Step 3 — Setting up POP3 and/or IMAP servers using Dovecot

The Dovecot Panel

Choose whether you want the Dovecot POP3 or IMAP or both servers to be turned on. Additionally, you can set custom port numbers but, for the start, leave them at the default values. Click the Restart Mail Server button.

The POP3 and IMAP port status indicator lights will come on if the respective service has been successfully turned on. If you need to change the configuration later on, remember to click on the Restart Mail Server button to make it stick.

The Max UserIP Connections field allows Dovecot to control the number of concurrent connections a user can make to the server. The default is 30 but the administrator can increase it when it has multiple clients accessing the server from multiple devices.

Finally, there is a Custom Dovecot Settings field you can use to enter additional Dovecot paremeters on top of the ones set by MailServe.

Dovecot Replication

You can set up two mail servers, both using MailServe, and make them replicate each other. This will keep both servers synchronised, so that one becomes the backup of the other. 

On each server, in the Replica Server field in the Dovecot Panel, enter the domain name of the other server. Enter the same shared secret (choose any name or alphanumeric value with no spaces) into the Shared Secret field.

Then click the Restart Mail Server button for both servers.

On the mail client, like Mail.app, you will see that any mail coming in for one server will be seen, after a slight delay, appearing also on the other server. Likewise, any deletion on one server will be replicated on the other. Same with any folder reorganisation. Dovecot is amazing.