mod_auth_mysql (http://modauthmysql.sourceforge.net/), is a module for apache which allows you to password protect a webserver directory with usernames and passwords from a MySQL table.

This is ideal if you would like to password protect the Webmail URL of @Mail, if your organization requires extra security, and you would like to prevent access to the Webmail system for authorized IP's only.

Read below on how to setup Mod-Auth Mysql with Apache

Things to note:

-It is assumed that you are running a linux system with apache web server.
-Detailed instructions regarding the installation and configuration of mod_auth_mysql can be found here: http://modauthmysql.sourceforge.net/

Installing mod_auth_mysql

After building the module, you need to install it to your modules directory.

Apache 1.x:

apxs -i mod_auth_mysql.so

Apache 2.x:

apxs -i mod_auth_mysql.la

Next, add the following directive to httpd.conf:

LoadModule mysql_auth_module modules/mod_auth_mysql.so

Restart the apache webserver.

Once the webserver has restarted, mod_auth_mysql will be started as a module with apache.

Creating the user table

Login to mysql:

mysql -u root -p

The command line will prompt you for a password, and when you hit enter you should be presented with something like this:

Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 2975 to server version: 5.0.22-log

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql>

You are now in a mysql shell!

First you must create a mysql database called auth with the following query:

CREATE DATABASE auth;

You must now create a mysql table as below:

CREATE TABLE `users` (
`id` int(5) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`user_name` char(30) NOT NULL,
`user_passwd` char(20) NOT NULL,
`ip_address` varchar(15) default NULL,
`DateAdded` datetime default NULL,
`Expire` int(1) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
)

Adding users

Users can be added into the MySQL table with the following command from the mysql shell.

INSERT INTO users (user_name,user_passwd,ip_address,Expire) VALUES ('newuser','newpassword','computersip','1');

NOTE: If you did not include the IP ACL or Expire options, you should use something more like this:

INSERT INTO users (user_name,user_passwd) VALUES ('newuser','newpassword');

Setting up .htaccess

mod_auth_mysql uses the .htaccess file to know which directories need to be protected.

Your .htaccess file should be located in /usr/local/webmail/atmail/ and should contain the following:

AuthName "MySQL authenticated zone"
AuthType Basic
AuthMySQLEnable on
AuthMySQLUser username_for_mysql_database
AuthMySQLPassword password_for_mysql_database
AuthMySQLDB auth
AuthMySQLUserTable users
AuthMySQLNameField user_name
AuthMySQLPasswordField user_passwd
AuthMySQLUserCondition "ip_address = '%a'"
require valid-user

NOTE:

The AuthMySQLUserCondition "ip_address = '%a'" line should only be added if you have ip_address columns set up.

To test your new configuration navigate to www.yourdomain.com/mail/

If you get an error 500, then there is most likely something wrong with your .htaccess file, if you get a login box, then enter the username/password combination that you have stored in your mysql table, and it should take you straight to your mail.

Some users expressed the need to have the RBL-checking done on a per-domain basis. This can be done by running through the following steps:- locate the following line in your /usr/local/atmail/mailserver/configure file;

MYSQL_CATCHALL = select AliasTo from MailAliases where AliasName='$domain'

- add the following below:

MYSQL_RBL = select Hostname from Domains where RBL='1'

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The 0.90.2 version of ClamAV fixes a lot of problems with the previous versions, including the stability problems for installations on non-Linux systems (Solaris, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, etc)You will need:

- a backup of your clamav.conf and freshclam.conf file;
- zlib-devel, or libz-devel libraries;
- a post-3.2 version of GCC;

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Having trouble with multiple copies of the httpd.conf file on your system?Try:

httpd -V

This will give you the following listing:

(more...)

When you get the error:

--
configure: WARNING: expect not found - will not be able to change passwds
configure: WARNING: in webmail
--

Means that you are missing the component called "expect", that normally
comes with tcl. Download the expect RPM, then install on your server
this should resolve the problem

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Under some browsers with McAfee installed on the system OS, the compose screen of @Mail can take up to 10 seconds to load.This is due to the "scriptscan" feature enabled via McAfee. This will search all java script as a security method.

Disabling "scriptscan" will resolve the issue with the slow loading of @Mail.

When compiling Exim in Solaris, and you get this error:

----
Undefined first referenced
symbol in file
floor                               /usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient.a(password.o)
ld: fatal: Symbol referencing errors. No output written to exim
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
----

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Pyzor is a collaborative, networked system to detect and block spam using identifying digests of messages. You can use this along with SpamAssassin to identify spam for incoming mail.To use Pyzor with SpamAssassin, just run through the following steps:

- download the pyzor source from http://pyzor.sourceforge.net

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Sometimes, you might want to add whole domains to your whitelist for specific users. This is doable via manual manipulation of the @Mail database - just run through the following steps:- in your MySQL database, select the last line:

mysql> select * from SpamSettings order by prefid desc limit 1;

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Here is a small script which copies and gzips the entire atmail system to a single file. This allows for the resulting file to be copied elsewhere (the script FTPs it to another server) for safe keeping. The file contains everything required to restore the atmail system.Copy and save it to a script and then set a cron task to run it to backup the entire atmail system.

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