I have tried twice before to set up SASL authentication for Postfix and
failed to get it working both times. I am now trying a third time.
I have three remote mail servers to which I can send outgoing mail. I
use Balsa as a mail client and, as a test, I set the value of the
Remote Server, in the Balsa settings, to each of the three mail servers
in turn together with the appropriate values for username and password.
I sent an email using each setting and they all arrived. This shows
that my username/password combinations are correct for each of the
remote servers.
I then created an /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd file and transferred the
values for all three servers in the form:
server.name username:password
I then ran postmap hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd.
So far so good.
Before I go any further I'd like to check the format of the sasl_passwd
file. I have seen the form shown above on various howtos after
searching on the Internet but I have also seen them where the server is
encased in square brackets - [server.name].
Are those brackets required?
Having got an answer to that question I'll carry on with the SASL setup
and will probably be back with further questions.