  is this still a bug and if so should I report this directly to Mitel?

Thanks again

Norrie
8o)

[Laurence Griffiths]

As I posted elsewhere, I am also having this problem. I suggest that you report it to Mitel.

[Charlie Brady]

Norrie wrote:

> fetchmail: No mail for myaccount at myisp.net
...
> So, does this mean that fetchmail is working ok and that
> there's a configuration fault somewhere?

Are you sure that there is mail to collect? It seems from your test above that there isn't.

What do you see when you do:

/sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop fetchmail \
  Verbosity --verbose
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event email-update
/etc/startmail
tail /var/log/maillog

?

Charlie

[Charlie Brady]

Norrie wrote:

> And this time a couple of messages were collected.  However,
> they didn't appear in my webmail page.

What do you see in /var/log/maillog?
What do you see in /var/log/qmail/current?

The log files are there for a reason

> /sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop fetchmail \
> Verbosity --verbose
> /sbin/e-smith/signal-event email-update
>
> ...as Charlie suggested but I don't know what this is
> supposed to do.

It tells fetchmail to log more information in /var/log/maillog.

Charlie

[Norrie]

Here is the end of the fetchmail output where the third of three mails are collected...

reading message 3 of 3 (2452 octets)
fetchmail: SMTP> MAIL FROM:
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 Sender accepted.
fetchmail: SMTP> RCPT TO:
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 Recipient accepted.
fetchmail: SMTP> DATA
fetchmail: SMTP< 354 End your message with a period.
#****************************fetchmail: SMTP>. (EOM)
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 Accepted message qp 13211 bytes 2690
 flushed
fetchmail: POP3> DELE 3
fetchmail: POP3< +OK
fetchmail: POP3> QUIT
fetchmail: POP3< +OK
fetchmail: SMTP> QUIT
fetchmail: SMTP< 221 Good bye.
fetchmail: normal termination, status 0

I'm still unable to collect the mail from a client though.

Charlie> The log files are there for a reason
I know.  I'm just not sure how to find them or what to look for yet. - Thanks!
Does this help you help me?

Thanks again

Norrie
8o)