sasl is an authentication method, and is a pig to get working right. You will probably need it or similar if you are logging on from home to your server to retrieve mail. I use http://popbsmtp.sourceforge.net/ instead.

A little further explanation: traditionally SMTP servers limited the ability to send e-mail through them by specifying "trusted" IP subnets. So you're company's SMTP server would usually be setup to allow anyone on the intranet to send through it. Or an ISP would allow whatever IP addresses they hand out to send through their SMTP servers.

But there are obvious problems with this: What about mobile users? They would have to change their SMTP settings constantly depending on what network they're on. Spyware was the nail in the coffin as it quickly learned to flood whatever open SMTP it could find.

So then there's SASL. A bloated authentication layer that had the audacity to put "Simple" in the title. It allows SMTP to use usernames and passwords like any other modern Internet protocol.

I use Postfix+MySQL+SASL+ClamSMTP on a Debian Sarge machine, and it wasn't trivial to setup. Although now it works beautifully and handles thousands of e-mails a day without fail.

I'm not going to provide links because a simple Google search for Postfix and whatever your having problems with will return tons of relevant results. Also, the Postfix mailing list is quite good and the archives contain just about any question you could think of.

One hint: Take Postfix out of its default chroot environment. Sure its a "huge" security risk, but it makes life much much easier.

Anyway, I'm rambling and probably not helping, so please post more details about what your setup (or intended setup) is like if you want further help.

ok well.. i did google my problems but i couldnt make heads or tails of the google stuff.. lots of stuff relating to other stuff that i couldnt work out.

for sasl setup, it should check against the mysql database that contains everything such as usernames/passwords. (im doing a postfix-mysql setup). umm config file is as follows for the main.cf

# See /usr/share/postfix/main.cf.dist for a commented, more complete version

smtpdbanner = $myhostname ESMTP $mailname (Debian/GNU)

biff = no

appending .domain is the MUA's job.

appenddotmydomain = no

Uncomment the next line to generate "delayed mail" warnings

delaywarningtime = 4h

myhostname = mail.our-lan.com

alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases

myorigin = /etc/mailname

mydestination = localhost

mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8

mailbox_command =

mailboxsizelimit = 0

recipient_delimiter = +

virtualaliasmaps = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtualforwardings.cf mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtualemail2email.cf

virtualmailboxdomains = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_domains.cf

virtualmailboxmaps = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailboxes.cf

virtualmailboxbase = /home/vmail

virtualuidmaps = static:5000

virtualgidmaps = static:5000

smtpdsaslauth_enable = yes

brokensaslauth_clients = yes

smtpdrecipientrestrictions = permitmynetworks, permitsaslauthenticated, rejectunauth_destination

smtpdusetls = yes

smtpdtlscert_file = /etc/postfix/smtpd.cert

smtpdtlskey_file = /etc/postfix/smtpd.key

let me know if there is others u need

cheers

Nathan