How to make email client account setup automatically select inbound mail and smtp server.

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Level 2

214 points

How to make email client account setup automatically select inbound mail and smtp server.

I have the mail service successfully running on OS X Server 10.8.2. I am able to send and receive email as well as setup email accounts on various email clients (iphone, ipad, mac, etc). I notice that when I set up a new account that I have to specify both the inbound and smtp mail servers as well as specifying the user id for each. I am using an SSL certificate that appears to be working. The ports are selected (993/995 and 587) automatically and the default is to use SSL.

However, when I set up a Comcast account - (configured as "other") - I only have to enter Full name, email address and password - and from this it is able to determine that the incoming mail server is "mail.comcast.net" and outgoing smtp server is "smtp.comcast.net". It also fills in the userid and password for both inbound and smtp servers - as well as the ports. I have been trying to get this to work automatically when setting up accounts for my mail server - but have not been able to figure out how to do this - or if it is possible.

In googling - I have found that I can set up several different SRV records such as (_submission._tcp, _imap._tcp, _imaps._tcp, _pop3._tcp, _pop3s._tcp) and these are supposed to provide this functionality to email clients that are able to use the SRV records. I have set these up externally at my registered domain provider - and I am able to query them via nslookup, dig and host.

Is Comcast using some other special method of providing the server names to the mail client setup - or am I doing something wrong - or is this a functionality that needs to be supported on the mail server side as well. I am relatively new to mail servers and trying to work my way through the learning process.

MAC MINI SERVER (LATE 2012), OS X Server

Posted on Dec 30, 2012 12:59 AM

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Answer 1

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FromOZ

Level 3

554 points

Dec 30, 2012 7:54 AM in response to SBeattie2

There are (from what I have read, have not setup personally) a number of components to get this to work in a non-Apple environment for example the DNS server provides the SRV records their job though is basically to point the client to the location of an autodiscover.xml file which has the actual configuration setup.

However in OS X Server (Lion and above I believe) the way to achieve what you are wanting is to use the Profile Manager. The Profile Manager configures multiple services/functions (including Mail) in one place then the profile can be downloaded to the client.

N.B. DNS must be setup correctly, it is helpful to use a certificate, Open Directory is needed to be running successfully and when you log onto the website to configure profiles you must use the account defined as the Open Directory administrator (default Apple name 'diradmin'). Unless the server admin account is also setup as a directory administrator that account will not work.

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Answer 2

SBeattie2 Author

Level 2

214 points

Dec 30, 2012 10:04 AM in response to FromOZ

Here is a link to the document I was reading about using SRV records to indicate to a mail client - which servers to use. This document may only be a draft and may be outdated.

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-daboo-srv-email-05

In sifting through the document - it does appear that mail server also needs to be configured to support this functionality - at least that is what I am gathering in sifting through the document.

I realize that profile manager can be used to setup mail on various clients - but my question was really - how to have the inbound mail and smtp server names automatically populate during account registration based on the domain name of the email address specified.

My server is not a production server - and is currently being used as a learning tool. I am just curious how the functionality described above would be implemented in practice.

Of all the various email providers that you would set up in an email client as "other" (meaning that the account does not have a pre-defined setup option such as Gmail, Yahoo, Exchange, iCloud, Hotmail, Aol.) - the only one (of type "other" and of the ones I have tried) that seems to autoconfigure perfectly is Comcast. I am just curious why it works so smoothly.

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Answer 3

FromOZ

Level 3

554 points

Dec 30, 2012 10:30 AM in response to SBeattie2

Understand the functionality you are wanting, basically one can use Outlook / Exchange mail server as an example. It just happens.

As I understand in the background the DNS _SRV records point to a machine which serves up an XML file and that is the information which tells the client how to configure itself.

I did some research before posting my first reply and found that, in the Apple client situation, even when someone setup the the SRV records + the XML it didn't work seamlessly.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2720152?answerId=12949449022#12949449022

Here's some other links that give some more background.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/macenterprise/qIKUMxMae8o/iLnIkMgeOX0J

http://www.virtuworks.com/how-to-setup-outlook-autodiscovery-for-your-domain/

If you were going to persue it you will need to find out the format for the autodiscovery XML file. Also the XML file will have to be hosted on your server, you couldn't likely put it on the public DNS server.

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Answer 4

SBeattie2 Author

Level 2

214 points

Dec 30, 2012 12:23 PM in response to FromOZ

Well - this is progressing in the right direction - and confirming that it more complicated than anticipated. Not sure if I want to put more effort into this at this time - but at least I now know that it is not exactly straightforward and that my question was legitimate. I'll post back if I make progress.

Thanks

Scott

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