[ SDF Public Access UNIX System .. Est. 1987 ]
join welcome faq status members store tour gopher abuse dialup minecraft
social tilde europa webmail gallery usermap irc tutorials telnet git ssh
POP3, IMAP and SMTP AUTH for Popular Mail Clients
Introduction
SDF uses SMTP Authentication to allow remote network clients such as desktop, tablet and phone mail applications to use its SMTP server for the purpose of sending (relaying) e-mail messages. SDF users with the VPM, VHOST and MetaARPA memberships have access to the SMTP server.
Quick Starter Notes
Receiving Email
- SDF's POP3 server address is mx.sdf.org port 110
- SDF's IMAP server address is mx.sdf.org port 143 (993 for TLS/SSL)
Sending Email
- SDF's SMTP server is mx.sdf.org
- SDF's SMTP server listens on port 25 as well as ports 23, 53,
587 and 8080. Some ISPs throttle or block activity on port 25.
- Set your SMTP AUTH secret with mkvpm set secret at the
shell. The auth secret is not your SDF password; plese do not set
secret to your SDF password.
- Your SMTP AUTH username is your domain name@sdf.org (ex. alan8r.sdf.org@sdf.org)
- SMTP via STARTTLS is recommended. Some email clients may refer
to STARTTLS as TLS. TLS/SSL is not STARTTLS.
Please note: the SMTP AUTH secret is set on the command line via mkvpm. The
command history of the shell may keep the secret in the history file.
The Mail Client Configurations
Emacs (SMTPmail, Rmail, Gnus)
K-9 Mail for Android
Outlook Express under Windows
Mail.App under MacOS X
Mozilla Thunderbird under Windows
Heirloom Mailx under Linux/BSD
Postfix MTA on NetBSD 6.x
iPhone Mail Application
Please note that BlueMail on Android does not support the correct password encryption algorithm, and therefore you cannot set up your SDF
email account under BlueMail. The devs have been notified of this bug; if they do fix it, the instructions here will be updated.
Emacs (SMTPmail, Rmail, Gnus)
The GNU Emacs editor includes several subsystems for handling email, including:
- SMTPmail for sending email,
- Rmail for reading email,
- Gnus, a news reader that can also be used for reading email.
(Normally, you would choose to read email in Emacs with either Rmail or Gnus and would only configure the email reader of your choice.)
Configuration for these subsystems varies depending on whether you are running Emacs locally on the SDF system that hosts your email spool or remotely on another system like your home PC.
In either case, configuration mainly takes the form of Emacs Lisp expressions added to the startup file (usually ‘~/.emacs’) on the system where you will run Emacs.
Optionally, the file ‘~/.gnus’ can be used for Gnus configuration to reduce clutter in your main startup file.
Common Configuration
Set the following variables regardless of which email subsystems you will you and whether you will be accessing email locally or remotely.
(setq
user-full-name "<your full name>"
user-mail-address "<your email address>")
Local Configuration
WARNING: If you use either Rmail or Gnus to read email locally on your SDF email host system, all messages in your email spool at the time you start Rmail or Gnus will be removed from the spool and transfered to the email reader's inbox.
Make a backup of your email spool (‘/sdf/mail/<username>’) beforehand unless you are committed to handling your email with Rmail or Gnus.
;; For SMTPmail ...
(setq send-mail-function 'sendmail-send-it)
;; For Rmail, no configuration is necessary for local access.
;; For Gnus ...
(setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
Remote Configuration
;; For SMTPmail ...
(setq
send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it
smtpmail-default-smtp-server "mx.sdf.org"
smtpmail-local-domain "sdf.org"
smtpmail-smtp-service 587
smtpmail-stream-type 'starttls)
(load-library "smtpmail")
;; For Rmail ...
(setq
rmail-primary-inbox-list '("imaps://<username>:<password>@mx.sdf.org")
rmail-preserve-inbox t) ; (If you want to keep your mail in your SDF IMAP inbox.)
;; For Gnus ...
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods
'(nnimap "mx.sdf.org"
(nnimap-address "mx.sdf.org")
(nnimap-server-port 143)
(nnimap-stream starttls)))
Additionally, for remote access place the following lines in the file ‘~/.authinfo’ (or ‘~/.authinfo.gpg’ for encryption):
machine mx.sdf.org port 587 login <mkvpm domain>@sdf.org password <mkvpm secret>
machine mx.sdf.org port 143 login <username> password <password>
Email Commands
After you have completed the configuration, start or restart Emacs and use the following commands to access your email:
SMTPmail | C-x m |
Rmail | M-x rmail |
Gnus | M-x gnus |
K-9 Mail for Android
To retrieve mail via IMAP
imap server | mx.sdf.org |
Security | SSL/TLS |
Port | 993 |
Username | sdf user name (eg, alan8r) |
Authentication | Normal password |
Password | password associated with sdf user above |
To send mail, set up SMTP with
SMTP server | mx.sdf.org |
Security | STARTTLS |
Port | 587 |
Username | Your domain name* |
Authentication | Encrypted password |
Password | string set via mkvpm set YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE |
* If you are a Meta-ARPA member and not a VHOST member, this is whatever web domain you've chosen (frequently username.sdf.org@sdf.org). If you're a VHOST member, it's your VHOST domain.
Outlook Express under Windows
Open Outlook Express
Tool -> Accounts
Click Add -> Mail to start the Account Wizard
Display name: Your Name
E-Mail address: Your email address (ex. bill@microsoft.com)
Select POP3
Incoming Mail server: mx.sdf.org
Outgoing mail (SMTP) server: mx.sdf.org
Account name: Your email address (full email address for VPM and VHOST members, just username for MetaARPA)
The wizard will now save, double click on the new configuration under the Mail tab to continue
Select the Advanced tab
Outgoing mail (SMTP) change from 25 to 587 (not completely necessary, but recommended)
Select the Servers tab
Check the box 'My server requires authentication, then click Settings
Select Log on using:
Account name: YOUR DOMAIN NAME (ex. alan8r.sdf.org, traumhost.com)
Password: What you set with the mkvpm set secret command at the shell
Click 'Apply'
Mail.App under Macos X
Open Mail.app
In the Mail menu, select Preferences
Click the Accounts tab
Select the account on the left you wish to edit
On the Account Information tab, find "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP):"
Click the arrows for the dropdown menu, and select Edit Server List...
Make sure the server you wish to use is selected in the list, and click on the Advanced tab
In the Authentication dropdown, select "MD5 Challenge-Response"
Type in your SDF username in User Name field
Type in your password in Password field
Click ok, and close the Preferences window.
Mozilla Thunderbird
This instructions should work for any recent Thunderbird (version 68 and up)
Tools -> Account Settings -> Add Mail Account
Your name: Your Name (ex. Bill Gates)
Email address: your email address (ex. amrowsell@sdf.org)
Password: your normal shell login password
Click Continue and then click Manual Config
Incoming IMAP
Incoming Server Hostname: mx.sdf.org
Security: STARTTLS
Port: 143
Authentication: Normal password
Outgoing SMTP (only works if you are MetaARPA or pay for dialup)
Outgoing Server Hostname: mx.sdf.org
Port 587
Security: STARTTLS
Authentication: Encrypted password
Username: Your domain name, @sdf.org ... for example,
amrowsell.sdf.org@sdf.org
Click Re-Test and Create Account
You will be prompted for your SMTP password the first time you go to send
mail. This is the password generated by mkvpm on the command line.
Heirloom Mailx under Linux/BSD
Add the following to ~homeuser/.nailrc to set the default SMTP relay:
# Remote SDF SMTP relaying (use SDF 'mkvpm' tool to set auth user:pw):
set ssl-verify="ignore"
set smtp-use-starttls
set smtp=mx.sdf.org:587
set smtp-auth=cram-md5
set smtp-auth-user="sdf_user.sdf.org@sdf.org"
set smtp-auth-password="my_password"
The SDF CA is self-signed but can still be used if desired. Retrieve and store
somewhere (ie. under ~/.openssl/) as pem file, then edit ~homeuser/.nailrc like so:
set ssl-ca-file="/home/home_user/.openssl/sdf_self-signed_ca.pem"
set ssl-verify="warn" # will issue "self-signed CA" warning
...
Account-specific smtp settings are possible; see the Heirloom Mailx documentation.
Postfix MTA using libsaslc(3) on NetBSD 6.x:
first, verify that postfix(1) knows about libsaslc :
% sudo postconf -A
saslc
create (as superuser) the following postfix config files:
/etc/postfix/main.cf
myhostname = mypc.my.box
mydomain = my.box
mynetworks_style = host
alias_maps = hash:/etc/mail/aliases
# SMTP client settings:
relayhost = [mx.sdf.org]:submission
smtp_generic_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_sasl_security_options = noplaintext, noanonymous
smtp_sasl_tls_security_options = noanonymous
## explicitly allow/prohibit certain SSL protocols:
#smtp_tls_mandatory_protocols = !SSLv2, !SSLv3, TLSv1
## use of "may" option allows fallback to cleartext
#smtp_tls_security_level = may
smtp_tls_security_level = encrypt
smtp_sasl_type = saslc
/etc/postfix/generic
# applies to msgs to be delivered off-site
me@mypc.my.box sdf_login@sdf.org
/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
(for security set ownership to root:wheel
, permissions to 600
)
[mx.sdf.org]:submission sdf_login.sdf.org:smtp_passwd
hash /etc/postfix/{generic,sasl_passwd}, then check and reload configs:
% cd /etc/postfix/
% sudo postmap generic sasl_passwd # creates generic.db & sasl_passwd.db
% sudo postfix check # no output unless errors
% sudo /etc/rc.d/postfix reload
test to verify everything is working correctly:
% mailx sdf_login@sdf.org
Subject: test
123
.
EOT
% sudo tail -n10 /var/log/maillog | grep smtp
Apr 27 08:53:42 mypc postfix/smtp[13387]: A61631F1FDC: to=<sdf_login@sdf.org>, \
relay=mx.sdf.org[192.94.73.24]:587, delay=3.9, delays=0.02/0/3.7/0.11, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent \
(250 2.0.0 s3RFrfvZ010436 Message accepted for delivery)
You should now be set up to use SDF's SMTP server. Enjoy!
iPhone Mail Application
This tutorial was written on iOS version 13.3. The exact prompts on other versions may vary.
- In Settings, scroll to Passwords & Accounts. Tap Add Account
- On the next screen, select Other, then Add Mail Account
- Fill in the details (examples below), then tap Next
- Name
Joe Bleaux
- Email
jbleaux@sdf.org
- Password your SDF password
- Description
SDF Mail for Joe Bleaux
(or whatever floats your boat)
- You will need to fill in pretty much all the details by hand.
- For Incoming Mail Server section:
- Hostname
mx.sdf.org
- Username
jbleaux
- Password your SDF password
- For Outgoing Mail Server (MetaARPA Users Only!)
- Hostname
mx.sdf.org
- Username
jbleaux.sdf.org@sdf.org
This will be the URL you have set up if you have a custom one. If not, then model it after this example.
- Password your SDF password
- Click Save on the next screen.
- Select the account from the Passwords & Accounts screen. On the next screen, Tap Account (which will show your username (
jbleaux@sdf.org
)
- Scroll down and click Advanced.
- Under Incoming Settings, tap to enable Use SSL, and for Server Port, put
993
.
- Tap SMTP (Under Outgoing Mail Server), to view outgoing mail options, then tap the Primary Server (should be mx.sdf.org. Change Authentication to
MD5 Challenge-Response
. Click Done at the top.
- Tap <Account at the top to go back, then tap Done.
You should be sending and receiving your SDF mail on your iPhone!
$Id: smtpauth.html,v 1.23 2024/03/09 11:23:18 papa Exp $
©1987-2065 SDF Public Access UNIX System, Inc. 501(c)(7)
(this page was generated using ksh, sed and awk)