First a disclaimer, I'm not a mail program guru, but I have struggled
with them from time to time.
Nathan,
First the bad news. As far as I can tell, the most popular email
servers don't support running an arbitrary script/program/whatever when
a POP3 or IMAP login is detected. Beyond that, Outlook doesn't login
again for every mail check when using the IMAP protocol, it logs in
once, and may hold that connection all day.
That said, if you're running an open-source mail server, and your
clients are POP3 only, then it's pretty simple to add the functionality
you need by coding a configurable call-out at the tail end of the login
code in the server. Around the point where the system logs are written
is usually a good choice. If that's not a reasonable option, then Craig
White's suggestion to have a program watch the system logs for the login
event is a decent solution, although it is a bit tricky to manage.
==Joseph++
BTW, I understand what you're doing (enabling the service, available on
many webmail systems, where the webmail system monitors your POP3 email
services and loads that email into your webmail account). What I don't
quite follow is why you don't walk the 15 or so users through having
their mail client just check their remote email accounts directly? Even
a fundamentally flawed program like OutlookExpress or Outlook is capable
of doing this pretty easily, and if they're open to running a better
client, Mozilla Thunderbird handles it like a champ (as do most other
open-source mail clients).
Nathan England wrote:
>Unfortunately, I only control my mail server inside the company. What we want
>to accomplish is having our mail server get mail from outside sources. Some
>of the employees want their cybertrails email, others want earthlink...
>
>(don't ask they why's please... I'm as irritated about this as you might be
>just thinking about it, but as the IT guy, I'm forced to do this, and _make_
>it work!)
>
>I have all the employees who want external mail pulled in setup in a fetchmail
>job that runs about every tens minutes. There's not a whole lot of people
>involved in this, only about 15. The problem is, some of them get mail to
>the outside account and then can't get it from our systems for apx: 10
>minutes...
>So I'm looking for a way, instead of having a rotating fetchmail that keeps
>running every so many minutes, something that will recognize when they 'pop'
>in and check their external mail.
>This has to be automated. When I introduced squirrelmail, most of these people
>panicked! because it didn't say Microsoft or Outlook anywhere. And the
>thought of these guys setting up their own fetchmail lists just scares me...
>
>It doesn't matter how complicated it is on my part, but the end users can't
>notice any difference.
>
>nathan
>
>
>On Thursday 31 March 2005 07:31, Patrick Fleming, EA wrote:
>
>
>>Nathan England wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I need to have a mail server run a script when a user logs in. Anyone
>>>know how to do this? Or any specific pop server that can handle this?
>>>Basically, I have external clients connecting to a machine to check
>>>their mail from that machine. But everyone is complaining about my
>>>using fetchmail. I have it set to fetch the mail every 5 minutes. But
>>>some clients are complaining that that is too long. So I am wondering
>>>if there is a way for the system to fetch their mail when the pop is
>>>accessed. ??
>>>
>>>
>>Nathan,
>>
>>What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
>>
>>Reading this thread it would *seem* as if you might be trying to get
>>email from a third-party source. But reading your explaination above it
>>seems like you are operating *both* or all mail servers involved. If you
>>are managing both and only some email goes to an "outside" server for
>>clients you could probably set up .forward files for people who need it
>>on the "second" or "outside" server. That way, as soon as it's processed
>>by spamassassin and clamavis and whatever other filters you run it can
>>just be dumped onto the "outside" machine. I would configure the
>>"outside" machine to only accept email from your mail server and cut
>>down the hardware requirements for your "outside" machine.
>>
>>Another way of doing this is to alias incoming email to the "outside"
>>machine (again assumes you control both) for those users that need it.
>>
>>Is this what you are trying to accomplish?
>>
>>
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