Imap authentication

[Lowell Gilbert]

Chris Kottaridis <chriskot at quietwind.net> writes:

> I have been using pop to download email messages. I'd like to switch to
> imap.
>
> My mail server is running FreeBSD 5.3
>
> The imap executable is in /usr/local/libexec and inetd.conf is setup
> right. I can telnet to port 143 I am talking to the imapd daemon.
>
> However, I can't seem to get logged in. It seems to not like the
> username and password I provide. I am providing the username and
> password that will work to login interactively to the server.
>
> I assume there is a different authentication method besides the standard
> password file, but as yet I haven't been able to find what that might
> be.
>
> Clearly I am missing something here. Any pointers to how to set up imap
> accounts on the mail server would be appreciated.

It depends on the particular IMAP server you are using.  Most of them
will (by default) authenticate against the system password file.

The best hints are probably to be found in the log file, but you might
need to configure the daemon for greater verbosity first.  With dovecot,
I used "verbose_ssl = yes" to do so.