Here is how I set up dovecot. $ doas pkg_add dovecot In /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf, add these lines at the very bottom: service lmtp { user = vmail } #auth_verbose=yes #auth_debug=yes #auth_debug_passwords=yes #mail_debug=yes #auth_verbose_passwords=sha1 verbose_ssl=yes You can turn on debugging, verbose ssl, and so forth as you need to help troubleshoot. In /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-auth.conf, I make these changes: #!include auth-system.conf.ext passdb { args = scheme=blf-crypt /etc/mail/passwd driver = passwd-file } userdb { args = uid=vmail gid=vmail home=/var/vmail/%d/%n driver = static } Comment out auth-system.conf.ext and add the new passdb/userdb conf settings. In /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf: mail_location = maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir In /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf, I make these changes: ssl = required ... ssl_cert =