1. Modify contrib/{message.txt,reply_blurb.txt,verified.txt,challenges.txt} to suite your liking. These are the messages that will be set as default. * You should really try to think of your own challenges: if everyone just uses the defaults, spammers will learn quickly. 2. create your Email Secretary Database for mysql: /pathto/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u -p create 3. run ./setup, answer the questions if you run a db other than MySQL, you'll have to create your database manually (see contrib/esec.mysql for hints) after running setup. I highly recommend running 'setup --help' in order to easily save your setup options so that future upgrades are easy. 4. set up your webserver. eseccgi.pl needs access inside ~vpopmail/domains, which is readable by the vpopmail user. If you have suexec installed on your apache server, you can try: ServerName esec.example.com ServerAlias example.com User vpopmail Group vchkpw DocumentRoot /home/hostedsites/esec.example.com/ ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/hostedsites/esec.example.com/cgi-bin/ You'll also have to chown/chgrp/chmod eseccgi.pl to fit your needs If your apache is compiled with suexec, but wont let you use vpopmail/vchkpw, your apache may have been compilied with too low of a suexec-uidmin and/or suexec-gidmin. 5. Set up cron to expire stuff out of the database: 13 0,12 * * * /usr/bin/nice /usr/local/script/eseccron.pl 6. to be more RFC compliant, modify the getdate sub in esec.pl to display the correct offset for your particular timezone. 7. add your account: INSERT INTO accounts (email,crypt,name) VALUES ('username@example.com','2i0cW4dv7XCOc','Your Real Name'); 8. add a .qmail-username file for your email account (must have a vpasswd entry) echo '|/usr/local/script/esec.pl username@example.com' > ~vpopmail/domains/example.com/.qmail-username 9. send a test message to username@example.com from an outside account, check for a reply.