QlikTip #38: How to install a local and lightweight SMTP/POP3 service on Windows 7

Starting with Windows 7 there is not included any SMTP/POP3 service in the local IIS (Internet Information Server) anymore.
So there is no way to present some of the QlikView Server/Publisher’s features on your local PC without being dependent on an external SMTP-server.

After having tested some freely available products I have chosen the open source product hMailServer (http://www.hmailserver.com/), which can be used as a lightweight local SMTP-server and is quite easy to install.

This document will guide you through the process of installing, configuring and securing hMailServer for usage on your local computer.

Installation

During the installation I have only used the standard-options available, so this should not be the tricky part.

The installation of hMailServer takes about 1-2 minutes.

Configuration

Step 1: Open the hMailServerAdministrator

After installing hMailServer open the control panel of hMailServer:

Open the "hMailServer Adminstrator" and log in with the previously defined password.

Step 2: Basic Configuration of hMailServer

First create a local domain:

Enter the desired domain name for local usage ("QTTest.info" in my example below).

Save and you’ll see the newly added domain in the left region in the control panel:

Now we add a new user and password which you should remember for later usage. Therefore click on "Accounts" in the left pane and add the user:

Screen after having added the new user :

Now we have to enable/disable the required protocols:

Then we have to bind the local SMTP-server to the local IP-address (127.0.0.1).

Therefore please go to "Settings" => "Protocols" => "SMTP":

I’d recommend to disable the "Auto-ban" feature to prevent that your local IP-address will be blocked by mistake:

Now we have to bind the protocols SMTP and POP3 to the local IP-address 127.0.0.1. This will ensure that hMailServer will only listen to the local IP-address:

Step 3: Enable Logging

For diagnostic purposes I’d recommend to enable logging of the server, which can be quite helpful:

Step 4: Testing the settings

We are finished, we can now test our setting via "QlikView Enterprise Mangement Console":

Opening the log-file will show the result of our test-mail:

You can now use the local SMTP-server to test:

• Mail functionality from Publisher/Server
• PDF Distribution via eMail
• Alerts in QlikView

Final Step: Securing the local hMailServer

Finally we have to secure the local SMTP-server:

I prefer the following settings for local testing because these settings will prevent me to send test-mails to customers or external addresses (not the domain QTTest.info) by mistake.

If you want to send to external mail-addresses, just check the option "External to external e-mail addresses".

To secure your local SMTP-server completely from being accessed by other computers than your local one, just disable everything for the IP-range "Internet" or set the "Expires" date to the past:

Receiving (locally sent) eMails via POP3

For receiving eMails either use Outlook or an additional lightweight mail-client like SeaMonkey for demonstration purposes:

For configuring the eMail-client use the following settings:

• Server-address: 127.0.0.1
• Account: swr@qttest.info
• Password: ****
• Authentication: none/anonymous

Settings of SeaMonkey (I just use this mail-client for testing and demo purposes):