Today’s post is not for the home user, nor the average business user, but is aimed at the person who administers the server.

We hope you find the information, on setting up the password plugin; calendar, and other features of SquirrelMail useful, and for those who are not an Administrator, you can still look to see some of the steps that are taken to deliver the squirrelmail!
Using Godaddy dedicated servers we just took the webmail that was installed, which is SquirrelMail. We have used SquirrelMail in the past and found it to be fast and efficient, but a customer has asked for several changes to the default installation, and after lot of searching, we found pieces of information here and there, and after all the pieces were located it all came together to make this work, so it was decided to write all of the pieces out and into this post so that maybe the next person would not have to search as much as we did to make a few services work.

The Godaddy server in question is running CentOS, but this will work in all versions of Linux. Some common questions relating to SquirrelMail configuration.

How to increase the maximum size of an attachment in SquirrelMail options?

1. Log in to your server and su – root.
2. Edit /etc/php.ini making the following three changes.
3. Set post_max_size = 20M
4. Set memory_limit = 25M
5. Set upload_max_filesize = 20M
6. Restart httpd, and you should be ready to go. If not restart your mail services.

How to add the calendar feature in SquirrelMail?

1. Start the Squirrelmail config program.
2. /usr/share/squirrelmail/config/conf.pl
3. Choose #8 for plugins.
4. If calendar is in the available list enter the number on the CLI.
5. Choose S to save the data.
6. Choose R to return to the main menu.
7. Restart httpd, and you should be ready to go. If not restart your mail services.

If calendar is not in the SquirrelMail plugins section, what should be done?

Check the squirrelmail plugin page @ http://squirrelmail.org/plugins.php

Change your administrator generated password to one that only you know. Do not forget your password!

1. Start the Squirrelmail config program.
2. /usr/share/squirrelmail/config/conf.pl
3. Choose #8 for plugins.
4. Add imap_passwd
5. Choose S to save the data.
6. Choose R to return to the main menu.
7. Restart httpd, and you should be ready to go. If not restart your mail services.

Now change the SquirrelMail password.

1. Log into the mail server.
2. Click on the “Options” link at the top of your SquirrelMail inbox.
3. Choose change passwords.
4. Enter your current password and then your new password twice.
5. You will be logged out at this point and can now log back into your mail.

Set your time zone and signature in SquirrelMail settings.

Failure to set the time zone can confuse the recipient of email!

1. Log into the mail server.
2. Click on the “Options” link at the top of your SquirrelMail inbox.
3. Choose Personal Information.
4. Set your Personal information.
5. Setup your signature.
6. Set your time zone. In KY I use American/New York
7. Set the server to use the information that you just entered.
8. Click Submit, or all of your hard work is gone.

Create email groups in SquirrelMail. More of a how to as there is nothing to add.

Click on the “Addresses” link at the top of your SquirrelMail inbox.

Click Add address link.

Fill out the “New Address” form at the bottom of your address list. List all the email addresses you want included in the group under “E-mail address”. Separate addresses with a comma and a space, for example: larry@example.net, curly@fubar.net,

Click “Add Address” to add the group to your address book.
Find your group in your address listing to compose a message to the group. Click either the “to” “bcc” or “cc” fields beside the group, then click “Use Addresses” to start composing your new message.
These few modifications and tips make SquirrelMail much more user friendly.

Sites that I used to resolve my problems:
http://squirrelmail.org/index.php
http://forums.fedoraforum.org
http://centos.org/

Thanks to all of the people who work so hard to make Open Source Software like SquirrelMail a success!

Matthew Davidson

http://mldserviceslex.com