I am a noob to setting up email. I followed the dovecot /postfix documentation.

When I look in the logs I get this...
Apr 26 12:43:51 li436-38 postfix/smtpd[14950]: connect from localhost[127.0.0.1]
Apr 26 12:43:51 li436-38 postfix/smtpd[14950]: warning: SASL: Connect to private/auth failed: No such file or directory
Apr 26 12:43:51 li436-38 postfix/smtpd[14950]: fatal: no SASL authentication mechanisms
Apr 26 12:43:52 li436-38 postfix/master[12096]: warning: process /usr/libexec/postfix/smtpd pid 14950 exit status 1
Apr 26 12:43:52 li436-38 postfix/master[12096]: warning: /usr/libexec/postfix/smtpd: bad command startup -- throttling
Apr 26 12:43:52 li436-38 sendmail[14948]: q3QChpF6014948: to=daudet@fido.members.linode.com, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:00:01, xdelay=00:00:01, mailer=relay, pri=30333, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: Connection reset by [127.0.0.1]
Apr 26 12:51:03 li436-38 sendmail[14968]: q3QCp3IB014968: from=root, size=325, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<20120426125103.GA14965@fido.members.linode.com>, relay=root@localhost
Apr 26 12:51:03 li436-38 postfix/smtpd[14970]: connect from localhost[127.0.0.1]
Apr 26 12:51:03 li436-38 postfix/smtpd[14970]: warning: SASL: Connect to private/auth failed: Permission denied
Apr 26 12:51:03 li436-38 postfix/smtpd[14970]: fatal: no SASL authentication mechanisms
Apr 26 12:51:04 li436-38 postfix/master[12096]: warning: process /usr/libexec/postfix/smtpd pid 14970 exit status 1
Apr 26 12:51:04 li436-38 postfix/master[12096]: warning: /usr/libexec/postfix/smtpd: bad command startup -- throttling
Apr 26 12:51:04 li436-38 sendmail[14968]: q3QCp3IB014968: to=daudet@carolina.rr.com, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:00:01, xdelay=00:00:01, mailer=relay, pri=30325, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: Connection reset by [127.0.0.1]
~

Apr 26 12:43:51 li436-38 postfix/smtpd[14950]: warning: SASL: Connect to private/auth failed: No such file or directory
Apr 26 12:43:51 li436-38 postfix/smtpd[14950]: fatal: no SASL authentication mechanisms

This is telling you that Postfix is not able to contact Dovecot for authentication on the UNIX socket /var/spool/postfix/private/auth. What does /etc/dovecot.conf look like?

The issue is resolved. It had to do with the manner in which my server was named.

A friend of mine that is a RedHat engineer helped me straighten it out.

thanks for the quick replay,

Dan