Almost there... Need help PLEASE !!

[surgie2]

Can you please help me....

I have a DynDNS (to name my server on my bellsouth ISP, Linksys routed system), we'll call it
My part / DynDNS
bound. / books.com or sinply “bound.books.com”

I entered my ISP provider issued IP address to direct DynDNS (everyone) to my router, which DCHPs to all the rest of the hardware. Pretty normal... i know, that's why I am stumpted!

In my router I put DDNS bound.books.com and my ISPed IP. I forwarded ports 25, 110, and 113, to my Postfix server, who's IP is 192.168.1.whatever....


In my ”hosts” file:

127.0.0.0 “bound.books.com“ local.host local (something to that effect... just added “ ” DynDNS)


In my “main.cf” file:

myhostname = bound.books.com

SENDMAIL
myorigin = $mydomain

relay_domains = $mydestination
relay_host =
aliases, transport_map, etc.....

I also tried:
myorigin = bound.books.com.tld <-- the “.tld” was listed in postfix, so I thought it might be necessary


In my “transport” file:

#external delivery
* smtp:[gateway.bound.books.com] <-- gateway gets messages refused by unknown host, I believe...

I've tried: smtp:[gateway.bound.books.com]
smtp:[gateway.books.com]
smtp:[gateway.192.168.1.....]
smtp:[bound.books.com]
smtp:[books.com]
smtp:[192.168.1.....]

I can connect to:
# host telay-test.mail-abuse.org just fine....

With various configurations I've gotten “connection refused to port 25”
“connection timed out” softbounce, etc. What am i doing wrong???

Many thanks in advance,

 

[lgarner]

Just to clarify, is the problem with mail inbound, outbound, or both?

Get rid of the transport entries. This is used to specify a relay server for certain addresses.

What is "gateway.bound.books.com", anyway? The router? Using "bound.books.com" causes the server to deliver all mail to itself.

If your ISP blocks outbound SMTP to hosts other than it's own, you might need a transport entry, and probably login info, but that's another issue.

The DDNS is a little confusing. The server should have a static IP address outside of the DHCP scope. I'd also change the hosts file to reflect that:

192.168.1.1 bound.books.com bound
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

 

[surgie2]

Well, it appears to only be with outbound. The server was actually being set up for email notification of voicemail, from asterisk. i have not installed an interface to the email yet, only waqtching the mail logs, and auto generated email from the system (out to me at an ecternal address). I know I actually need to install a GUI... what do yo recommend there... dovecot??

Anyway, I followed the basic and (behind a firewall) standard configurations at:

http://www.postfix.org/STANDARD_CONFIGURATION_README.html

The gateway was specified in the above document. That is actually what was trashing the whole thing!! i just typed gateway in front of the DDNS domain name.

I was told that lots of email would (might be rejected if I did not obtail a domain name... at DynDNS you can obtain one simply by registering. Sorry, but I'm new at the email server thing... the documents state to input a domain name... can I use the supplied IP from my ISP ?
There was also something listed about an auto generating "machine" default domain...

Anyway, I know it is confusing... Please help, and I will follow you instructions closely.

 

[surgie2]

Hi lgarner,
The setup wasn't clear at all to me, but when you said that, "Using "bound.books.com" causes the server to deliver all mail to itself." ... I knew what must have been meant there I changed it smtp:[mail.bellsouth.net] and it worked! I knew it was very close!! I'm still confused though.. I thought that postfix sent emails directly to the internet....

What email GUI do you recommend I use?

 

[lgarner]

It does send to the internet, unless you configure a relay. You can ditch the transport file entirely, but be advised that many anti-spam measures will block mail from dynamic IP addresses.

EMail GUI? Use any that you like. I use Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird and, on Linux, either Thunderbird or Evolution. Anything that works with your ISP's mail will work fine with Postfix and popd or imapd.

 

[surgie2]

How the heck do I configure it? Is there a setup guide anywhere?... Sorry, I am still a little confused?

Can I remove the dynamic DNS? Replace it with my IP address? Then what do I use in place of, say, "mail.bellsouth.net" in outlook?

I'll get the hang of it quick... this is just my first time with an email server.