POP3 and IMAP Logging

Okay so this first post has its genesis in a problem I was having with RightFax Enterprise Fax Server. Since I am sure there will be plenty of posts about RightFax in the future I will keep the details regarding that particular piece of software to a minimum. Suffice it to say that I got some bad advice from RightFax support and was not making any progress figuring out why it was not puling fax/emails from its designated "monitored inbox".

After some poking around with RightFax I decided I needed to take a step a back and see if the mail server was even being contacted by the fax server. Were they even talking? What I needed was a way to log POP3 activity. Now, those of you familiar with Exchange, will know that logging SMTP activity is easy, all you have to do is open the property editor for the SMTP virtual server in question and select "Enable Logging".

It should be the same for POP3 and IMAP right? Of course not ,or you wouldn't be reading this post! Unfortunately, to turn on logging for POP3 and IMAP requires registry editing. For full details see this article from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=299778

Now, before you do this I must insert the standard blah blah blah blah about registry editing. If you have never messed around in the registry before just stick to what the article says and you will be fine. Change anything else and you are on your own buster!!!!

Okay, with out further ado I present the keys that need editing:

For IMAP:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Imap4svc\Parameters\IMAP Protocol Logging Level

For POP3: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pop3svc\Parameters\POP3 Protocol Logging Level

The DWORD value for these keys is normally set to 0 (no logging) and you have a choice of 0 to 5 . I would suggest starting at 5 and dialing it back if you are being hit with too many entries.

You might also consider changing the Protocol Logging Path key to something more convenient. It defaults to the Exchange MDBData directory and I like to keep all my logs in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles directory for ease of access.

Hope this helps!