I have long used an email classifier called popfile to assist me with managing email spam.
Recently it stopped working. It turns out that it has a conflict with the popular and fantastically useful remote desktop viewing and support program called ANYDESK. The default configuration of both anydesk and popfile use port 7070. This article is about resolving this conflict by changing the popfile configuration.
My Linux system uses Ubuntu-Mate 18.04 LTS, this solution has also been applied to 20.04 LTS.
In investigating why popfile was not working, I went to the logs located at /var/log/popfile I found in the newest logfile:
html: 76: Couldn’t start the html interface because POPFile could not bind to the listen port 7070
So the problem is with port 7070, looking at what it is being used for:
sudo lsof -i :7070
Which told me that ANYDESK is using that port and it also gave me the PID of that process. So I used this PID to stop anydesk for this session:
sudo kill “prosess ID from above”
Then test that there is no program on this port any more:
sudo lsof -i :7070
(no result, hence port not in use)
I could then start popfile and change its configuration:
cd /etc/init.d/
sudo sh popfile start
Result is: Starting popfile: popfile.
Checking with: sudo lsof -i :7070
Shows that popfile is connected.
Then in my web browser I opened popfile at the old conflicted port:
http://127.0.0.1:7070/
and for the fist time in a while I can access the popfile controls.
Then selected the “Configuration” tab, in section “User interface web port:” changed the number from 7070 to 7080 and click apply.
Then to change the configuration:
cd /etc/popfile
sudo ed defaults
change the UIPORT from 7070 to 7080 and write the changes
Then either stop and start popfile to pickup the new confifguration, OR just reboot the computer.
cd /etc/init.d
sudo sh popfile stop
sudo sh popfile start
This has restored popfile’s functionality.
Now the web browser opens popfile at the new port:
http://127.0.0.1:7080/
Be sure to bookmark it.
Fixing POPFILE email classifier
I have long used an email classifier called popfile to assist me with managing email spam.
Recently it stopped working. It turns out that it has a conflict with the popular and fantastically useful remote desktop viewing and support program called ANYDESK. The default configuration of both anydesk and popfile use port 7070. This article is about resolving this conflict by changing the popfile configuration.
My Linux system uses Ubuntu-Mate 18.04 LTS, this solution has also been applied to 20.04 LTS.
In investigating why popfile was not working, I went to the logs located at /var/log/popfile I found in the newest logfile:
html: 76: Couldn’t start the html interface because POPFile could not bind to the listen port 7070
So the problem is with port 7070, looking at what it is being used for:
sudo lsof -i :7070
Which told me that ANYDESK is using that port and it also gave me the PID of that process. So I used this PID to stop anydesk for this session:
sudo kill “prosess ID from above”
Then test that there is no program on this port any more:
sudo lsof -i :7070
(no result, hence port not in use)
I could then start popfile and change its configuration:
cd /etc/init.d/
sudo sh popfile start
Result is: Starting popfile: popfile.
Checking with: sudo lsof -i :7070
Shows that popfile is connected.
Then in my web browser I opened popfile at the old conflicted port:
http://127.0.0.1:7070/
and for the fist time in a while I can access the popfile controls.
Then selected the “Configuration” tab, in section “User interface web port:” changed the number from 7070 to 7080 and click apply.
Then to change the configuration:
cd /etc/popfile
sudo ed defaults
change the UIPORT from 7070 to 7080 and write the changes
Then either stop and start popfile to pickup the new confifguration, OR just reboot the computer.
cd /etc/init.d
sudo sh popfile stop
sudo sh popfile start
This has restored popfile’s functionality.
Now the web browser opens popfile at the new port:
http://127.0.0.1:7080/
Be sure to bookmark it.