Mail server installation

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All VPS servers come with pre-installed mail services, so they are ready for running.

In case you need to install them, simply type:

...on CentOS/Fedora systems:

yum -y install postfix dovecot squirrelmail or apt-get install postfix dovecot squirrelmail

These 3 services are used for managing your emails.

Postfix -  Mail transfer agent that accepts e-mails, drops them into your mailbox and relays e-mails when you use it as SMTP server
Dovecot - Application that provides you pop3/imap access to your mailboxes
Squirrelmail - Open Source web interface for reading/sending emails

Once these services are installed, you need to start postfix and dovecot. On Centos/Fedora type:

[root@test ~]# service postfix start
Starting postfix:                                          [  OK  ]
[root@test ~]# service dovecot start
Starting Dovecot Imap:                                     [  OK  ]
[root@test ~]#

And they should be up and running.

...on Debian/Ubuntu systems you can use:

/etc/init.d/postfix start 
and 
/etc/init.d/dovecot start

One other thing left is to mark them to start after reboot of your server. That way you can ensure mail services are always up and running.

Centos/Fedora

chkconfig postfix on
chkconfig dovecot on


Debian/Ubuntu

update-rc.d postfix defaults
update-rc.d dovecot defaults

All unix system accounts have mailboxes, so you will have to add system accounts so they can receive emails. You can read about it at Working with users and groups

With system accounts added, default url for webmail is http://yourip/webmail/

As for POP3/SMTP details, you will use your IP or domain as server address and leave the default ports. Just make sure that smtp authentication is ticked in your e-mail client, so you would be able to send emails.