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POPFile is an email proxy. In the simpliest possible installation, POPFile is an intermediary that passes along communications between your email client (e.g. Outlook) and your email server (e.g. pop.your_isp.com).
Simple POPFile installation | |||||||||||||||
Email client | → | POPFile | → | Email server | |||||||||||
IP address | talks to | 127.0.0.1 | talks to | mail.isp.net | |||||||||||
POP port | over port | 110 | over port | 110 |
A mail client sends a request through POPFile to the mail server for email. The mail server responds by sending the email to POPFile which tags the email with categories or buckets and delivers them immediately to the mail client.
If you are using any additional email proxies with POPFile such as certain antivirus software, YahooPOPs, or Hotpopper, you need to configure them to work together in a daisy chained fashion like so:
Configuring POPFile to work with another proxy | |||||||||||||||
Email<br>client | → | POPFile | → | (antivirus, etc.) | → | Email<br>server | |||||||||
IP address | talks to | 127.0.0.1 | talks to | 127.0.0.1 | talks to | mail.isp.net | |||||||||
POP<br>port | over port | 123 | over port | 124 | over port | 110 |
This allows a virus checker to check email for viruses before they reach POPFile or your mail client or for YahooPOPs to fetch mail from a Yahoo account. Note that you want to avoid conflicts with other proxies by either a) using different ports or b) a different IP address. However, a different IP address is often not practical for this particular application because your proxies (e.g. virus checker and spam checker) are running together on your local machine. If none of that makes sense, that's okay it isn't essential to using POPFile. Keep reading on.
The port you set in POPFile, the POP3 listen port setting on http://127.0.0.1:8080/configuration and in your email client (the pop or incoming server) are different than the setting your mail server uses (110 by convention) and the other proxy.
The instructions below assume you have a mail proxy installed that inserts itself as a proxy like POPFile does. If you plan to install both an antivirus program and POPFile but have installed neither yet, install the antivirus software first according to the instructions provided by the author(s) of the software and then verify that you can a) get email and b) the antivirus software is working correctly. Then install POPFile following the directions below.
The most common example is probably an antivirus program. Some proxies act transparently, so the instructions will vary. See Norton Antivirus.
pop3 server: 127.0.0.1 username: pop.isp.net:user
pop3 server: 127.0.0.1 pop3 port: 123 username: 127.0.0.1%124%pop.isp.net:110:user
Note: If you are using POPFile 0.21.2 or before, use 127.0.0.1:124%pop.isp.net:110:user as username.
So the general format for using two chained proxies, POPFile, and a mail client is:
proxy[%port]%pop.mailserver.net[:port]:username
where:
See also:
Should you find anything in the documentation that is incomplete, unclear, outdated or just plain wrong, please let us know and leave a note in the Documentation Forum.