Last question of the day I promise :) If dovecot is configured to use the MySQL patch, ie: auth_userdb = mysql /path/to/dovecot-mysql.conf auth_passdb = mysql /path/to/dovecot-mysql.conf Its not possible to "chain" authentication methods is it? I mean, if its using MySQL it _cannot_ be configured to check passwd (via "pam *") first, and then check mysql, right? So, if I want to support real shell users (who are in /etc/passwd) I will have to have them in mysql along with the "virtual" users. ...... OK I lied, one more question! I love the feature that you can login with a username user at domain and the domain is automatically parsed out. Do these options have anything to do with the @domain part (referred to as a realm in auth.txt) or are they for something else completely? I'm not sure what SASL is that it refers to in the example .conf #auth_realms #auth_default_realm = Thanks, Skye