Courier MTA is a mail server that provides a scalable and reliable mail transfer system for organizations and businesses. It supports secure transport protocols such as TLS and SSL, and it has built-in anti-spam and anti-virus features.
In this tutorial, we will walk you through the steps to install Courier MTA on Linux Mint.
Before installing the Courier MTA, you need to install some necessary dependencies. Open the terminal and run the following command to upgrade your system packages:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Next, install the required packages by running the following command:
sudo apt-get install courier-authdaemon courier-authlib-mysql courier-imap courier-imap-ssl courier-pop courier-pop-ssl
Courier MTA uses authdaemon to authenticate users. You need to configure the authdaemon to use the MySQL database for user authentication.
Create a new file called authmysqlrc in the /etc/authlib/authdaemonrc directory using the following command:
sudo nano /etc/courier/authmysqlrc
Copy and paste the following content into the file:
MYSQL_SERVER localhost
MYSQL_USERNAME <your_mysql_user>
MYSQL_PASSWORD <your_mysql_password>
MYSQL_PORT 3306
MYSQL_OPT 0
MYSQL_DATABASE courier
MYSQL_USER_TABLE users
MYSQL_CRYPT_PWFIELD password
MYSQL_UID_FIELD uid
MYSQL_GID_FIELD gid
MYSQL_NAME_FIELD name
MYSQL_MAILDIR_FIELD maildir
Replace <your_mysql_user> and <your_mysql_password> with your MySQL database username and password.
Save and close the file by pressing CTRL + X, then Y, and then ENTER.
Now, restart the Courier authentication daemon to apply the changes by running the following command:
sudo service courier-authdaemon restart
Courier-IMAP is the service that allows you to access your emails using the IMAP protocol over a secure SSL connection.
First, create a new file called /etc/courier/imapd-ssl:
sudo nano /etc/courier/imapd-ssl
Copy and paste the following content into the file:
SSLPORT=993
SSLADDRESS=0.0.0.0
SSLLOGGERPARAMS="-name=imapd-ssl"
TLS_CERTFILE=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
TLS_KEYFILE=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
TLS_TRUSTCERTS=/etc/ssl/certs
TLS_VERIFYPEER=NONE
TLS_PROTOCOL=TLSv1.2
Save and close the file by pressing CTRL + X, then Y, and then ENTER.
Configure Courier-IMAP by running the following command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure courier-imap-ssl
Select the following options:
Yes to configure the SSL certificateCourier-IMAP as the webmail packageimapd-ssl as the name of the SSL service/etc/courier/imapd-ssl as the configuration file for the SSL service No to both questions asking if you want to configure POP3S and IMAP4S, respectively.Restart the Courier-IMAP service to apply the changes by running the following command:
sudo service courier-imap-ssl restart
Courier-POP3 is the service that allows you to access your emails using the POP3 protocol over a secure SSL connection.
Create a new file called /etc/courier/pop3d-ssl using the following command:
sudo nano /etc/courier/pop3d-ssl
Copy and paste the following content into the file:
SSLPORT=995
SSLADDRESS=0.0.0.0
SSLLOGGERPARAMS="-name=pop3d-ssl"
TLS_CERTFILE=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
TLS_KEYFILE=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
TLS_TRUSTCERTS=/etc/ssl/certs
TLS_VERIFYPEER=NONE
TLS_PROTOCOL=TLSv1.2
Save and close the file by pressing CTRL + X, then Y, and then ENTER.
Configure Courier-POP3 by running the following command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure courier-pop-ssl
Select the following options:
Yes to configure the SSL certificate/etc/courier/pop3d-ssl as the configuration file for the POP3 SSL serviceRestart the Courier-POP3 service to apply the changes by running the following command:
sudo service courier-pop-ssl restart
To test if Courier MTA is working correctly, open your web browser and navigate to https://<your_server_ip>:443. You should see a message saying "This is a Courier-IMAP server ready to accept connections."
You can also test the POP3 service by running a POP3 client such as Outlook, Thunderbird, or Mail.app, and configure it to use SSL/TLS on port 995.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Courier MTA on Linux Mint. You can now start using it as your mail server.
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