Contents


 1. Check that it's running

 2. Check that it's listening

 3. Check that it's allowing logins

 4. Check that it's allowing remote logins

 5. Check that it finds the mails

 6. Check that real mail clients work

Check that it's running
-----------------------

First check with 'ps' that 'dovecot' process is actually running. If it's not,
you had an error in 'dovecot.conf' and the error message was written to log. Go
back to <RunningDovecot.txt> and <Logging.txt> if you can't find it.

Check that it's listening
-------------------------

Next check that Dovecot is listening for connections:

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
# telnet localhost 110
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK Dovecot ready.
---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you got "connection refused", check that 'pop3' is included in 'protocols'
setting in 'dovecot.conf'. Also check that 'listen' setting is '*'.

Next check that it also works from remote host:

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
# telnet imap.example.com 110
Trying 1.2.3.4...
Connected to imap.example.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK Dovecot ready.
---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

If that didn't work, check all possible firewalls in between, and check that
'listen' setting is '*' in 'dovecot.conf'.

Check that it's allowing logins
-------------------------------

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
# telnet localhost 110
user username
pass password
---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Replace the username and password with the ones you added to 'passwd.dovecot'
in <BasicConfiguration.txt>.

You should get an "+OK Logged in." reply. If you get "Authentication failed"
error, set 'auth_verbose = yes' and 'auth_debug = yes' in 'dovecot.conf',
restart Dovecot and try again. The log file should now show enough information
to help you fix the problem.

Check that it's allowing remote logins
--------------------------------------

You'll need to try this from another computer, since all local IPs are treated
as secure:

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
# telnet imap.example.com 110
user username
pass password
---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

If the connection is hanging instead of giving '+OK Dovecot ready', you have a
firewall that's preventing the connections.

Otherwise, the only difference here compared to step above is that you might
get:

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-ERR Plaintext authentication disabled.
---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

If this is the case, you didn't set 'disable_plaintext_auth = no'. You could
alternatively use OpenSSL to test that the server works with SSL (assuming
you've already set it up):

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
# openssl s_client -connect imap.example.com:995
+OK Dovecot ready.
---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check that it finds the mails
-----------------------------

After logging in, check that it sees mails:

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
stat
+OK 1 1532
retr 1
+OK 1532 octets
<the mail's contents>
.
---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

It should contain the mail that you sent to yourself in <FindMailLocation.txt>
step.

If anything goes wrong, set 'mail_debug = yes' and try again. The log file
should now contain debugging information of where Dovecot is trying to find the
mails. Fix 'mail_location' setting and try again.

Check that real mail clients work
---------------------------------

Since mail clients can be configured in various ways, please check first if the
problem is with Dovecot configuration or with the client's configuration. You
can rule out it being Dovecot's problem with the "telnet" methods described
above.

If you can't log in,

 * Make sure SSL/TLS settings are correct.
 * Make sure the client uses plaintext authentication method, unless you've
   specifically configured Dovecot to accept others.

Many POP3 clients have been tested with Dovecot and they work.

(This file was created from the wiki on 2011-11-16 14:09)