Ok, thanks everyone for the help!

MP

Hi,

Mercury32 4.8.  

I use Mercury primarily for Local LAN, but I want to allow pop3 connections from say smartphone users so some user can get their email on the fly.

How do I accept pop3 connections from outside networks like only say certain mobile devices or networks say like Verizon?  I can map ports and such with my firewall as well, but it is safe to just open up Mercury pop3 to ANY and all pop connections from the outside world?

Can I setup Mercury to only accept pop connections from certain devices by say Mac address or something?

I want to open up Mercury32 to the outside world, but I DO NOT want security risks! 

Thanks much,

MP

Use strong passwords for your user's connection credentials and make sure that connections that do not specify a password are refused (Mercury manual P.79)

FWIW, the outside people at my office via IMAP with smartphones and iPads.  Controls are as Greenman mentioned; complex passwords are in place, access is refused when no password is defined.

Hi,

Thanks for the info.

Funny thing is i just tried setting up IMAP and I can access it locally, but not from the outside world.  I added IMAP 143 and IMAP 995 to my firewall rules but I get no connections!  

 Humm...

MP 

Port forwarding in your router?

As Brian says, you need to set up port forwarding/NAT as allowing the protocol access to your network is not enough. You need to specify the IP address of the machine that is hosting Mercury/32 in the forwarding rule so the router can direct the packets arriving on port 143 to that host.

Ok, thanks all that did the trick.  I can set say just "ip ranges" in the port forwarding to say only allow from certain networks.  Is this not a practicle thing to do since devices can change IP's on the fly?

 I'm just trying to be as careful as possible and limit any weird exposure.

Thanks,

MP 

No - you don't want to restrict IP ranges as an IMAP connection can come in from any address. The port forwarding will forward data coming in on TCP port 143 (or whichever port you wish to specify) to an IP address on your home/office network. The computer that hosts Mercury/32 should have a static IP address, and it is that address the port 143 data needs to be forwarded to.