# problem with qpopper installation



## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

I installed the qpopper port in the /usr/ports/mail/qpopper directory without apop or pam authentication support.  This should allow for the standard username and password, or so I thought.

I added the pop3 line in the inetd.conf file and restarted the inetd service.  netstat shows the system listening on port 110.

However, everytime I try to log in and get the mail, the client keeps returning with an invalid username or password.  I know they are correct, and there is mail in the mailbox.

Any suggestions on where to look or what steps I might need to take?


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

*Another additional point*

I have telnetted into the server and authenticated using the same username and password with no problems.


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## DutchDaemon (Nov 8, 2009)

What is in the logfiles about these authentication attempts? And are you sure the pop3 line in inetd.conf is actually referencing qpopper? And have you tried running qpopper as a daemon instead of from inetd? In that case you might try running it in the foreground (debug mode).


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

When I telnetted in it was to port 110 and qpopper answered, I was able to entere the username and password and everything was working.

So I would say based upon that, it is up and running like it is supposed to be.

However, from the client it will never authenticate.


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

Ooops forgot to mention, the logfile never shows the login attempts......and I am not sure why about that.


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## DutchDaemon (Nov 8, 2009)

Run tcpdump on port 110 and connect with the client. Is it actually showing up (maybe the client is not configured correctly -- protocol, port, TLS, that sort of thing)?


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

Here is an entry that I found in the messages log file, I had my iphone configured to check for email on this account, and before I set it up on this new server it was always working fine.  


```
Nov  8 09:39:35 64-150-176-124 qpopper[28996]: (null) at mobile-166-137-133-039.mycingular.net (166.137.133.39): -ERR POP EOF or I/O Error
```


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

I ran the tcpdump, not quite sure what I am looking for, except that I never see the authenticate attempt from the client.

I saved it as a file but not sure if you want me to post it here....


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

I am starting to back track and make sure that everything else is working correctly.

Since there is nothing in the logs, it is apparent the client is not getting to the server.  So is there a way to force a DNS refresh ?  I just want to make sure that everything is in sync and then try again.


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## DutchDaemon (Nov 8, 2009)

Try connecting by IP?


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

Ok well the DNS is now reporting the correct Ip address for the mail server, and I got the following in the maillog file:


```
Nov  8 11:07:47 64-150-176-124 sm-mta[34913]: nA8I7lZd034913: c-71-228-28-117.hsd1.il.comcast.net [71.228.28.117] did not issue MAIL/EXPN/
VRFY/ETRN during connection to IPv4
```


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## DutchDaemon (Nov 8, 2009)

You're connecting to port 25 (smtp).


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

This is so stinking frustrating.  I never had this much trouble with qpopper before......

I have no idea at this point how to get this damn thing working arggggh


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

I have double checked the DNS and it is responding correctly with the right ip address, however nothing additional in the logs.  I had gone back and recompiled earlier this morning the qpopper with the --enable-log-login option which I read was suppose to ensure that logins were logged correctly.

So at this point I am at a complete loss.


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## DutchDaemon (Nov 8, 2009)

Run [cmd=]tcpdump -s 0 -pnli interface dst port 110[/cmd] (replace 'interface' with the correct interface from [cmd=]ifconfig[/cmd]), and compare the 'telnet 110' login to the client login.

If at all possible, run the same tcpdump on the client side.


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

Ok here is something else I have found.  In the /var/mail I have an entry of .dougpalme.pop which is empty.  I deleted the file and then used the client to retry again, and the file was recreated.  So the connection is happening but no mail is ever pulled and that file is always blank.

Any idea what that is about?


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## DutchDaemon (Nov 8, 2009)

The file is supposed to be blank, because it is a mere lockfile. Are the permissions of /var/mail and the mailbox in order?

/var/mail should be drwxrwxr-x  2 root  mail

The mailbox should be -rw-------   1 username    username

See if the telnet 110 session actually succeeds like this:


```
telnet some_host 110
user username
pass password
retr 1
quit
```

You should see the first email appear after 'retr 1'. If that works, the client is set up incorrectly.


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

This is all that is reported:

```
64-150-176-124# tcpdump -s 0 -pnli re0 dst port 110
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on re0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes
11:27:31.740364 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: S 1683082230:1683082230(0) win 65535 <mss 1460,nop,wscale 3,nop,nop,timestamp 58901863 0,sackOK,eol>
11:27:31.833950 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 2998544998 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901864 2498876766>
11:27:31.939601 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 141 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901865 2498876869>
11:27:31.944458 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 0:16(16) ack 141 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901865 2498876869>
11:27:32.037985 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 179 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901866 2498876970>
11:27:32.042762 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 16:32(16) ack 179 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901866 2498876970>
11:27:32.138771 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 244 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901867 2498877071>
11:27:32.143539 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 32:38(6) ack 244 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901867 2498877071>
11:27:32.234803 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 256 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901868 2498877169>
11:27:32.239618 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 38:44(6) ack 256 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901868 2498877169>
11:27:32.333213 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 284 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901869 2498877265>
11:27:32.426763 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 431 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901869 2498877358>
11:27:32.431582 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 44:50(6) ack 431 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901869 2498877358>
11:27:32.525690 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 469 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901870 2498877457>
11:27:32.618765 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 520 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901871 2498877551>
11:27:32.623574 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 50:58(8) ack 520 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901871 2498877551>
11:27:32.714746 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 537 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901872 2498877649>
11:27:32.808365 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 1708 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901873 2498877740>
11:27:32.813183 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 58:66(8) ack 1708 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901873 2498877740>
11:27:32.906777 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 1725 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901874 2498877839>
11:27:33.000843 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 2898 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901875 2498877932>
11:27:33.005152 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 66:74(8) ack 2898 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901875 2498877932>
11:27:33.096368 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 2915 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901876 2498878031>
11:27:33.190010 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 4067 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901877 2498878122>
11:27:33.194764 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 74:82(8) ack 4067 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901877 2498878122>
11:27:33.288438 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 4084 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901878 2498878220>
11:27:33.389177 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 5239 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901879 2498878314>
11:27:33.394048 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 82:90(8) ack 5239 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901879 2498878314>
11:27:33.488130 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 5256 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901880 2498878419>
11:27:33.581176 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 6418 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901881 2498878513>
11:27:33.586061 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 90:98(8) ack 6418 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901881 2498878513>
11:27:33.679562 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 6435 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901882 2498878611>
11:27:33.775628 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 7592 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901883 2498878705>
11:27:33.780613 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: P 98:104(6) ack 7592 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901883 2498878705>
11:27:33.876345 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 7665 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901884 2498878808>
11:27:33.881186 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: . ack 7665 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901884 2498878808>
11:27:33.886084 IP 71.228.28.117.44028 > 64.150.176.124.110: F 104:104(0) ack 7665 win 65535 <nop,nop,timestamp 58901884 2498878808>
```


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

I did your test and it worked


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

The client is mac and there are not a whole lot of settings for me to change.


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

Any idea why the login attempts are not being logged in the maillog file?


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## DutchDaemon (Nov 8, 2009)

If the manual test succeeds nothing is wrong with qpopper, and the tcpdump output looks entirely normal. Can you try an alternate POP3 client? There must be some freeware clients out there.

It's been a long time since I used qpopper (prefer Dovecot nowadays), but you usually need some flags in inetd.conf to enable logging (something along the lines of '-l', but I don't know anymore), or else a config file directive should handle that when qpopper is run as a daemon. It usually logs to maillog, but you might also check auth.log.

Again: you could try commenting out the inetd.conf line, restarting inetd, and then run qpopper as a daemon in the foreground (see the manual, probably something like qpopper -d). At least you can see what happens on the console then.


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

Ok, I put in a call to Apple support and they had me take all the accounts offline, send myself a message from the same account, then bring everything back online and check email...now it seems to be working.

Which is strange, but as long as it works I am happy 

Question though, what is the advantage of dovecot? I have heard a few things about it, although did not pay close attention.


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## DutchDaemon (Nov 8, 2009)

I use IMAP and IMAPs nowadays, not POP3, so that would explain a lot 

Well, glad it's solved. It was a client error after all, it seems.


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## dpalme (Nov 8, 2009)

So it seems, like I said I used qpopper several years ago (have not had to do this in a long time) and I never had as much trouble as I did this time......

Thanks again for the help, it was greatly appreciated.


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