Linux Mail Server Setup and Howto Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and its derivative CentOS 4 includes a graphical tool called Security Level Configuration for configuring the firewall options. This guide describes how to use this tool to open up the ports necessary for providing an email server.

1. Click Applications, select System Settings and click Security Level. This will launch the Security Level Configuration window.

2. For a mail server with webmail, check WWW (HTTP) and Mail (SMTP) in the Trusted services list. There are only four predefined trusted services, the other services will have to be entered into the Other ports field.

3. We also need to open the ports for the POP3 and IMAP services. In the Other ports field, type in 110:tcp,995:tcp,143:tcp,993:tcp. The service and its corresponding port number is provided below.

 

Service

Port

HTTPS

443:tcp

POP3

110:tcp

POP3S

995:tcp

IMAP

143:tcp

IMAPS

993:tcp

 

Port 443:tcp is automatically added if you check the WWW (HTTP) service.

You can see more service and port numbers by typing in getent services from the Terminal window.

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Posted on 3/19/2007 and last updated on 11/3/2007
Filed under CentOS 4 , Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 , System Administration