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Setting Up An IMAP-Based Email Solution, part 2

Traditionally, Unix-based systems use POP servers for retrieving email, but in today's environment, where users log in from multiple location using varied clients, this can prove problematic. One solution is to use IMAP instead. This time out we cover Apache SSL and PHP setup.

 By Stew Benedict
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Apache SSL, PHP Setup:

You'll want openSSL to be able to encrypt the connections. This can be downloaded from www.openssl.org/source/:

 bash-2.03$ tar -xzf openssl-0.9.5a.tar.gz
 bash-2.03$ cd openssl-0.9.5a
 bash-2.03$ ./config
 bash-2.03$ make
 bash-2.03$ sudo make install

Get Apache from www.apache.org/dist: 

 bash-2.03$ tar -xzf apache_1.3.19.tar.gz

You'll also need mod_ssl to add as an Apache plug-in from www.modssl.org/source/:

 bash-2.03$ tar -xzf mod_ssl-2.8.2-1.3.19.tar.gz
 bash-2.03$ cd /home/stew/mod_ssl-2.8.2-1.3.19
 bash-2.03$ ./configure --with-ssl=../openssl-0.9.5a --with-apache=../apache_1.3.19

Back to Apache:

 bash-2.03$ export SSL_BASE=../openssl-0.9.5a
 bash-2.03$ ./configure --enable-module=ssl --enable-shared=ssl
 bash-2.03$ make
 bash-2.03$ make certificate
 bash-2.03$ make install

You'll be asked a number of organizational questions during the "make certificate" step, as well as being prompted for a pass phrase to decrypt the key.

Three server certificate files will be created in the Apache directory:

 conf/ssl.key/server.key
 conf/ssl.crt/server.crt
 conf/ssl.csr/server.csr

The last of these can be submitted to an official certificate authority if you would like to get an official certificate.

This article was originally published on Jun 15, 2001
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