October 8, 2005

Professional mail server applications generally cost a lot. But alternatives exist in the form of free email servers, which can be set up quickly and easily, providing good functionality. One such product is ArGoSoft Mail Server.

The setup involves just a couple of MBs, downloadable from . Once it is installed, you need to configure the basics after which you will be able to run it locally or over LAN. You can also experiment with user creation.

In the main screen, go to Tools > Options. The six tabs displayed here are the core of this email server. In the ‘General’ tab, specify DNS Server as 127.0.0.1 since we are using a local host. Next options govern auto startup and auto server startup options.

Keep ‘Allow Relay’ option unchecked to stop server abuse, and also keep ‘Hide Passwords In Logs’ unchecked as this will help us in identifying if a login problem is password-related — at least initially. Next, web-email enabling options and bouncing behaviour tackling options are available.

Move on to ‘Local Domains’ tab to specify domain name to be used for email server. In this interface, type in a domain name in the field just above the Replace, Add, Delete buttons. There is no caption of this field and it’s only by typing a text that the mentioned buttons get enabled.

Add ‘home.com’ as a sample domain. One domain is fine at this time. It is not required for you to have a Windows domain already in place to be specified here. Even if you do not have any domain name server installed, or no domain is currently allocated to your machine, you can still specify any name — whatever you desire. It is simply mapped to the local host (default domain name).

The ‘Ports’ tab lets you specify which ports the server would use for SMTP, POP, Finger and Web Interface. This is particularly helpful in cases where you want to test-run a server along with an existing one, or check out the web-based email service when there’s a default site already configured in your operating system.

‘Logs’ tab gives standard logging options, while ‘SMTP Authentication’ gives you the powerful option of denying mail sending privileges until credentials are provided. This includes specifying username, password, or user POP3 login as SMTP authentication (which is the case when configuring GMail account in an email client). IP address restriction lets you restrict SMTP access selectively to blacklisted IPs.

User creation is fairly simple. Go to Tools > Users > General tab. Click on ‘Add User’, enter username and password. Create as many users accounts as required by the potential users in your organization or for testing purposes. For example, create one user named ‘test’ with password also set to ‘test’. Hence, the email address formed is test@home.com since home.com was the domain we had specified earlier. Leave the ‘Finger Information’ tab empty.

Here’s what you need to set up (or tell your users to set up) in the email clients —name, password to what has been added in mail server.

In MS Outlook 2003, go to Tools > Email Accounts > Add New Email Account > Next > POP3 > Next. Enter the information and press Test Account Settings. If ArGoSoft Mail is configured for authenticated SMTP access, proceed to More Settings > Outgoing Server tab and check ‘My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication’ and select one of the available options depending on how you have configured the server.

In MS Outlook Express 6, go to Tools > Accounts > Add > Mail. Enter the settings. The account is now added in the list of accounts. For enabling SMTP authentication, select the account, proceed to Properties > Servers tab. Check ‘My server requires authentication’, press Settings button and select one of the two available options.

Web access

This free email server comes with a built-in web server which gives complete web mail interface and user creation options. Open the site . A welcome page will appear. Press Login, enter username and password. Since Windows login box appears, it might contain your MSN or Hotmail email address. Change it to user created in mail server (not the complete email address), enter password.

Standard compose, delete, check mail options are present along with the option of changing settings. Compose mode allows users to specify their own email addresses which can be different than the real ones (works if relaying is allowed), and supports file attachment too. Similarly, new user creation option is there. The interface’s functionality is also worth checking out. As it’s a free version, ads are displayed. Browser must support Java Script and accept cookies in order to make use of the site.

Writer’s email: <nizar.ali@gmail.com>

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