Install Fetchmail on Mac OS X Server to replace Small Business Server exchange pop connector

  • Posted by DIYer
  • February 1, 2010

If your switching from a windows small buisness server to an apple server you may notice there is no longer  an email pop connecter like windows small business server has so installing fetchmail on an apple server may be the only way to continue downloading your pop mail from your internet mail server to your apple server.

Install X11 & Xcode Tools located in the “optional installs” folder on the mac server install disk

Check for apple updates after installation

Install MacPorts http://guide.macports.org/#installing.macports

Open Terminal

Type: sudo port install fetchmail
fetchmail and depenpencies will now be downloaded It may take awhile so be sure to wait for the computers username to appear so you are sure everything is downloaded.

Type: port variants fetchmail

this will give a list of available varients.  We will be installing only the fetchmailconf graphical configurator

Type: sudo port install fetchmail +fetchmailconf

Type: fetchmailconf
now you should see the fetchmail launcher pop up

Note: after you enter the outside mail server name be sure to hit enter to add it to the list, this will be followed by a pop up to enter usernames.

Also a username may be your full email address for example  example@example.com
after setup quit fetchmailconf , go back to terminal and
run fetchmail by typing: fetchmail.

Please be sure not to send your email passwords in plain text or your email account can be compromised.

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February 1st, 2010
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Sebastian
Posted on:
April 7, 2010 at 6:54 am

Thank you ! very usefull article,

Great Work

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Sebastian
Posted on:
April 7, 2010 at 7:20 am

only one problem, when i lunch fetchmailconfig it gives me an error :

server:~ serv01$ sudo fetchmailconf
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/opt/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/fetchmailconf.py”, line 2095, in
hostname = socket.gethostbyaddr(socket.gethostname())[0]
socket.gaierror: [Errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known

what can i do ?

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
DIYer
Posted on:
April 8, 2010 at 9:33 am

I’m just guessing but it may be something with the host name needing to be a fully qualified domain name or that your ip address may not be static. Could be something with the DNS setup too. Sorry that’s a pretty broad answer. Try looking in the python forums for more answerson the hostname = socket.gethostbyaddr(socket.gethostname())[0] line. Best of luck!