[Dovecot] Testing POP3 with telnet - password always wrong

Timothy Legg
Wed, 06 May 2009 00:54:12 -0000

Hello,

I just installed the postfix and dovecot packages according to the document,

http://www.debianadmin.com/debian-mail-server-setup-with-postfix-dovecot-sasl-squirrel-mail.html

And it has been quite helpful.  It looks like Dovecot works because I can
communicate with it on port 110.

I can't help but feel I am doing something stupid though...  The web page
listed above told me to test the POP3 server using Outlook Express, and well, I
am just not going to do that.  Not when I can do it by hand...


legg at debian:~$ telnet 192.168.10.171 110
Trying 192.168.10.171...
Connected to 192.168.10.171.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK Dovecot ready.
USER test at 192.168.10.171
+OK
PASS password1
-ERR Authentication failed.

But why do I always get the password wrong?  I twice set the password for the
test user and also restarted Dovecot, but the password is always wrong.

Note that disable_plaintext_auth=no.

I'm sure there must be something stupid I have overlooked.

Any suggestions?

Thank you very much!!!!


Tim Legg

Here is some additional data that I am volunteering...

# dovecot -n
# 1.0.15: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
protocols: imap imaps pop3 pop3s
disable_plaintext_auth: no
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3-login
mail_privileged_group: mail
mail_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3
mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/pop3
pop3_uidl_format(default):
pop3_uidl_format(imap):
pop3_uidl_format(pop3): %08Xu%08Xv
auth default:
  passdb:
    driver: pam
  userdb:
    driver: passwd

# dovecot --version
1.0.15