I know this is an old post but to help anybody searching for possible solutions, I had the same problem and got the same error.

The error was as simple as the file PMAIL.USR in directory MAIL was deleted by any unknown reason. Just restored from a backup and everything went fine after reloading MERCURY. 

Happy 2017 and 2018 and 2019 and so on. 

We are using Mercury 4.51 on windows server 2003.  All users are using Pegasus to access their emails but now some are asking to use Outlook Express and Pop3.

I have tried setting up myself to retreive my email using outlook express but I get the following error:

There was a problem logging onto your mail server. Your Password was rejected. Account: 'bwhite', Server: '192.*.*.*, Protocol: POP3, Server Response: '-ERR Username or password is invalid or incorrect.', Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 0x800CCC90, Error Number: 0x800CCC92

I have checked the passwd file and the password is correct, I have used simple passwords such as test and it did not matter.

I have used telnet to connect and I get the reply Pop3 serve ready, that the user is known and then when I try the pass it returns; -ERR Username or password is invalid or incorrect.

I have logged the sessions and I get this: Connection from 192.*.*.*, Tue May 19 08:39:56 2009
0 sec. elapsed, connection closed Tue May 19 08:39:56 2009

I have noticed that I can not add or change the password in Mercury/ Manage Local Users.  I change the password there but nothing changes in the passwd file in the users folder.  The same is true for setting up new users, I have to first add them to the pmail.usr file using notepad and then add them thru Mercury and then restart Mercury.

If you can't create new users or set passwords there is some strange file access problem. Make sure no files are set as write protected and that the Mercury user has full access rights to all directories and files. It would be a good idea to upgrade to the most recent version of Mercury as well.

The log excerpt from Mercury looks like a normal POP3 log entry, not a session log. Are you sure you switched on session logging and checked the right log file?

It might be good to see that Outlook Express isn't set to use APOP authorization, unless of course you have provided APOP secrets in the passwd files.

/Rolf 

Rolf, sorry, here is the session log file

13:44:19.437: Connection from 192.168.1.253, Wed May 20 13:44:19 2009<lf>
13:44:19.437: << +OK <*********>, POP3 server ready.<cr><lf>
13:44:19.437: >> USER ********@haulall.com<cr><lf>
13:44:19.437: << +OK ********@haulall.com is known here.<cr><lf>
13:44:19.437: >> PASS ******<cr><lf>
13:44:19.437: << -ERR Username or password is invalid or incorrect.<cr><lf>
13:44:19.453: --- Connection closed normally at Wed May 20 13:44:19 2009. ---
13:44:19.453:

I have both in the passwd file:

# Mercury/32 User Information File
POP3_access: ******
APOP_secret: ******

What is the difference in the POP3 and APOP in how they are used?  I set them both to the same for now.  Not sure how they are used or to what authorization I can use with outlook express, but for now I would like to just get it to retrieve email the easiest way I can just to make it work.  Then I will look at securing it more.

Barry

OK good, now we know it's a plain password authorization that is attempted, and that it was the password that wasn't matched.

This means we need to get back to the passwd file and see what's wrong with it. Check that there is no access right problem etc., and that the file was saved as plain text (using Notepad or similar program). Verify that Windows is showing all file extensions, so the file hasn't actually been renamed to passwd.txt.

APOP was an attempt to make POP3 access a bit safer by adding a bit of encryption to the login handling. I believe it's not very much used, though.

/Rolf 

Passwd.pm is the file name and the contents are what I posted previously.

Security is setup so that the user and mercury have full access to it. 

Does Outlook Express not use the logged in user account to access the folder? 

The Email account is the same as the logged in username, I have set the passwords the same.

 Barry

Outlook Express uses the details entered into Outlook Express only.

13:44:19.437: >> USER ********@haulall.com<cr><lf>

The username does not use the domain name.  The username is simply the name of the users mailbox directory.

I have tried both, with the domain and without. Neither works.

Reviewing this, I have tried using the same username, making the email account the same as the windows local user account both with the same password, so there shouldn't be access problems.  It just doesn't seem to like any passwords, even using telnet I get the same response.

barry

Reviewing this, I have tried using the same username, making the email

account the same as the windows local user account both with the same

password, so there shouldn't be access problems.  It just doesn't seem

to like any passwords, even using telnet I get the same response.

One thing to think about is that v4.62 MercuryP is applying a short term blacklist on the IP address of a connection with more than 4 failed username/password tries.  To remove the short term blacklisting you need to close and open Mercury.  You will be able to whitelist a IP address (or range of addresses) in v4.71.