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PHP IMAP - Connection Failed

Posted on August 10, 2018

I have successfully setup an email server for myself using this DO tutorial for Postfix, Dovecot, MySQL, and RoundCube. I skipped spamassasin. Everything works fine, I can send and receive emails, and manage them through roundcube or my iphone.

But now I have spent 8 hours on this PHP problem, here’s the simplest I can reproduce it…

<?php
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

$mbox = imap_open("{localhost:143/imap}", "john@example.com", "johnspassword", OP_HALFOPEN);
?>

Gives the errors

Warning: imap_open(): Couldn't open stream {localhost:143/imap} in /var/www/example.com/public_html/test.php on line 6
Notice: Unknown: Connection failed to localhost,143: Connection refused (errflg=2) in Unknown on line 0

That is the error that shows for the php output. I can’t seem to find a log file with the same information. All I want is to connect to my emails.



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Hello friend!

This is definitely an interesting one because from the way it sounds on one end, IMAP services are up and running. From the other end, sounds like they may not be. There’s some clear disconnect there, so perhaps the configuration is more complex than average.

I would install telnet on the server and run this: telnet localhost 143

It’s just a quick way to see what you get when connecting to the port to/from localhost. A firewall entry could be blocking the internal connection (odd but possible). I can’t think of what else it could be, to be honest, that would cause external connections to succeed and internal ones to fail in relation to dovecot.

Kind Regards, Jarland

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