Users are setup using Configuration | Manage local users.  The postmaster is specified as one of the local users so error messages have a place to go.  The domains in the server are setup using Configuration | Mercury core | Local domains.  The domain of the server is set in Configuration | Mercury core "Internet name for this system"  You might want to checkout http://kbase.pmail.gen.nz/viewfull.cfm?ObjectID=C1523317-4EC6-11D4-8B6B0008C709E5EC to see if some of your basic questions could be answered via the knowledgebase.

I am attempting to implement Mercury as my mail server, running on a Windows Home Server (or WHS - based on Microsoft SBS 2003 technology).  No experience setting up mail servers.

No problems with install on the WHS - so far so good. Now for configuration...

The WHS and a four-station network sit behind a NAT firewall router. The WHS is also directly accessible from the internet on a dynamic domain name, through virtual server connections on ports 80 (in), 25 (in & out), 443 (in).

I am testing with just the core process and the MercuryD POP3 module. Followed the manual's configuration instructions as far as I can interpret them. All file references defined using UNC and located on the local server.

My initial aim is to download mail from my ISP's POP server into a Mercury user mailbox on the WHS.  I have a Global Filter set to 'always move' to a designated user mailbox.

MercuryD successfully downloads messages from the ISP through the firewall, and creates a log file for each message, however, the messages then seem to disappear. Not added to any mailbox that I can see. No system log entry either.

Any suggestions, either for the source of the problem, or for further investigations?

Regards, mcphzgig
Perth, Western Australia

[quote user="mcphzgig"]

My initial aim is to download mail from my ISP's POP server into a Mercury user mailbox on the WHS.  I have a Global Filter set to 'always move' to a designated user mailbox.

MercuryD successfully downloads messages from the ISP through the firewall, and creates a log file for each message, however, the messages then seem to disappear. Not added to any mailbox that I can see. No system log entry either.

[/quote]

The downloading via MercuryD help says if there is no user found on the host that matched the address in the downloaded mail AND there is no default user set then the mail will be quietly deleted.  This I think is what's happening to you.  You need to setup MercuryD, leave the local user field blank, set the postmaster account as the default user and then setup an alias for the addresses you are receiving to match the domain you set in Mercury/32.  Suppose you have a domain setup as follows in your mercury.ini file.

[Domains]
;server ; domain
server : server
server : mercury.example.com

You have setup a user called ADMIN on your system.  You also have a postmaster account called POST that you have specified in the local Mercury core setup.  Mail for admin@mercury.example.com goes to the mail subdirectory admin since there is both a domain match and a local user match.  Mail to a user nobody@mercury.example.com goes to the default user,  in this case the user POST.

 Now if you are really lucky your ISP is one of the few intelligent ones who knows that a domain mailbox is not very good if they are not passing the original RCPT TO: SMTP address as a header line in the message.  Hopefully you'll find a "X-Delivered To:" or "X-Originally-To:" or similar address in the downloaded mail that can be used by MercuryD to actually deliver the mail. 

In any case if the email address of the received mail neither matched a local username or domain then you'll have to alias these email addresses so that they do match a local user and domain.  For example suppse the mail is really sent to a domain example.com.  In this case you would have to alias admin@example.com to admin@mercury.example.com to get the mail delivered.

 
I hope this is enough to get you started, it is only scratching the surface of some of the things you'll have to do to get this server up and running the way you want it to.  Here's a link to the Mercury/32 knowledgebase that has a lot of pointers.  http://kbase.pmail.gen.nz/mercury32.cfm
 

You don't need any global filter for this. Just enter the name of the user that is to receive the messages in Mercury D Configuration / POP 3 Account Information / Local user field.

Local user  If you enter the name of a local user on your system (one to which Mercury can deliver directly) then all the mail downloaded from the remote account will be sent to that local user, irrespective of the address fields in the message.  

 The user name should be in it's simplest form, i.e. myuser, not myuser@mydomain.com.

/Rolf 

Thomas

Thanks for your thoughtful answer. There's a bit there to digest.

My original problem of the POP mail not arriving at any identifiable mailbox seems to have been due to pure carelessness on my part. I simply mistyped the Primary Queue Directory location. [:$]  Found that with some routine checking.

Regards, mcphzgig

It is good to see someone else going for Mercury on WHS. I was starting to think I was the only one having searched the forums a few times.

 I have been using Mercury for more years than I can remember on an ordinary Workgroup PC-based network, but thought I would give it a try on WHS as part of my beta testing. I have found it totally reliable, fetching POP3 email from two ISP's for all my family and sorting it into their respective mailboxes. It even forwards out to my daughter's own external mailbox now she has married and left home.

I originally went for passing email through Mercury rather than each member collecting their own to ensure I could filter out all the offensive spam before it got to my children when they were younger. It is also useful to have it collect local email from various monitoring systems for my network and server.

I hope you have success with your WHS setup and I'll watch out for postings in case you get stuck.

I must admit, despite using Mercury for years, I have not found the need to post on the forums before as it has proved so solid. Maybe I should stick around and see if I can help others with this useful product.

I read your post and could not resist taking advantage of your good nature to ask my very, very newbie question.

I have recently installed HP MediaSmart server and WHS. I have figured out how to install Mercury on the C: drive of the server and have chosen the Mercury mail clients to install.  Now comes the very, very basic question. In the configuration of the Core Module, you are required to enter the username of the postmaster. The Help note points out that:

"Every system capable of receiving Internet mail must have a user called postmaster, to whom problem and status reports are sent. The postmaster account is usually an alias to a real user on your system, and this is the expectation within Mercury. Enter in this field the username of the user on the machine where Mercury is running who is to act as your postmaster. While it is permissible to have a non-local address as your postmaster address, we strongly recommend you do not do this, since it can create real problems and mail loops when the remote machine is unreachable. This setting is mandatory - Mercury cannot run properly without it."

My problem: What is the username of the user? Is it the User Name of my WHS User Account? I have a domain registered with TZO and it is of the form, mydomain.com. How, where do I setup the first mailbox eg user@mydomain.com so that I can use it as the postmaster address or as the address to collect mail? I'm not sure I'm even asking the question correctly, but how do you create mailboxes xxxx@mydomain.com? Is this a step that must be taken before you configure Mercury or do the mailboxes arise from configuring Mercury?

Very confused I know, but then I am! 

Thanks