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Gossamer Mail 2.0 Questions

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Gossamer Mail 2.0 Questions
I have a few questions about GM 2.0...

Can GM 2.0 use unix(linux) accounts as the database and authenticator for the mail system?

Can GM 2.0 have mail hosts on multiple machines that it checks and authenticates on(like using IMAP to log into a different mail host as to the machine GM is installed)?

Do you have any mechanism to enforce disk quotas on LINUX systems(or do you have to use quota)?

Are there Education discounts for 4 year Universities?

How do you do password changes? Can GM 2.0 change unix(linux) account passwords?

Can GM 2.0 allow users to forward their mail to another account?


I will probably have more questions, but these will get me started.

Thanks for your help!

Neil Johnson
Jacksonville State University

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Re: Gossamer Mail 2.0 Questions In reply to
Hi,

In Reply To:
Can GM 2.0 use unix(linux) accounts as the database and authenticator for the mail system?
We plan to build an Auth_Passwd plugin so it can authenticate off of unix system accounts. The other thing we already have is an Auth_POP3 module, so that if you enter a username, domain and password, Gossamer Mail will try to connect to that POP box and if it exists, then that's a valid user. That way, you can install it on a system and everyone with POP boxes on that system already (i.e. unix users) will have accounts.

In Reply To:
Can GM 2.0 have mail hosts on multiple machines that it checks and authenticates on(like using IMAP to log into a different mail host as to the machine GM is installed)?
Definately! You specify in the config the pop server you want to connect to to retrieve mail. It can be on the same server, or on a different one.

In Reply To:
Do you have any mechanism to enforce disk quotas on LINUX systems(or do you have to use quota)?
Yes, you can set total amount of mail quota on a per user basis. You also have limits on max attachment size, max folders, etc.

In Reply To:
Are there Education discounts for 4 year Universities?
No, not at the moment.

In Reply To:
How do you do password changes? Can GM 2.0 change unix(linux) account passwords?
This depends on the authentication scheme. On the default installation, GM 2 handles all the authentication and maintains it's own username/password list. However if you were using the Auth_POP module described above, then GM 2 couldn't change the password, but it would understand whenever the POP boxes password changed.

Because of your signature, I'm assuming you want to add web-based access to existing POP accounts for your students/faculty who may be on different domains/machines. If this is the case, then Gossamer Mail 2 with the Auth_POP plugin is perfect. Simply install the program and add the POP module. Then setup what domains you want to get mail from (i.e. @university.edu, @staff.university.edu, @dev.university.edu, etc). Then a student comes to the site and enters in his username, picks his domain, and enters the password.

GM 2 will now try to connect to his POP box, and if it connects ok, will assume this is a valid user and create his account. To change his password, he would use whatever tool you have already to change his POP box password.

I hope I explained that clearly, but if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Cheers,

Alex

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Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: Gossamer Mail 2.0 Questions In reply to
How about the forward mechanism? We don't want our users to HAVE to use our mail system to check their mail. It is more important to us that the simply check the mail, no matter where they do so.

While it may not be the best way security wise to setup poppassd on unix(linux) servers, have you thought about a page that will use that tool to change a unix(linux) password?

Of the several major requirements that I have, these are two of the most important.

Also, I appreciate your extremely timely response to my other question and look forward to your response to this one.

Thanks again,
Neil Johnson
Jacksonville State University

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Re: Gossamer Mail 2.0 Questions In reply to
Hi,

The forward mechnaism under this scenerio would not be enabled as Gossamer Mail would only check the POP account when a user logs in. This means that if they don't want to use Gossamer Mail, they can still access their email from Eudora/Outlook or whatever mail client they want.

I'm not sure how feasable changing the password in Gossamer Mail would be. You would have to change the password on the pop account which could be on a different machine. We could help you out with a custom script to add a web interface to this if neccessary though.

Cheers,

Alex

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Gossamer Threads Inc.