W3Mail Installation (Unix and Apache)

 

Requirements:

§         Any modern Unix

§         Apache (1.3.26 or greater)

§         MySQL (3.23.44 or greater or 4.0)

§         Perl (5.6.0 or greater)

 

Installation Steps:

 

Install required applications

1.     Download and Install MySQL 3.23.xx or 4.0 from http://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql-3.23.html

2.     Download and Install the most recent ActiveState ActivePerl from http://www.activestate.com/Products/Download/Register.plex?id=ActivePerl

3.     Purchase or download an evaluation of W3Mail at http://www.cascadesoft.com/products/w3mail/2.0

 

4.     Extract the W3Mail zip file to a temporary location

Installing with install.pl

5.     .  Open a command prompt, change to this directory, and enter the command ‘perl install.pl’.  This program will walk you through the setup of W3Mail.
Configure the Database

  1. Install asks you for the database host (The server that mysql is running on), the administrator (typically root), and a password for this user.
  2. Once connected to the database as an administrator, Install asks you for a username and password to use for the W3Mail database.
    1. Normally you should enter the default user, W3Mail, and enter a strong password.
  3. Install will then create this user with privileges to run the W3Mail database.
  4. Install then attempts to find the mysql client binary.  If it cannot find it, it will ask you for the full path to this file.
  5. Once mysql has been located, it uses this program to import the database structure (library/W3Mail.sql) and the default themes (library/W3Mail.themes.sql).
  6. If Install detects an existing W3Mail database, you have the option to upgrade to the latest database schema, or erase the current one, and start fresh.
  7. After setting up the W3Mail database, Install attempts to locate the Perl binary.  If it cannot locate it, you will need to enter the full path to Perl.

Configure Webservers

  1. Install will now attempt to find any webservers running on the computer.
  2. If found, it will determine default locations for installing the software, and install to that directory.

Installing Manually

1.     If you choose to install manually, Install will ask for 4 different directories.

2.     It will first prompt for an installation directory for the CGI scripts.  This directory needs to be in your CGI or Scripts portion of your webserver, and must be accessible from the web.

3.     Install will now ask the web path to this directory (i.e. /cgi-bin/w3mail)

4.     Install will ask for the web resources directory.  This needs to be in the html portion of your webserver, and is where images, stylesheets, and javascripts will reside.

5.     As before, you also need to enter the web path for this directory (i.e. /w3mailresources)

Configure Mail Servers

  1. At this point in the installation, you may enter the mail server(s) you would like W3Mail to access.
  2. To configure a mail server, you need to enter the server address (For receiving mail), the corresponding smtp server address (For sending mail), the protocol of this server (POP3 or IMAP4), and the default reply-to address to be appended to usernames on this server.

Configure W3Admin

  1. W3Admin is a web utility that lets you reconfigure W3Mail.  You may access it at /cgi-bin/W3Mail/W3Admin.cgi.
  2. Install will ask you to configure W3Admin, and will ask for a username and password.  This username will allow you to login to W3Admin.cgi, so it is important to choose a strong password, and one that you will remember.

3.   Install next asks for the location to take users after they log out.  Enter any URL here, and when the user clicks logout, he will be forwarded to that URL.  By default, the user is returned to the W3Mail login screen.

 

 

At this point, configuration of W3Mail should be complete.  Save the file you received via email, w3mail.key, in the location you’ve installed W3Mails scripts.

 

If you are having problems running W3Mail after installation, consult the W3Mail FAQ.