Failing to authenticate on the frontends

[Andrew Morgan]

On Wed, 4 Oct 2006, Michael Loftis wrote:

> --On October 4, 2006 4:18:41 PM +0100 Jesus Roncero <jesus at mxtelecom.com> 
> wrote:
>
> <...>>
>> So, the question is, isn't the frontend supposed to contact the backend
>> responsible of that mailbox in order to authenticate the user? or it
>> needs to have "joe"'s password at the frontend as well?
>
> Authentication of the user happens at the frontend.  The frontend then uses 
> the proxy credentials to authorize as the user on the backend.  The backends 
> don't need a full user database, just the proxy information.

Yes and no.  If an IMAP client support referrals, the frontends will 
return a referral to the appropriate backend.  So, the client may connect 
to the backend as well in some cases.

 	Andy