SMTP Email Server on VB Guest to Send Mail to Host

bluelamp999 · Post by **bluelamp999** » 12. Jul 2008, 00:45

Hello Friends,

Here's what I like to do...

I'm developing an application on a VirtualBox XP guest (Visual Studio.Net) with 8.04 Ubuntu as the host.

An essential component of the app is to send emails (with attached PDFs) via an SMTP email server (e.g. MicroSoft Exchange Server).

I don't want/can't afford Exchange Server so I'm thinking of using a free/open source SMTP server, specifically hMailServer.

I would like the app on the guest to send the emails using hMailServer and to receive them on the host system.

I'd rather not go out over the internet, I'd just like the guest to receive the emails over a bridged network between guest and host.

Do I need 2 SMTP servers, one on the guest (to send) and one on the host (to receive)?

Essentially what I'd like to do is prove the concept that the guest app is properly sending emails without bothering my ISP and keeping it all on the bridged network.

Is this possible?

Is there a better alternative?

Any advice/suggestions gratefully received.

Many thanks

Mike

Post by **TerryE** » 12. Jul 2008, 15:02

Mike, you don't run MSexchng on your PC do you? No, you run some form of mail client. You need to run a Mail server on the host which will typically support POP3 as a client protocol. There are quite a few good FLOSS one to choose from. Do your research. You then need a guest based package which will talk pop3 to a server and that can be programmed through .Net. One example is Outlook if you have MSO installed (not Outlook Express). This provides a COM interface. A lot of these use SMTP for outbound and POP3 inbound. There are also quite a few pop3 interface packages. Many programming environments (e.g. Perl, Php, Python) have standard modules to help you here.

bluelamp999 · Post by **bluelamp999** » 12. Jul 2008, 15:17

Hey Terry,

Firstly, thank you so much for taking the time to reply...

I really love the whole Linux/OS ethos that encourages complete strangers to just help each other...

Anyway, enough gushing...

This app is an attempt to commercialize a solution I've developed for my corporate overlords and, as such, has always been tethered to an Exchange server (not just using the local Outlook instance).

When I (hopefully) demonstrate to prospectives I'd like to be able to show the whole thing running in a walled garden type of thing (on my trusty laptop)

Again, many thanks...

Post by **TerryE** » 12. Jul 2008, 15:41

MAPI is the protocol that Outlook Client uses to talk to Exchange. Outlook Client can also use POP3 to talk to "open" mailservers. If it's a commercial client package based on MSO integration, then it probably uses the Microsoft Outlook Object where it connects using an "Outlook.Application" object. It may also talk directly to exchange using MAPI. This would be a bit more of a problem because your Linux package would also need to "talk" MAPI.