Netscape Mail Server Administrator's Guide

Introduction

Welcome to Netscape Messaging Server. Netscape Messaging Server is an open, standards-based client-server messaging system that lets users easily exchange information within a company as well as across the Internet. Controlled by forms accessed through the World Wide Web (WWW), Netscape Messaging Server lets server administrators manage Messaging Server functions with the easy-to-use Netscape Navigator interface from any desktop in the network. It addresses the major security vulnerabilities associated with email systems and delivers superior performance. Because the messaging server is based on Internet open standards (such as SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, LDAP, and MIME), you avoid costly dependence on proprietary solutions and are assured of maximum compatibility with other systems.

What's new in Messaging Server 3.5

Netscape Messaging Server 3.5 offers a variety of new features designed to enhance your electronic mail (email) system:

Support for FORTEZZA hardware-based encryption
Additional LDAP routing configuration options (see LDAP Routing Configuration)
Enhanced support for plug-in configuration
Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE) filters (see Controlling unsolicited bulk email)

About this guide

This guide is intended for Netscape Messaging Server administrators, those responsible for setting up and administering the Messaging Server after it has been installed. For instructions on installing Netscape Messaging Server, see the Installation Guide.

Here's what you'll find in this guide:

Chapter 1, "Working with users and groups" provides information on Netscape Administration Server's user and group forms that you will use to create mail accounts.
Chapter 2, "Working with system settings" explains how to use the forms in the System Settings menu to configure your Messaging Server.
Chapter 3, "Ensuring a secure messaging system" discusses the various ways Netscape Messaging Server keeps your mail secure. It also provides instructions on using the IMAP Encryption and Security Preferences forms.
Chapter 4, "Server status and reports" explains how to enable the Messaging Server for remote monitoring through the server's SNMP subagent. It also provides information on how to select logging preferences.
Appendix A, "Messaging Server architecture"provides a comprehensive discussion of the messaging server software architecture, including message channels and the Messaging Server managers.
Appendix B, "Compatibility with sendmail" discusses compatibility issues between sendmail and Netscape Messaging Server. This appendix will help system administrators manage migration from sendmail to Netscape Messaging Server.
Appendix C, "Program delivery" explains how to set up the Messaging Server to deliver incoming messages to external programs. Because program delivery is currently available only on the Unix platform, this appendix is of interest only to administrators running Netscape Messaging Server on a Unix system.
Appendix D, "Command-line operations and utilities" provides information on how to operate certain Netscape Messaging Server 3.5 functions from the Unix command line. It also presents a variety of command-line utilities that you can use with Netscape Messaging Server 3.5.

This guide also includes a glossary of terms and an index.

About the other guides

This guide provides instructions on administering Netscape Messaging Server. Here's what you'll find in the other Netscape guides:

The Installation Guide provides all the information a system administrator needs to install Netscape Messaging Server 3.5. It presents four common installation scenarios, discusses preinstallation issues, and provides a preinstallation checklist and step-by-step installation instructions.
Managing Your Netscape Servers is a general introduction to administering Netscape servers. It also explains the role of Netscape Administration Server, a server installed along with Netscape Messaging Server that centralizes many common administrative tasks across a variety of individual Netscape servers and that you'll use to create and maintain user and group accounts.

Conventions used in this guide

This guide uses standard naming conventions. The following table describes those naming conventions and provides examples of their use. It also describes the typeface conventions and margin notes used in this book.

**^{Conventions used in this guide}**
Convention	Examples	Description
Naming Conventions
City names	sunnyvale, london, rome	Cities are used as example hostnames.
Organizational group names	sales, marketing, engineering	Organizational groups are used as example subdomain names (rather than hostnames).
host.domain	london.dispatch.com rome.sales.dispatch.com	A fully qualified domain name.
user@host.domain	ufirst.lastname@host.domain jane.doe@london.dispatch.com	An email address that uses a host-specific, fully qualified domain name.
domain	dispatch.com sales.dispatch.com	A non-host-specific domain name. (The hostname is excluded.)
user@domain	first.lastname@domain jane.doe@dispatch.com	An email address that uses a non-host-specific domain name. (The hostname is excluded.)
Typeface Conventions
Italic	Mail clients are programs that help users carry out email tasks. MX records for your domain must be available or mail addressed to your domain will not be deliverable. `/var/mail/`login_name	Italics are used to introduce new terms, for emphasis, and for "substitutables" (that is, for items that vary from case to case, as in the path name shown in the third example at the left).
`Monospace`	The package contents need to end up in the`/var/spool/pkg`directory.	Monospace font is used to represent text as it appears onscreen and to indicate anything you must type.
Margin Notes
Unix	n/a	Identifies a section of the guide that applies only to Netscape Messaging Server running on a Unix system.
NT	n/a	Identifies a section of the guide that applies only to Netscape Messaging Server running on a Windows NT system.

Pathname conventions

This guide provides information about two versions of the Netscape Messaging Server: one for Unix, the other for Windows NT. In cases where pathnames for Unix and Windows NT differ only in their use of their respective slash conventions--the forward slash (/) for Unix, the backslash () for Windows NT--for brevity, this guide presents the pathname only in the Unix format.

Note

Windows NT supports both forwardslash and backslash characters.

In cases where the differences between Unix and Windows pathnames are significant and go beyond their differing slash convention, the pathnames are provided in both forms and identified with a margin note.