Configure Postfix and an IMAP viewer of somekind?

[Guest bubblemower]

OK, I've never really setup a linux box in this way before. I've done things like games servers with stats, wiki webs, web BBSs, etc. I want to set up a box with (for example) postfix and some kind of IMAP server to get messages to about 3 or 4 end users.

 

What I want to know is, how do I do this, and how does it work? I've setup postfix before to be my SMTP server for a bugzilla install I did and it simply forwarded all messages to a smart host, no biggie really. So here are my questions:

 

1. What does postfix do with messages that it recieves? What is the scenerio from the connection to port 25 on the box to where it is stored?

 

2. How are SMTP aliases created with post fix? Is it assumed that for every user name on, for example, my Mandrake 10 box that the username appended with @hostname.domain.com is an email address and the message is deliver to the users home folder? Every time I want a new email account do I create a unix account?

 

3. How do I get email to users on Windows machines using IMAP with an email client like Thunderbird or Outlook Express? What specifically do I have to do on the server side, is there a package of some kind that does this that ships with Mandrake 10?

 

4. What about a webmail interface, how do I set something like that up, is there an application of some kind that does this bundled in Mandrake 10?

[wrenhunt]

1) The commands to manipulate the queues in postfix are: postqueue (e.g., postqueue -p) and postsuper.

 

2). Check out the /etc/postfix/aliases file. Ensure that you have an actual real live human's account which gets resolved from 'root'. Use 'postfix check' to verify your configuration.

 

3). I believe imapd runs by default on Mandrake 10? (I may be mistaken in this. If so, just enable it as one of your services. Ensure that port 143 can get through your firewall)

 

4). Check out Squirrelmail. Easy to install and configure, with plenty of extensions.

 

Wren