HELP...SENDMAIL cannot RECEIVE/FETCH messages from outside localhost

[Tedson99]

Hello there...I really need some help with setting up SENDMAIL so that it can retrieve or fetch messages SENT from other domains/servers/etc....So far, I can SEND messages to other parts of the world no problems at all...it is just that I can only receive local messages send by other local users...CANNOT get ANY messages from other parts of the WORLD!! HELP ME OUT!! Thanks!!

Is my understanding correct that if I set Apache DNS server hosting already, sendmail will automatically communicate with it to retrieve everything it needs to get the whole email thing to work?? PLEASE HELP!!

 

[GoldenEternity]

Are people getting messages kicked back from your mail server? Is your domain name valid? Has your domain info had time to propogate? Do you have an MX record in your DNS zone file?

Have you tried telnetting in to your mail server (port 25) and simulating a mail message from another site?

My experience with mail servers is only with qmail, so this may not translate over, but have you set up the mail server so that it knows what domains are local and that it should be accepting traffic for?

 

[Tedson99]

Hmm...actually those are interesting questions you posted me..I will have to get back to you...but really thanks for helping and please keep checking to see if I respond to your questions so that you may help me further. I have to get back to office tomorrow in order to persue further...please keep checking...thanks for now!!

Tedson99

 

[Tedson99]

Hello GoldenEternity...thanks for your patience, I would like to answer a few of your questions...

People ARE getting messages kicked back from attempting to send mail to my mail server...for example, a typical message kick back from Windows using Lotus Domino/Notes server is:

Your message

Subject: Hello!!

was not delivered to:

root@ns.mydomain.net

because:

Router: Failed to connect to SMTP host NS.mydomain.net because : The remote server is not a known TCP/IP host.

This is what I get...but I am running Apache Web Server fine as I can acess my testing site via internet on another machine(Network Solution provided the domain name and pointed to the IP of the Linux Server and itworks). Furthermore, for the DNS server, I use BIND and this tends to work well too as I set up a few Windows machine to point to my machine for DNS connection..they are all going to interner through the Linux machine..it works as well!!

What else am I missing in the picture? I got BIND DNS server running and Apache Web Server running as well..and that SENDMAIL can SEND message fine as well...

What do you mean by "domain info have time to PROPOGATE?

And YES, I have an MX record in the DNS zone files (in the Forward Master Zone file). It is located in the Records box when I press EDIT (in Mail Exchangers ADD) and it is mail.ns.mydomain.net with priority of 10. IP Address (optional) is the IP for the Linux Server. Name server is ns.mydomain.net.

And by the way, I don't know if I am right but there is 2 entries in the Bind Configuration...one for localhost and one is ns.mydomain.net. Because I thought localhost is only LOCAL, I added another set for ns.mydomain.com and put the MX entry in this instead of the LOCALHOST, is that correct??

Yeah, I tried telnetting into the Linux mail server on

1) through the Linux machine itself (telnet through this)
2) through another machine (Windows based)

They both fail...

On the Linux machine, I type "telnet ns.mydomain.net" and it will tell me "Trying (Linux machine IP)...telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection Refused".

On the Windows machine via Dos Prompt, I type "telnet ns.mydomain.net" and it will tell me "Connecting To ns.mydomain.net...Could not open a connection to host: Connect failed".

I really didn't indicate Port 25 though when I try these, it doesn't use this port automatically??

I hope this is not too much details for you OR enough info to help me out further. I really want to thank you for helping me out so far and hope you can help me further...I am really getting quite depressed not able to get the RECEIVE part of Sendmail working!! Thanks again and hope to hear from you soon!!

Tedson99

 

[Tedson99]

Hello, I just spoted something using netstat. I realized that only PORT 25 is enabled/open when I start the sendmail server and NOT PORT 110 as well for inbound POP mails. Also, there isn't a IMAP port 143 as well. HELP!!

Tedson99

 

[GoldenEternity]

When you telnet in you do have to specify the port number, or it will default to port 23 (telnet). Sendmail doesn't handle POP, so you'll need to pick up a POP server or get your mail locally with mail, pine, etc.

If you can hit your web server using the domain name, and the mail server is on the same system, then probably isn't the issue. But before I rule that out... when you access your web site, did you type in the hostname (FQDN), or just the domain name? For example:

http://www.example.com

-or-

http://example.com

If you didn't try the latter, give it a shot. If it doesn't work, try sending email to username@

http://www.example.com

(replacing that with your info, of course).

After that, try telnetting into the mail server... Here's an example:

[me@local mydir]$ telnet localhost 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to local.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.example.com ESMTP
helo example.com
250 mail.example.com
mail from: me@example.com
250 ok
rcpt to: me@example.com
250 ok
data
354 go ahead
Subject: Blah! - Testing
Test!
.
250 ok 991073412 qp 18811
quit
221 mail.example.com
Connection closed by foreign host.
[me@local mydir]$

 

[Tedson99]

Hello GoldenEternity...I really thank you so much for keeping track with me today...out of your busy schedule. I am actually still tackling the problem.

Ok, actually I run into no problems with sending mails AT ALL and receiving mails LOCALLY. The example you gave me, I followed it 100% and VOILA...it works perfectly using telnet localhost 25!! Great but that should be what I am expecting because I can do the same with mail or sendmail sending both local and global...

Now, again the problems comes when I use my Windows box and send a mail to root@ns.mydomain.net through the everyday Microsoft Outlook. When I check out to see if I get any mails in my Linux, the answer is always no!!

I am currently trying to run fetchmail for the POP receive capabilities that sendmail lacks (thanks for telling me Sendmail actually not able to handle POP...too bad I just know it today as I have been thinking IT CAN for the last few days " sad " ). Therefore I tackled fetchmail in hopes it will do the fetching of emails INCOMING from the WORLD!! Too bad..I still have problems receiving...any suggestions??

As for the Linux web server (Apache) and mail server (Sendmail/fetchmail combo), they are both on same Linux box combined with SAMBA as well!!

When I access my website, I will type:

http://ns.mydomain.net

(this is set up to point STRAIGHT at the Linux IP by Network Solutions). Any difference between having www. or my ns.mydomain.net??

By the way, I named my machine "hostname" as ns.mydomain.net and "domain" as ns.mydomain.net through Network Configuration. No problems with this I hope?

Lastly, I try telnet through ns.mydomain.net and of course it is not localhost and is trying to connect to Linux's actual IP, it said:

telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

Not normal, right? Or is it normal that I cannot access my own machine??

Thanks and look forward to hear from you..if you want, please email me details on how I can contact you (email or phone #) where I can reach you and talk straight with you during my work!! Thanks really from the bottom of my heart...you really have a heart to help me out fully...instead of being skimpy. Try to reach me at tedson2000@hotmail.com Thanks

Tedson99

 

[GoldenEternity]

OK, first to tackle the easier questions... Fetchmail is used to connect to a remote pop server and retreive messages. It isn't a POP server. I couldn't really recommend one, since I've always used the one that came with qmail, but I've heard a lot of people recommend qpopper.

Connection refused when running 'telnet <hostname>' can simply mean that you don't have a telnet server open. Try running 'netstat -a' or check out inetd.conf for a telnet daemon (or /etc/xinetd.d/ depending on your version). Since ssh can do everything a telnet server can do (better), you shouldn't need it open.

If your fully qualified domain name (domain +hostname) is ns.mydomain.com, then your hostname is ns and your domain name is mydomain.com. If you set both your hostname and domain name to be ns.mydomain.com, then your FQDN could be interpreted as ns.mydomain.com.ns.mydomain.com.

Had you tried telnetting to the mail server from your windows system?

If you do want to contact me off list, you can reach me at:

bhodi@bigfoot.com

 

[Tedson99]

Hello, thanks again GoldenEternity for your latest scoop...guess I make another boo boo..gee!! The sendmail is so weird anyway...no receive mails...

Now, can you please tell me if qmail is any good? If very good, I better opt for this one so that I can set it up in one package...tell me what your suggestion is at this point Meanwhile, I will look at qpopper...

About telnetting from Windows, yeah I have tried it as I have mentioned in the earlier day's message, I get Connect failed message.

Thanks for the info and hope to hear from you again very soon!! I needed it!!

Tedson99

 

[GoldenEternity]

Well, I wouldn't be running qmail if I didn't like it. Getting it running can be a bit confusing at first, but there are some pretty decent texts (and rumors of an o'reilly book in the - hopefully - near future).

 

[Tedson99]

Thanks GoldenEternity, ok I will try out the qmail then. Can you brief me where I could start? Download? Install?

Tedson99

 

[GoldenEternity]

qmail can be a tricky install... But its worth it not to have to worry about things like, oh, say the fact that there was a new advisory for sendmail this morning.

You can grab it from qmail.org, and there is some good documentation there... I've always read the qmail howto, but a lot of people like &quot;life with qmail&quot;.

 

[Tedson99]

Thanks GoldenEternity, for the info in the qmail. I will give it a shot if I cannot set qpopper right...sendmail is working fine, I think!! Now, I just wanted to get Samba working. Trouble with writing to Samba is getting on my nerves!!

Tedson99

 

[Tedson99]

Hello there...I am still having trouble with Sendmail...I still cannot get sendmail to receive the mails I send from another machine (Windows via their own SMTP server Domino 5). Please help...what am I missing?

Message I get is:

Your message

Subject: Test!!

was not delivered to:

root@ns.mydomain.net

because:

Router: Failed to connect to SMTP host NS.MYDOMAIN.NET because : The remote server is not a known TCP/IP host.


I managed to get Qpopper working now to do the POP server tasks on any client like Outlook, but I still cannot reply back to the Linux box making Sendmail recognize to fetch incoming mails...HELP PLEASE friendly Linux experts...I am sure I will do my part to help you all on other ISSUES!! This is my last piece to make the Linux server run a FULL stress test!! I got DNS, Web, File/Printer sharing,SQL SERVERS running all great....just EMAIL.... >:-<

Tedson99

 

[Tedson99]

Hello folks, it has been a real roller coaster with SENDMAIL and I still CANNOT get the thing working for Receiving mails. As I said, I can send and receive no problems locally through all local domain email addresses. Furthermore, I can LOCALLY use sendmail to send to about anybody around the world. I also set up to fetch email via Outlook 2000 in Windows (POP using Qpopper and SMTP using Sendmail). Retrieving mails using Qpopper with mails I send via Linux machine is OK...also now sending a message back to linux machine via Outlook with sendmail selected as SMTP server in Outlook is fine too. THE PROBLEMS LIES with the fact that if I were to send an email using ANOTHER SMTP server (in this case, the original one that I have always been using for my Windows 2000 machine), Sendmail WILL NOT acknowleged the mails being sent to it...there is no signal of incoming mails at all. Error message goes something like this:

The message could not be sent because one of the recipents was rejected by the server. Server Response: '450.4.7 <user@domaindomain.com>...Relaying temporarily denied. Cannot resolve PTR record for 205.111.11.3'. (Account: 'ns.mydomain.net', SMTP Server: '205.111.11.5', Error Number: 0x800ccc79).


WHAT IS WRONG??

Again, if I use it to send it to another local hosting address, it will be fine for sure...BUT if I send it to another address, it will give above error.



MORE, if I were to use my another ISP to send it through to the linux hosting address, SENDMAIL would not acknowledge to receive the message...PLEASE HELP PLEASE!!

Tedson99