L-Soft international, Inc.

 

 

Installation Manual for

LISTSERV^® Lite for Windows

Version 17.5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This document sets forth a simplified installation procedure for LISTSERV Lite 17.5 for Windows with a build date of November 20, 2024 or later. Supported versions of Microsoft Windows are described elsewhere in this document.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Companies, names, and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted. L-Soft international, Inc. does not endorse or approve the use of any of the product names or trademarks appearing in this document.

Permission is granted to copy this document, at no charge and in its entirety, provided that the copies are not used for commercial advantage, that the source is cited, and that the present copyright notice is included in all copies so that the recipients of such copies are equally bound to abide by the present conditions. Prior written permission is required for any commercial use of this document, in whole or in part, and for any partial reproduction of the contents of this document exceeding 50 lines of up to 80 characters, or equivalent. The title page, table of contents and index, if any, are not considered part of the document for the purposes of this copyright notice, and can be freely removed if present.

Copyright ã 2009-2024, L-Soft international, Inc.
All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

LISTSERV is a registered trademark licensed to L-Soft international, Inc.
ListPlex, CataList, and EASE are service marks of L-Soft international, Inc.
All other trademarks, both marked and not marked, are the property of their respective owners.
Some portions licensed from IBM are available at http://oss.software.ibm.com/icu4j/
This product includes code licensed from RSA Security, Inc.
This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

All of L-Soft's manuals are available at the following URL: https://www.lsoft.com/manuals.html

L-Soft invites comment on its manuals. Please feel free to send your comments by
e-mail to: MANUALS@LSOFT.COM

 

 

Last Revised 20 Nov 2024

 

Table of Contents

Preface – About this Manual iii

Section 1 Things to Consider Before Installation. 1

1.1 Technical Requirements. 1

1.1.1 Hardware Requirements. 1

1.1.2 Software Requirements. 3

1.1.3 Networking requirements. 4

1.1.4 Older Versions of Windows Server No Longer Supported. 5

1.1.5 Older Versions of Windows Workstation No Longer Supported. 5

Section 2 Installing LISTSERV. 6

2.1 Starting the installation. 6

2.2 Basic configuration. 6

2.2.1 NODE. 7

2.2.2 MYDOMAIN. 7

2.2.3 SMTP_FORWARD.. 7

2.2.4 POSTMASTER. 7

2.2.5 CREATEPW.. 8

2.2.6 MYORG (optional) 8

2.3 Advanced configuration. 8

2.4 Installing the License Activation Key (LAK) 8

2.4.1 Web Interface Procedure. 8

2.4.2 Classic Procedure with LICENSE.MERGE file. 9

Section 3 Starting LISTSERV to Verify a Successful Installation. 11

3.1 Windows Firewall Considerations. 14

Section 4 Installing the LISTSERV Web Interface. 15

4.1 Setting Up the Interface During Installation. 15

4.2 Setting Up the Interface Manually. 15

Section 5 Creating Your First List 16

Section 6 If you are upgrading from LISTSERV 16.x. 20

Section 7 Upgrading your LISTSERV installation. 21

Section 8 Additional Resources. 23

8.1 Documentation. 23

8.1.1 Manuals. 23

8.1.2 White Papers. 23

8.1.3 Tech Tips. 23

8.2 Mailing Lists. 23

8.3 Getting Support 24

 

Preface – About this Manual

This manual is for LISTSERV Lite running under Microsoft Windows.

This manual makes the following assumptions:

1.   You have a supported Microsoft Windows operating system installed and operating normally on a computer in your network that meets the various technical requirements listed later in this guide;

2.   You have physical access to the machine in question and are logged in as Administrator, or at least as a member of the Administrators group with full control of the machine;

3.   You can troubleshoot your supported version of Microsoft Windows (i.e. native OS problems, not problems related to LISTSERV) without assistance from this guide or from L-Soft.

Number three is particularly important.  If you have purchased support from L-Soft for LISTSERV Lite, L-Soft will be happy to assist you with LISTSERV-related problems arising under a supported version of Microsoft Windows but is unable to assist you in setting up your operating system, the Internet Information Service (or any other web server software available for the supported Microsoft Windows operating systems), or any aspect of your operating system that is not directly related to LISTSERV's operation.  If you are not familiar with Microsoft Windows operating systems, please be aware that L-Soft cannot help you with either their installation or subsequent troubleshooting.

This manual makes the following assumptions:

"Windows" or "the Windows operating system" means the Microsoft Windows Server and Workstation operating system versions currently supported by L-Soft.  In other words, if we say "Windows", we mean "all of the Microsoft Windows operating systems under which LISTSERV is currently supported".

"Windows Server" means specifically the Microsoft Windows Server operating systems which are currently supported by L-Soft.

"Windows Workstation" means specifically  the Microsoft Windows workstation operating systems which are currently supported by L-Soft.

If we indicate a specific Microsoft Windows operating system by name, for example, "Windows 10", we mean specifically that version of the operating system and no other.

At the release date of LISTSERV 17.5, the following Microsoft Windows operating systems were supported by L-Soft for use with LISTSERV:

 

 

 

 

L-Soft LISTSERV 17.5 Supported Microsoft Windows Operating Systems

LISTSERV for Microsoft Windows	Windows 10 (64-bit only)
	Windows 11 (64-bit only)
	Windows Server 2016
	Windows Server 2019
	Windows Server 2022

 

Support for 32-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems was withdrawn by L-Soft as of version 16.0-2017a.

Support for 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating system versions will be withdrawn by L-Soft as the specific version reaches end of life, as published in the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy.

While LISTSERV will run on Microsoft's currently-supported workstation operating systems, L-Soft strongly recommends the use of Windows Server wherever possible.

LISTSERV for Microsoft Windows is being run successfully on Windows Server 2019 and 2022 virtual machines running under the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor, including on Microsoft's Azure cloud server service.

Section 1 Things to Consider Before Installation

You will need to gather some information before you start installation:

·         What is the DNS hostname for the machine on which LISTSERV is going to be installed?  This is something like LISTSERV.YOURDOMAIN.COM .  It must be a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) and it must map to an A or MX record as noted above in the networking requirements.  While it is possible to use a bracketed IP (eg, [10.0.0.24]) for testing purposes, as noted above the use of bracketed IPs in production is not supported and not recommended.

·         What SMTP server do you intend to use for LISTSERV's outgoing mail?  Like the hostname for the LISTSERV machine, this must be an FQDN hostname listed in DNS.  If you will be installing L-Soft's legacy LSMTP MTA on the same machine as LISTSERV then the answer to this question is identical to the answer for #1.  Otherwise this must be the name of an external machine, ie, one running sendmail or some other SMTP implementation that can accept LISTSERV's outgoing mail for delivery.  (If you will be installing LSMTP you will probably still want to identify an external SMTP machine to use temporarily to test LISTSERV prior to installing LSMTP, which is the recommended procedure.)

·         What are the email addresses for the LISTSERV maintainers (the person or persons who are authorized to create lists and operate/maintain the server)?

·         What drive and directory are you going to install LISTSERV into?  (The installation script defaults to C:\LISTSERV; if you have more space on another drive, eg, a RAID array or other large disk, you will want to install LISTSERV on that drive rather than on C:.)

·         What program group or folder do you want LISTSERV's icons to be placed in?

1.1 Technical Requirements

There are three classes of technical requirements for running LISTSERV under Windows --hardware, software, and networking.  Please read each section carefully.

1.1.1  Hardware Requirements

1.   CPU Architecture: LISTSERV runs under 64-bit Windows on 64-bit Intel architectures only.

2.   Multiple Processors: While LISTSERV itself will not use multiple processors (LISTSERV is a single-threaded application), overall machine performance may be enhanced by use of multiple processors if other applications running simultaneously on the machine can take advantage of them.

3.   Memory: L-Soft recommends that a dedicated Windows LISTSERV machine start out with a minimum of 4GB, as this will minimize paging and can lead to a marked improvement in performance, particularly if the web archive/administration interface (see below) is implemented.  In particular, LISTSERV servers running with the High Performance Option (HPO) require more memory than non-HPO servers and should therefore start out with at least 8GB.

4.   Disk Space Needed: LISTSERV itself takes up very little space (perhaps 4MB total for all of its default system files). When planning a LISTSERV system you need to take into account how large your lists will be (100 bytes per subscriber entry in a given list) and how much space you will need for discussion list archives, which have the potential to grow quite large depending on your traffic and number of lists.  For most small systems, a 4GB or larger drive is probably sufficient for some time.  Larger systems will naturally require larger disks.

5.   Disk Architecture: LISTSERV will run perfectly well for most sites on inexpensive SATA disks of the modern sort. If performance is an issue, it will be greatly enhanced by the use of fast SAS disks in a RAID array with write-back caching and a write-back battery back-up. Write-through caching is not recommended.  Usually it is best to divide a RAID array into at least two partitions: A boot partition of 3GB (effective 1.5GB) RAID 0+1, and a data partition making up the rest of the available disk space at RAID 5.  If it is not feasible to divide the array in this manner, RAID 0+1 for the entire array is suggested.  (The boot partition can be larger if desired -- particularly as very large disks are much more economical than in the past -- but we would still recommend that it be configured RAID 0+1).

      With prices continuing to drop for modern data storage, the above should be considered absolute minimums and we would actually recommend starting with larger disks and partitions wherever possible.

      To date we have not done any testing with solid-state drives.  However we consider it prudent to caution against using SSD for highly-dynamic data such as LISTSERV's spool and archives.  SSD might profitably be used for boot partitions, however, where data (at least in comparison to LISTSERV's data) rarely or only occasionally changes.

6.   Disk Format and Security: L-Soft strongly recommends that LISTSERV be installed on an NTFS-formatted partition. LISTSERV will run out of a FAT partition, but FAT does not provide the same level of security and performance available with NTFS.

7.   LISTSERV in a virtualized environment: LISTSERV works very well in a Microsoft Hyper-V environment.  We recommend using a dedicated Hyper-V instance for this purpose, with service parameters adjusted to fit your local needs.  The same minimums noted above for physical servers apply to Hyper-V instances.  If you are looking for a high-availability solution for LISTSERV for Windows, Hyper-V with its failover clustering feature may be what you are looking for.

Customers have also reported success running LISTSERV in virtual environments such as Microsoft Azure.  L-Soft's own ListPlex hosting service now runs almost entirely on Microsoft Azure.

General performance notes:

·         L-Soft STRONGLY DISCOURAGES running LISTSERV out of a RAM disk in order to speed up I/O.  This is not a supported configuration and if you have problems with it the support group's response will be to tell you to stop using the RAM disk.

·         If system RAM is tight, either a fast disk or more RAM is a necessity if you are to minimize I/O time lost to paging.  An otherwise fast system can become quite sluggish if it is required constantly to read and write to virtual memory. Adding more RAM is usually preferred as it is more efficient to access RAM than it is to access even a fast disk.

1.1.2 Software Requirements

1.   LISTSERV requires one of the Microsoft Windows operating systems listed in the matrix found in the Preface to this manual.

2.   Either Internet Information Service (IIS) or some other WWW server (ie, Apache) should be installed on the machine if you intend to use the web archive and administration interface.  LISTSERV's web interface cannot be installed on a separate machine.  If you are using an older version of IIS which includes the IIS SMTP service, IIS SMTP should be disabled or not installed unless you intend to use it for inbound and outbound mail (in which case, please contact L-Soft support to receive a white paper describing how to do this).

3.   INBOUND MAIL: The SMTP "listener" service (SMTPL.EXE) provided in the LISTSERV installation kit must be installed.  Third-party SMTP MTAs (Mail Transfer Agents) are supported for inbound LISTSERV mail if they can be configured to redirect LISTSERV's mail to SMTPL running on a non-standard port (for instance, 40025).

4.   OUTBOUND MAIL:  The SMTPL.EXE "listener" service cannot be used for outbound mail.  You will need to have access to an SMTP MTA that can handle LISTSERV's outbound mail. This machine can be a unix machine running one of the standard unix MTAs (sendmail/qmail/postfix), a Windows machine running Microsoft Exchange, or any fully-standards-compliant SMTP server running on any platform, as long as it can handle the amount of traffic you will generate with LISTSERV.

      Low-end SMTP servers can handle modest delivery loads (perhaps 10K-25K messages per hour, although we have seen a well-tuned IIS SMTP instance handle up to 75K per hour). For heavier delivery loads, L-Soft recommends a high-performance SMTP server that can handle loads of more than 1 million messages per hour.

      If the outbound MTA is running on an external machine, that machine must be configured to accept for delivery so-called "relay mail" from the machine running LISTSERV (it may of course otherwise be configured to reject "relay mail" coming from other hosts).

      If you need a "turnkey" single-machine solution for LISTSERV, please contact the support department for assistance.

1.1.3 Networking requirements

1.   24x7x365 TCP/IP connectivity, with enough bandwidth to handle your workload.  Please note carefully that LISTSERV is not designed to dial up and access POP mailboxes. The proper installation and operation of LISTSERV is contingent on direct connection to the Internet in order for it to receive and send SMTP mail.  If you do not understand this, L-Soft strongly recommends that you get expert technical advice before proceeding further, or consider using a hosting service instead of running LISTSERV yourself (for an overview of hosting services offered by L-Soft, please see  https://lsoft.com/products/listplex.asp.

2.   In conjunction with networking requirement #1, and as a fundamental requirement of the SMTP mail protocol, LISTSERV requires a static IP address which is mapped via a DNS A or MX record to a particular host name (typically LISTSERV.yourdomain, for example, LISTSERV.EXAMPLE.COM). If you are planning to use the web archive/administration interface with LISTSERV, an A record is required at minimum (web browsers cannot connect to hosts that have only an MX record).  Please note carefully that L-Soft does not support LISTSERV servers running without DNS entries (ie we do not support servers configured with bracketed IP addresses instead of FQDNs [fully-qualified domain names, for example, LISTSERV.EXAMPLE.COM]).

 

      Note the following carefully:

 

·         The use of a CNAME is STRONGLY DISCOURAGED because typically such hostnames are rewritten ("canonicalized") when mail sent from them traverses the Internet.  This will cause mail to appear to be coming from a "different" host than your subscribers may be expecting, even though in fact the A and CNAME records point to the same physical machine.

 

·         Microsoft's WINS and MAPI protocols are not supported or used by LISTSERV.

 

·         There are no guarantees that LISTSERV will work with a dynamically-assigned IP address (for instance, one obtained through DHCP), and a DNS entry is required if you expect people to be able to send mail to, and also--in many cases where the user's ISP does a reverse DNS lookup to validate that the mail is not spam--to receive mail from the server.

      Again, if you do not understand any part of this requirement, L-Soft strongly recommends that you get expert technical advice before proceeding further.

3.   If installing LISTSERV behind a firewall with the expectation that users from the outside world will be able to access it, it is imperative that you provide access to the following TCP ports on the LISTSERV machine:  Port 25 (SMTP) and port 80 (webserver, if the web archive/administration feature is enabled).  It may also be necessary to provide access to port 53 (nameserver) if LISTSERV is unable to resolve the name of its outgoing mail host. Opening other ports may be necessary for other features to work properly (e.g., port 443 if your web server supports SSL/https).

      Installing LISTSERV behind a firewall is almost more of an art than a science (and every firewall seems to be different) but the bottom line is that the above ports must be open if you expect LISTSERV to work.  It is not recommended to route incoming LISTSERV mail through another machine (ie the firewall) as this normally leads to complications.

1.1.4 Older Versions of Windows Server No Longer Supported

L-Soft no longer supports Microsoft Windows Server earlier than Server 2016, and recommends Server 2019 or Server 2022 at minimum. Only 64-bit Windows operating systems are supported.

1.1.5 Older Versions of Windows Workstation No Longer Supported

L-Soft supports only the 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 10 and 11.  Use of the Professional or Ultimate Editions is strongly recommended; use of the Home Edition is not recommended.  Windows versions prior to Windows 10 are no longer supported by Microsoft and are therefore no longer supported by L-Soft (and please note that Microsoft support for Windows 10 ends on 14 October 2025).  Remember, however, that L-Soft strongly recommends the use of Windows Server in preference to the Workstation versions of Windows.

Section 2 Installing LISTSERV

L-Soft provides its software via download only. The installation kits for LISTSERV Lite for Windows are found at

https://www.lsoft.com/download/listservlite.asp

These kits are complete implementations of LISTSERV Lite Free Edition for Windows.  If you have already purchased a paid copy of LISTSERV Lite you will have received a production LAK separately--we will describe the installation of that key later in this document.

2.1  Starting the installation

First, place the distribution kit into a temporary directory (e.g., C:\TEMP or C:\SCRATCH).  DO NOT try to run the kit from the directory into which you are going to actually install LISTSERV.  (Note that if you have downloaded it into the standard Windows download directory, it is also perfectly fine to run it from there.)

Next, make sure that you are logged in either as the Administrator user or as a member of the Administrators group.  You cannot install LISTSERV unless you have administrative control of the computer.

The kit is a self-contained, self-extracting setup kit that includes all of the files you will need for the installation.  Simply run the kit from a DOS prompt or double-click on it in Windows Explorer to start the installation and follow the script.

2.2 Basic configuration

The installation script will ask whether or not you want to go ahead and configure the LISTSERV server.  You MUST do a basic server configuration at install time or the installer will exit, but bear in mind that a more complex configuration can be done after finishing the installation, if necessary.  For the basic configuration done at install time, you will need to have the information discussed below for NODE, SMTP_FORWARD, and POSTMASTER.  (Note:  This basic configuration step is skipped for upgrades, which are assumed to be already configured.)

Configuring the server after installation is done via the web administration interface.  Log in as a LISTSERV administrator, and choose Server Administration/Site Configuration/Site Configuration to enter the web-based configurator.

It should be noted that the MAIN\SITE.CFG file is now used only for initial startup and for certain settings which need to be read in immediately when LISTSERV starts; changes made via the web configurator are written to a platform-independent file which is maintained by LISTSERV and which should not be hand-edited.

In addition, the old SITE.EXE configuration GUI is no longer supported or provided (because it operates on the MAIN\SITE.CFG file).  If you have a copy from a previous installation, it should not be used, and L-Soft recommends that it simply be deleted along with SITE.HLP and SITEDATA.FILE.

 

2.2.1 NODE

The NODE setting is the fully-qualified domain name as registered in DNS for the machine LISTSERV is running on.  As noted above, it is possible to insert a square-bracketed dotted-decimal IP address in this box for testing purposes, but L-Soft neither recommends nor supports this in production. This is the host name that LISTSERV will always identify itself with when it sends mail out.

2.2.2 MYDOMAIN

MYDOMAIN does not refer to your corporate domain.  MYDOMAIN is the space-separated list of all possible host names your machine might be known as. In many cases the value of MYDOMAIN is the same as NODE, but for instance some machines running LISTSERV also run the enterprise's World Wide Web server, and may thus be identified in DNS as something like "WWW.MYCOMPANY.COM".  And of course we'll assume that NODE has been set above to something like LISTSERV.MYCOMPANY.COM.  Using this as an example you would set the MYDOMAIN setting to contain, in space-separated format, all of these names that mail might come in to LISTSERV under, with the NODE value coming first:

LISTSERV.MYCOMPANY.COM WWW.MYCOMPANY.COM POP.MYCOMPANY.COM

 

Alternately the same thing can be done by specifying

%NODE% WWW.MYCOMPANY.COM POP.MYCOMPANY.COM

 

This way if someone accidentally writes to LISTSERV@POP.MYCOMPANY.COM, LISTSERV will recognize POP.MYCOMPANY.COM as equivalent to LISTSERV.MYCOMPANY.COM and will process the mail as if it had been addressed to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.MYCOMPANY.COM.  Otherwise the mail will bounce as LISTSERV has no other way to know what other names the machine might be known by in DNS.

2.2.3 SMTP_FORWARD

This setting refers to the name of the machine which will be handling LISTSERV's outgoing mail.  It must be a fully-qualified domain name of a machine registered in DNS.  For instance if your corporate mail gateway is MAIL.MYCOMPANY.COM, you could set SMTP_FORWARD to that value.

2.2.4 POSTMASTER

This is a space-separated list of userid@host.domain type email addresses belonging to people who have authority to manage LISTSERV--specifically the people who are allowed to create lists, but also who have pretty much global authority on the server to look at lists, modify list headers, and so forth.  There are some advanced options for this setting but for right now you will probably just want to insert your own email address so that you can test the server.

2.2.5 CREATEPW

The password that will be used to create lists and perform certain management functions (such as administering LISTSERV's user password feature).  Note that when using the web management features, you do not use the CREATEPW= value, but rather your own personal LISTSERV password, to validate your identity.  See the main LISTSERV documentation for information on how to create a personal LISTSERV password.

2.2.6 MYORG (optional)

A string that identifies your organization in the From: line of administrative mail sent out by LISTSERV.  This defaults to the NODE value you coded above, but you can change it to be more descriptive, eg, "University of XYZ" or "My Company, Inc."  If you were to set it to "My Company, Inc.", the From: line of administrative mail would look like this:

From:         "My Company, Inc. LISTSERV Server (17.5)"
              <LISTSERV@LISTSERV.MYCOMPANY.COM>                   

Only the part preceding "LISTSERV Server" may be modified by the MYORG setting.  The rest of this string is hard-coded and cannot be changed.

2.3 Advanced configuration

There are a number of advanced configuration parameters that can be set to modify LISTSERV's behaviour and/or tune it for better performance.  The most common parameters are documented in the Site Configuration Keyword Reference document. Please be sure to consult the chapter in that manual that discusses keywords and other settings that are disabled or work differently under LISTSERV Lite than they do under LISTSERV Classic. 

2.4 Installing the License Activation Key (LAK)

If you are installing the Free Edition, the LAK will be installed for you automatically and you do not need to do anything further in this section.  If you have purchased a commercial license for LISTSERV Lite, there are two methods of installing a LISTSERV LAK.

2.4.1 Web Interface Procedure

New LAKs may be installed via the LISTSERV web interface.  Navigate to Server Administration / Site Configuration, and choose the "License" button.  This displays a summary of your current license:

Below this is a text box into which you may paste your new LAKs.

2.4.2 Classic Procedure with LICENSE.MERGE file

Create a disk file with the license information supplied. If you received the license registration form electronically, simply delete the mail headers and other extraneous information (you do not need to remove the instructions found at the top of the LAK). If you received it via FAX or postal mail, you will have to retype the information. Please observe spacing carefully. To make the LAK easier to transcribe, we always insert multiple blanks where one is needed. Thus, unless you see a big white space on the FAX, you should not insert any blank. (Note that LAK information can also be entered via the SITE.EXE utility.)

1.    Make a backup copy of the file you have just created.

2.    Install a copy of the file under the name LICENSE.MERGE in the product's main directory. This would be MAIN\LICENSE.MERGE relative to your LISTSERV root directory (eg C:\LISTSERV\MAIN\LICENSE.MERGE) if you installed LISTSERV under C:\LISTSERV).

3.    Start LISTSERV (or stop and restart it if it was already running). It will compile the new LAK, verify its integrity, and merge it into its license database. If no error was detected, it will then delete the LICENSE.MERGE file. This is why you must make a backup copy of the license file before activating it. The LAK will of course remain in the license database, but you may need the original in case of hardware failure.

 

 

 

 

 

Section 3 Starting LISTSERV to Verify a Successful Installation

To start LISTSERV for debugging/testing purposes, first open a CMD.EXE "Command Prompt" (otherwise known as a "DOS box" to us old-timers) in "Run as administrator" mode.  (You will have to right-click the Command Prompt icon and choose that option.)  Next, change to the drive where you have installed LISTSERV, enter CD LISTSERV\MAIN at the prompt, and hit return.

You should now be able to start LISTSERV interactively by entering "LSV START" at the prompt and hitting return.  You will see various startup messages go by and then you will be prompted to enter commands if you wish.  For instance, a SHOW LICENSE command issued from the interactive command line looks like this:

You may start the SMTPL.EXE SMTP "listener" service interactively in the same way.

You can run only one copy of LISTSERV at any given time. That is, you cannot start LISTSERV interactively if it is already running as a service, or vice-versa, nor can you start LISTSERV in multiple CMD windows. The same applies to the SMTP listener.

When LISTSERV is installed, it is registered in the Services Manager to start automatically as a system service at boot time.  Thus if you have rebooted your machine after installing LISTSERV, it may already be running.  If it is already running when you attempt to start it in a DOS box, you will get the following error:

C:\LISTSERV\MAIN>lsv start

>>> Unable to create SMTP synchronization events <<<

 

abnormal program termination

Similarly, if the SMTPL "listener" is already running as a service, you will get something like:

C:\LISTSERV\MAIN>smtpl start

LISTSERV SMTP listener, version 1.1e

Copyright Eric Thomas 1994-2024

>>> Cannot bind to 0.0.0.0, port 25: error 10048

Statistics for this session:

 Physical memory: 8132M (3222M available)

 Paging file:     16260M (10648M free)

 Process memory:  47364k in use

 Connections:     0 (max 0, total 0 in this session)

 Messages:        0 (0 recipients)

 SMTPL uptime:    0 00:00:00 (98.1% CPU utilization)

If the services are running, simply stop them from the Control Panel/Services applet, or just issue the commands

NET STOP LISTSERV

NET STOP LISTSERV-SMTP

in your DOS box before proceeding.

If there are no problems, LISTSERV will start up with messages similar to the following:

E:\LISTSERV\MAIN>lsv start

30 Nov 2024 15:54:04 LISTSERV(R) for Windows version 17.5 starting...

30 Nov 2024 15:54:04  Copyright Eric Thomas 1986-2024

30 Nov 2024 15:54:04 Build date: 20 Nov 2024

30 Nov 2024 15:54:04

30 Nov 2024 15:54:04 SIGNUP files are being compressed...

30 Nov 2024 15:54:04 -> No entry removed.

30 Nov 2024 15:54:04 Nearest backbone host is LISTSERV@PLUM.EASE.LSOFT.COM

30 Nov 2024 15:54:04 Nearest NJE host is LISTSERV@SEARN

30 Nov 2024 15:54:04 LAK merged successfully:

> LISTSERV-LITEFE-WINNT-*

>          UNITS=10

>          EXP=NEVER

>          REL=17.5

>          OPT=NONE

>          SCOPE=MAXSUB(500),PERLIST

>          SERIAL=FREE-EDITION-WINNT

>          CKS=1-14AAD987-725C5B31

30 Nov 2024 15:54:04 LAK merged successfully:

> MNT-LISTSERV-LITEFE-WINNT-*

>          UNITS=0

>          EXP=31-DEC-2024

>          REL=17.5

>          OPT=NONE

>          SCOPE=SERIAL(FREE-EDITION-WINNT)

>          CMT=LITEFE

>          SERIAL=MNT-FREE-EDITION-WINNT-24;728996

>          CKS=1-BAFB501F-4B3CED37

 

*******************************************************************************

***************************** License information *****************************

*******************************************************************************

*                                                                             *

* This is the FREE EDITION of  LISTSERV(R) Lite, a product licensed by L-Soft *

* international,  Inc.  This   free  edition  may  not  be   sold  under  any *

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* immediately and indicate the name of the company which sold it to you.      *

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* LICENSE: Subject  to the  restrictions set  forth below,  you may  use this *

* software as you  see fit, as long as  you do not derive a  profit from such *

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* RIGHT TO COPY:  You may copy the  software as necessary to use  it, and for *

* backup purposes. Our  copyright notice must remain on the  original copy of *

* the software and be included on any copy you make.                          *

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* NO RIGHT TO MODIFY: You are not  allowed to modify the software in any way, *

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* to advertise itself as a free edition which is not for resale or commercial *

* use. You  may not  alter or  suppress these banners  or the  graphical art, *

* including, but  not limited to,  the "Powered  by LISTSERV -  Free Edition" *

* logo and its hyperlink to the L-Soft web page with the full license terms.  *

*                                                                             *

* USE AT YOUR OWN RISK: THE SOFTWARE  IS PROVIDED ON AN 'AS IS' BASIS. L-SOFT *

* DOES NOT MAKE  ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF  ANY KIND WHATSOEVER WITH *

* RESPECT TO  THE SOFTWARE,  INCLUDING, WITHOUT  LIMITATION, ANY  WARRANTY OF *

* MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Neither L-Soft nor any *

* of  its employees,  officers  or  agents will  be  liable  for any  direct, *

* indirect or consequential  damages, even if L-Soft had been  advised of the *

* possibility of such damage.                                                 *

*                                                                             *

* For   assistance,  subscribe   to   the  LISTSERV-LITE   mailing  list   at *

* PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM.                                                       *

*                                                                             *

*******************************************************************************

 

30 Nov 2024 15:54:05 Cleaning up upload directory...

30 Nov 2024 15:54:05 -> No file deleted

30 Nov 2024 15:54:05 Initialization complete

30 Nov 2024 15:54:05 You can enter commands via the keyboard at any time

 

SMTPL isn't as verbose.  It will start up with only a few messages:

C:\LISTSERV\MAIN>smtpl start

30 Nov 2024 14:39:31 LISTSERV SMTP listener, version 1.1e

30 Nov 2024 14:39:31 Copyright Eric Thomas 1994-2024

30 Nov 2024 14:39:31 Now listening to 0.0.0.0, port 25.

30 Nov 2024 14:39:31 Initialization complete - 200 concurrent threads.

To test the server, send Internet mail to the LISTSERV address with some random command, such as HELP, to check that the SMTP listener and outgoing mail interface are working correctly. Please note that the "LISTSERV address" is the address formed by "LISTSERV@" + the value you defined in the site configuration file for NODE=. For instance, if you defined NODE=LISTSERV.XYZ.COM, the LISTSERV address would be LISTSERV@LISTSERV.XYZ.COM.

DO NOT attempt to create lists or use the WWW interface until the basic email functions (ie, sending commands to LISTSERV by email and getting a response) are tested and working correctly.

Note that LISTSERV will not see any mail you send it via MAPI unless you have a MAPI/SMTP gateway for your LAN. LISTSERV does not include a MAPI gateway and thus does not support MAPI.

When running as services, LISTSERV and SMTPL both create log files in the \LISTSERV\LOG directory but, for performance reasons, the file buffers are not flushed with each and every write. If you attempt to TYPE the log file, it may appear to be empty. If you wait a few minutes, the buffers will be flushed and you will be able to examine the files. LISTSERV generates "crash reports" when it terminates abnormally, which are sent to the LISTSERV postmasters by default. These "crash reports" normally include a traceback of the error along with the last 100 LISTSERV log entries prior to the crash, and should be sent to L-Soft support for problem resolution.

In interactive mode, the log files are also created but the file buffers are flushed continuously. Flushing the logs continuously ensures that, in the event of a severe program failure, the logs will always contain information about the cause of the failure.

(Due to the fact that writing to command windows can significantly slow down an application, interactive mode should be used only when you are trying to troubleshoot a problem.)

When running as services, both LISTSERV and SMTPL may be stopped from the Control Panel/Services applet, or by issuing the commands NET STOP LISTSERV and NET STOP LISTSERV-SMTP from a DOS prompt.

When running in interactive mode, to stop LISTSERV, simply type STOP. To stop SMTPL, wait until there is no more activity and type Ctrl-C.

3.1 Windows Firewall Considerations

It is recommended that sites using the Windows Firewall should open the firewall to the LISTSERV program.  This is the preferred method as it makes it easy to change various TCP/IP-related aspects of LISTSERV's operation (e.g., outbound mail port, TCPGUI port) without having to change the firewall.

For the SMTPL.EXE "listener", it is recommended to open the firewall on port 25 from all IP addresses.  Alternately, simply open the firewall to the appropriate program.  The only advantage to explicitly opening port 25 as opposed to opening the firewall to SMTPL.EXE or some other specific MTA program is that you can easily switch from SMTPL to another MTA or vice versa without having to worry about changing the firewall settings.  Port 25 is also a "well-known" port so inbound mail is in almost every case going to come to port 25, regardless of which program is listening on that port for LISTSERV's mail.

 

Section 4 Installing the LISTSERV Web Interface

4.1 Setting Up the Interface During Installation

It is strongly recommended that you set up the basic web interface when you install the software.  The installation kit will offer to do this for you; you need only provide the directory used for CGI programs and the directory and base URL used for LISTSERV's web files.

If you choose to set up the interface later, please see the next section.

4.2 Setting Up the Interface Manually

If you choose to install the web interface manually, please refer to the appropriate white paper depending on what version of Microsoft Internet Information Services you are running:

Configuring the LISTSERV Web Interface for IIS 7.x

Configuring the LISTSERV Web Interface for IIS 8.x

The white paper for IIS 8.x is also valid for IIS 10.x.

These and other informative white papers can be found on L-Soft's web site at https://www.lsoft.com/resources/whitepaper.asp .

Complete information on installing the Web Archive Interface (including how to publish the content of "Send= Private" and/or "Confidential= Yes" lists) is contained in the Site Manager's Operations Manual for LISTSERV.

 

Section 5 Creating Your First List

Note:  Some of the examples in this section may show list configuration options which are not available in LISTSERV Lite.

Site administrators can create a new mailing list, including the directories necessary for supporting the archives, in a matter of minutes using the List Creation Wizard. This wizard guides you through a set of questions about the type of list that you want to create.

To create a list using the List Creation Wizard, select Server Administration -> List Creation from the sidebar menu.

(Note:  These images are from LISTSERV 17.0, but are still valid for LISTSERV 17.5.)

The List Creation Screen opens. Enter the List Name, the List Title, and then select the Create with Wizard option.

Click the [Next ->] button to continue. The List Type screen opens. Enter the List Owner, and then select the type of list you’d like to create. Your choices are Announcement List, Unmoderated Discussion List, and Moderated Discussion List.

Click the [Next ->] button to continue. The Details screen opens. Define how subscriptions are handled and which users can send messages to the list. This screen will vary slightly depending on the type of list you’re creating.

Click [Next ->] to continue. The Archives screen opens. Click the List Archives drop-down menu to define whether or not you want to archive messages posted to the mailing list.  (In addition to "No Archives", you will be presented with a choice of Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly archives.)  If posted messages are to be archived, then click the Archive Access drop-down menu to choose whether the archives will be available to the public or to subscribers only. Next, set the disk path to the location where the archives will be stored on the LISTSERV machine.  Finally, define whether to create the archive directories manually or to let LISTSERV do it.

Click [Next ->] to continue. The Summary screen opens. Review your selection, and then click [Create].

 

Section 6 If you are upgrading from LISTSERV 16.x

IMPORTANT:  LISTSERV 16.x web interface customizations and branding
are NOT COMPATIBLE with LISTSERV 17.5!

Before upgrading to LISTSERV 17.5, please be sure to back up your LISTSERV installation.

PLEASE read the LISTSERV 17.0 What's New document before upgrading!

(Yes, this is not a typo; we mean the LISTSERV 17.0 What's New document.)

It contains a great deal of information about the new version of the interface.

 

LISTSERV 17.0 was a major upgrade to the traditional LISTSERV web interface, bringing it in line with present day standards with responsive templates designed to display on both desktops and hand-held devices.  While there is a backward-compatible interface mode that allows both the server interface and individual list interfaces to fall back to the non-responsive 16.x “look and feel,” customizations made to the 16.x web templates are not compatible with the 17.0 web interface and will have to be retooled to fit into the new responsive interface.  If your LISTSERV server has heavily-customized or branded templates, L-Soft strongly recommends that this retooling be done in a test environment before upgrading your production server.

Before installing any upgraded files, the LISTSERV installer scripts for both Windows and unix will copy SITE.WWWTPL (if it exists) to SITE165.WWWTPL.  This is a requirement for the “compatibility mode” previously mentioned, and preserves any customizations made to the 16.x web templates for use by that mode.

LISTSERV sites that normally upgrade using manual methods rather than using the installer kits MUST perform the SITE.WWWTPL -> SITE165.WWWTPL operation manually.  Unix LISTSERV sites performing this manual operation MUST ensure that the resulting site165.wwwtpl file is named in lower case, is owned by ‘listserv’, and has the same permission settings as site.wwwtpl.

 

 

Section 7 Upgrading your LISTSERV installation

Upgrading LISTSERV is almost as simple as installing it.  Simply follow these steps:

·         For paid copies of LISTSERV Lite:  If you are upgrading from one full version of LISTSERV Lite to another (for instance, from 17.0 to 17.5), you should have received a new LAK from your sales representative.  If you do not have a LAK for the version you are upgrading to, stop right here and contact your L-Soft sales representative. If you are not sure what version you are currently licensed for, send a "SHOW LICENSE" command to LISTSERV.

·         For the LISTSERV Lite Free Edition: Your installation kit will contain an updated LAK which permits you to continue running the Free Edition.

·         If you have received a new LAK, install it onto your old installation, following the instructions that come with the LAK (or see Section 2.4, above). Send LISTSERV a "SHOW LICENSE" command after restarting LISTSERV to ensure that the new LAK has been installed properly. Do not proceed further until this step has been correctly completed.

·         Back up the entire LISTSERV directory hierarchy (just in case).

·         Stop LISTSERV and SMTPL.

·         Get the current Windows LISTSERV Lite kit from the LISTSERV Lite download page and install it over your existing installation. Your current configuration, lists, and other settings will be preserved.  Note that evaluation kits are production code limited only by an evaluation LAK, which your production LAK will override.

·         If you are running the legacy LSMTP MTA as your mailer, open the Windows Control Panel/Services applet and ensure that the "LISTSERV SMTP Listener" service is disabled.  This is very important!  Note that the current version of the installation GUI will not register SMTPL.EXE as a service if an installation of LSMTP is detected in the Windows registry, but it is still wise to check this.

·         Restart LISTSERV and SMTPL (if not running legacy LSMTP) and send a command to make sure the installation was successful.

 

Section 8 Additional Resources

8.1 Documentation

8.1.1 Manuals

All of L-Soft's formal documentation for LISTSERV, including its manuals, installation guides, and online help systems, is available at https://www.lsoft.com/manuals.html .

8.1.2 White Papers

L-Soft frequently publishes white papers on specific topics for our products. These white papers are available at https://www.lsoft.com/resources/whitepaper.asp .

Specifically related to the configuration and setup of LISTSERV, the following white papers may be useful depending on your situation:

·         Configuring the LISTSERV Web Interface for IIS 7.x

·         Configuring the LISTSERV Web Interface for IIS 8.x
(Also valid for IIS 10.x)

·        Moving LISTSERV to a New Server

·        Using the Microsoft IIS SMTP Service for LISTSERV Deliveries

8.1.3 Tech Tips

Every quarter, L-Soft’s newsletter, LISTSERV at Work, is released and contains Tech Tips that are written by L-Soft specialists with the goal of giving our customers some advice and expert guidance with specific topics regarding our products. For a complete list of these Tech Tips, go to https://www.lsoft.com/resources/techtip.asp .

8.2 Mailing Lists

There are several mailing lists dedicated to the support of LISTSERV.

LSTSRV-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM	for LISTSERV maintainers and interested list owners
LSTOWN-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM	for LISTSERV list owners
LISTSERV-LITE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM	for LISTSERV Lite Free Edition users

To subscribe to any of these lists, send mail to LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM with the following command in the body of the message:

SUBSCRIBE listname Your Name

8.3 Getting Support

To keep costs to a minimum, we have adopted the following "light weight" maintenance and support structure for the LISTSERV Lite Free Edition:

·         Fixes (usually in the form of level-set releases) will be made available from time to time and can be downloaded at no charge.

·         Technical assistance for the Free Edition will be provided through a special mailing list, LISTSERV-LITE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM. LISTSERV Lite administrators will be invited to subscribe to the list and share problems and solutions. L-Soft support staff will monitor the list and answer the tougher questions as time permits.

·         L-Soft will accept bug reports from LISTSERV Lite customers – including those using the Free Edition. However, L-Soft may not be able to provide individual answers. Furthermore, L-Soft does not guarantee that all problems will be solved, or that they will be solved in any particular time frame.

·         The L-Soft support helpdesk will not accept calls from LISTSERV Lite Free Edition customers, or from paid LISTSERV Lite customers who did not purchase support. All support inquiries must be directed to the LISTSERV-LITE list, which is monitored by the support staff. Sometimes it may take a while for the support staff to answer these questions, because requests from LISTSERV Classic customers, who pay a yearly support fee, have a higher priority.

·         New full versions, when released, will be made available under the Free Edition license. Technical assistance for older versions will continue to be available for a reasonable period of time on the LISTSERV-LITE mailing list. Fixes will be provided only for the current version.

This approach strikes a balance between making sure that customers are not left out in the cold when a serious problem occurs, and keeping support costs to a reasonable level.

It is possible to purchase maintenance (including full support and upgrades) for LISTSERV Lite.  Please contact your sales representative for details and pricing.

 

 

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