Testing Your IMail Server Installation

Testing Your IMail Server Installation

This section provides some quick tests to ensure that you have a working IMail Server configuration. See "Mail Servers and DNS" for detailed DNS information.

Step 1: Confirm your DNS Settings

To check the DNS record for your IMail Server, you can use either of the following tools:

WS_Ping ProPack. If you have installed an evaluation copy of WS_Ping ProPack, you can use the Lookup tool that is a part of this suite of diagnostic tools.
Nslookup. You can use the "nslookup" command in Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP.

To check your DNS settings using WS_Ping ProPack:

From the Start menu, click Programs > WS_Ping ProPack > WS_Ping ProPack, then click the LookUp tab.
View the MX record to verify that the domain name is pointing to the correct host name. Enter the following:
a Name or IP address: Enter the domain name (for example, domain.com).
b DNS Server: Enter the host name or IP address of the domain name server you want to use.
c Query Type: Select MX from the list.
d Click Start. You get information such as:
>domain.com  
 10,imailbox.domain.com 
View the A record and verify that host name is pointing to the correct IP address. Enter the following:
a Name or IP address: Enter the Official Host Name of the IMail Server host (for example, imailbox.domain.com).
b DNS Server: Enter the host name or IP address of the domain name server you want to use or select stack from the drop-down list to use your operating systems's network stack.
c Query Type: Select A from the list.
d Click Start. You get information such as:
>imailbox.domain.com 
 156.21.50.10 
View the PTR Record and verify that the IP Address points to the official host name. Enter the following:
a Name or IP address: Enter the IP address of the IMail Server host (for example, 156.21.50.10).
b DNS Server: Enter the host name or IP address of the domain name server you want to use; or, select stack from the drop-down list to use your operating system's network stack.
c Query Type: Select PTR from the list.
d Click Start. You will get information such as:
>10.50.21.156.in-addr.arpa. 
    host = imailbox.domain.com. 
Record any errors. If you host your own DNS server, correct the entries. If your DNS service is hosted by an ISP, contact them and request the changes.

To check your DNS settings using the "nslookup" tool:
Run the Windows "nslookup" command to view the MX record. View the MX record to verify that the domain name is pointing to the correct host name. For example, enter:
nslookup
>ls -t MX domain.com 
The command returns information such as:
>domain     MX 10   imailbox.domain.com 
Under the Windows "nslookup" command, view the A record and verify that host name is pointing to the correct IP address.
nslookup
>ls -t A imailbox.domain.com 
The command returns information such as:
>imailbox.domain.com  A  156.21.50.10 
Under the Windows "nslookup" command, view the PTR Record and verify that the IP Address points to the official host name.
nslookup
>ls -t PTR 156.21.50.10 
The command should return information such as:
>imailbox.domain.com  PTR  156.21.50.10 
Record any errors. If you host your own DNS server, correct the entries. If your DNS service is hosted by an ISP, contact the ISP to request the changes.

Step 2: Confirm Your IMail Server Installation

To confirm your IMail Server installation, do the following:

From the Start menu, select Programs > IMail > IMail Administrator.

The IMail Administrator appears. The left panel provides access to system defaults, services, and to primary and virtual host settings. For each host, you can access users, aliases, and list-server mailing lists.

In IMail Administrator, expand the localhost folder, and then select the primary host. The right panel shows the General properties for your primary host. Check the following:

Official Host Name. Make sure this name matches the host name, as entered in the Windows TCP settings, for the machine on which you installed IMail Server.
Host Aliases. If you want users on the primary host to get messages addressed to the domain name, create an alias for the host. For example, mail to the user elena is addressed as elena@emmitt.company1.com. If you create a host alias of company1.com, the user (elena) can also receive mail addressed to elena@company1.com.

For more information about configuring IMail Server, see the Configuration chapter in the IMail Server User Guide.

Step 3: Confirm User Database Setup

To verify that you can send and receive mail, you should have at least one user for your primary host.

If your primary host uses the IMail user database, you may have created a user during the installation. Check whether users were created: In the left panel of IMail Administrator, expand the localhost folder, select the primary host, then expand the Users folder. If you see only the "root" user, perform these steps to add a test user:

Select the primary host and click the General tab.
In the right panel, click Add User, then follow the instructions. A user ID must be 3 to 30 characters with no hyphens or spaces. For now, leave Show Advanced Settings turned off.
Click Next > Finish to add the user. The user ID is added to the list of registered users for the primary host. When the user ID is selected in the left panel, the user's properties appear in the right panel.

If your primary host uses the Windows NT or Windows 2000 user database, you should have two default accounts: Administrator and Guest. If you need to add a user for test purposes, add the account in the appropriate Windows administrative tool.

If your primary host is based on an external database and the external database is not populated, perform these steps:

In the IMail Administrator left panel, expand the primary host and the Users folder.
Select the user named root.
On the General tab, click to clear Account Access Disabled.
Add a few users.

Any users you have added can receive mail through IMail Server at the host name specified in your Windows TCP/IP parameters. For example, if you added the user elena, and the host name is emmitt.company1. com, the user can receive mail addressed to elena@emmitt.company1.com.

Note: If you want users on the primary host to receive messages addressed to just the domain name, create an alias for the virtual host. For example, if you want the user shown above to receive mail addressed to elena@company1.com, create a host alias of company1.com for jemmit.company.com. For more information, see the Configuration chapter in the IMail Server User Guide.

Step 4: Sending and Receiving Mail in a Test Account

To send and receive mail in a test account, complete the following steps:

Check to make sure the mail servers are running. To do this, from the left panel, expand the localhost folder and select the Services folder to see if the SMTP, POP3, and IMAP4 servers are running. The status of SMTP should be "running;" this is automatically started. If the POP3 and IMAP4 are not "running," then start them.
Start your email client.

If you are using IMail Client (Start > Programs > IMail > IMail Client), the users you added will appear in a drop-down list. Log on using one of the user accounts you created, and send mail to another user. Then check that the mail appears in the second user's Main mailbox.

Note: A version of IMail Client is automatically installed on the IMail system. This is provided for those who are administering IMail Server on the NT workstation on which IMail Server is installed. It is useful for reading the "root" mailbox, working with seldom-used accounts, and testing. The IMail Client application should not be used on the IMail Server system to view end-user mailboxes, as this may cause problems with remote access to the same mailboxes (depending on the remote clients being used).

Send a test message to test mail service to remote systems. To do this, if you are connected to the Internet, send mail to imailtest@ipswitch.com. We will reply to your mail. You can also test by sending mail to a user on another host and ask them to reply.
When you are satisfied that the mail server works properly, you can add more hosts and users.

Note: If you want users on the primary host to receive messages addressed to just the domain name, create an alias for the virtual host. For example, if you want the user shown above to receive mail addressed to elena@company1.com, create a host alias of company1.com for jemmit.company.com. For more information, see the Configuration chapter in the IMail Server User Guide.

Note: A version of IMail Client is automatically installed on the IMail system. This is provided for those who are administering IMail Server on the NT workstation on which IMail Server is installed. It is useful for reading the "root" mailbox, working with seldom-used accounts, and testing. The IMail Client application should not be used on the IMail Server system to view end-user mailboxes, as this may cause problems with remote access to the same mailboxes (depending on the remote clients being used).

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