hMailServer forum

Installing a Email Server for the Intranet, in a Windows NT/2k/2k3 Domain Environment.


Step One :

Choose a good system to be a email server. I assume that you have Windows NT/2000/2003 server enabled domain. For referencial purposes we will call this “ourdomain.net” throughout this tutorial. And before installing hmailserver and configuring outlook express for all the clients, the computer on which you are about to install the Email server should also be a WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP) enabled Server, for installing PhpWebAdmin features that are available with hmailserver and Squirrelmail which you need to download seperately.


Step Two:

To get to a better understanding, of your Windows NT/2k/2k3 domain, I assume you know how to manage the DNS server on your Windows NT domain. If not a little research will be a huge leap in troubleshooting and avoiding frustration if the setup does not work to your liking.


Step Three:

Install hmailserver on the computer designated for this purpose, the most desireable operating system would be windows 2000 Professional, since I have installed on one. Lets us assume that this computer is recognised as “mailserver.ourdomain.net” in the Windows NT/2k/2k3 domain. During the Installation process choose the local MySql server as the preferred database, as this would save you the trouble of two MySql instances in the Windows Process List. As this is finished you need to know that your email server is now installed and would just need to be integrated into your Windows NT/2k/2k3 domain which in our case is called ourdomain.net.

Step Four:

Open hmailserver administrator window. Create a new domain called ourdomain.net. refer hmailserver documentation on how to create domains, accounts etc.
And don’t forget to give a name to your email server. This can be achieved by going to settings=>protocols=>smtp=>Delivery of email and give a host name for the mail server, in our example I will name this server as mail.ourdomain.net. This is the official name by which our email server will be recognised throughout the intranet. And by the way don’t forget to create some dummy accounts for testing purposes.

Step Five:

Our email server is now complete and operational. We just need to test whether email is being received/sent on this server. One quick way to check whether your email server is actually working or not can be achieved in two ways
· By installing Squirrel mail in your apache webserver and see it through logging into your dummy email accounts. Send a few emails to other dummy emails and also check those accounts whether you are receiving any emails. Squirrel Mail is a great feature to check this.
· Or by using telnet from another computer to the computer where the email server is installed. I cannot give instructions to those steps as it is out of the scope of this tutorial.
My honest suggestion is that you install squirrel mail and see with your eyes whether your email server is really working or not. You will be satisfied with your own eyes and be sure of yourself.

Step Six:

We need to configure the DNS server in Domain Controller and create some host entries and MX [mail exchanger] entry. This is a time comsuuming process and might get very frustrating. You will need to have a lot of patience to achieve this.

Open the DNS window in your Windows NT/2k/2k3 Domian Controller Server. On the Left pane you will see a heading called Forward Lookup Zones. Click on it. Now on the right pane find the zonal entry for ourdomain.net. This is windowsNT domain zone so please be careful with it otherwise you may jeopardise the whole network. In this create one host entry or “(A)” record by the name mail.ourdomain.net. I now assume you know how to do this. In the IP Address box give the IP Address of the mailserver.ourdomain.com computer where the mail server is residing.

Go to another computer (client) in the network and open the command prompt and type

C:/> ping mail.ourdomain.net

And the result should be the ip address of the mailserver computer.

Again on the Domain Controller Computer create another entry this time an MX entry.
There are two boxes in the dialog box when you try to create an MX entry . Leave the first one blank. In the second type “mailserver.ourdomain.net”. and press ok .

Go back to the test computer(client) and type

C:/> nslookup –type=mx ourdomain.net

If the result shows the ip address of the computer where the email server is installed, then this entry was a success in the DNS server.

The next step is to create two more host “(A)” entries in the DNS server called pop3.ourdomain.net and smtp.ourdomain.net both these should point towards the Email Server computer’s ip address.

Next ping both these entries and see whether you are getting a proper response.
Once this has been established, you can be sure that the email server in now completely setup to send and receive emails for the Intranet.
Step Seven:

Configure Outlook Express to any of the dummy accounts you created in the email server. In the pop3 box enter pop3.ourdomain.com and likewise in the smtp box. You should be able to receive all the email which is on the local server on your computer.

Congratulations you have now setup a Email server for the Intranet usage.

Hello Brian,
Does one need to have windows 2003 server to use Hmailserver for intranet email only? Or can this be done on a simple winxp box. Does one need to go through the MX records settings. You talk also about setting up DNS and other apache/mysql, would this be necessary if one wanted to use this for a close internal email network. To be specific, here is a test I would like to conduct.

I have a LAN of 4 computers. I want to be able to exchange email internally among us using a fictitious domain name "eg. mail.local and email address such as user1@mail.local. What are the exact steps I am supposed to go through. Installing hmailserver exe does not pose problem. It is once that is done that one has to create the domain, create accounts and enter info related to smtp/pop/imap that I don't know how to proceed. Also, if one has to use one of the most common email clients such as thunderbird, outlook for testing, what smtp/pop/imap server name will he use. How to make sure that outlook or thunderbird do not go looking for the domain name on the internet but instead look locally.

If one had 2 accounts setup on the computer where hmailserver is installed, would the test be conclusive.

Appreciate if you could be as specific "the same way you went into step for windows server" as you could. Thanks.

brian34227,

I have strictly followed your steps and the testings are successful. However, when I tested sending an outgoing mail I have got the following Outlook Express error. Any clue?

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'pop3.ourdomain.net', Server: 'pop3.ourdomain.net', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10061, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

All these actually are performed within the same Windows2003 server containing the domain controller, hMailServer.

Thanks brian34227,
cf.

Have you enabled 'My server requires authentication'?

jsahiri wrote:Hello Brian,
Does one need to have windows 2003 server to use Hmailserver for intranet email only? Or can this be done on a simple winxp box. Does one need to go through the MX records settings. You talk also about setting up DNS and other apache/mysql, would this be necessary if one wanted to use this for a close internal email network. To be specific, here is a test I would like to conduct.

I have a LAN of 4 computers. I want to be able to exchange email internally among us using a fictitious domain name "eg. mail.local and email address such as user1@mail.local. What are the exact steps I am supposed to go through. Installing hmailserver exe does not pose problem. It is once that is done that one has to create the domain, create accounts and enter info related to smtp/pop/imap that I don't know how to proceed. Also, if one has to use one of the most common email clients such as thunderbird, outlook for testing, what smtp/pop/imap server name will he use. How to make sure that outlook or thunderbird do not go looking for the domain name on the internet but instead look locally.

If one had 2 accounts setup on the computer where hmailserver is installed, would the test be conclusive.

Appreciate if you could be as specific "the same way you went into step for windows server" as you could. Thanks.

hello jsahiri,

Thanks for waiting I have not come to this forum for quite long.

Anyway coming back to business,

1. One does not need to have win 2k3 environment at all. You can have windows 2K Proff all over.
See the basic thing is we are installing the Hmail server on a windows2k box which is also a WAMP server. But for DNS iam having a Win2K/Win2k3 server. Or best of all you configure all in the win2k3 server itself.


2. Ok about the record settings, if you do not want to have a DNS setup, you might have to remember your ip address for the mail server when configuring your clients. And may be to change your c:/windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts file to lookup to your mail server if do not want have a DNS

3. Please remember when configuring clients DO NOT USE SECURE SOCKET LAYER [SSL]. as we have not defined any SSL certifcates or Certifcate Authorities. As far as my knowledge goes SSL in not yet supported.

If you follow the above steps iam pretty sure everything would be fine, many of my friends have been successful with this setup.

cf wrote:brian34227,

I have strictly followed your steps and the testings are successful. However, when I tested sending an outgoing mail I have got the following Outlook Express error. Any clue?

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'pop3.ourdomain.net', Server: 'pop3.ourdomain.net', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10061, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

All these actually are performed within the same Windows2003 server containing the domain controller, hMailServer.

Thanks brian34227,
cf.

hello cf

please not we have not configured any SSL certificates on the win2k -hmailserver. So PLEASE DO NOT USE SSL. YOU SHOULD BE ALRIGHT THEN.

plobby wrote:Have you enabled 'My server requires authentication'?

HI

i HAVE NOT ENABLED IT.