ISP won't forward mail

[Octalman]

I have run sendmail on SuSE Linux successfully for almost three years (currently sendmail 8.11.1 on SuSE 7.1). About July 15, my ISP changed its e-mail handling to filter incoming mail through an offsite system. While I can still receive mail (from anywhere) and send mail to others within the domain, outgoing mail is not delivered. The e-mail server appears to direct outgoing e-mail to the offsite server, which refuses to forward it, saying it doesn't relay. The ISP has two domain names, pan-tex.net, which I use, and pampa.com, which appears to be an alias for pan-tex.net)

At first the ISP said there had been no change to his system, but later admitted that he had started filtering inbound e-mail offsite about July 15. He insists that my smart host spec, smtp:mail.pan-tex.net, is correct (ns.pan-tex.net works too, but not mail.pampa.com - pampa.com is supposed to be an alias for pan-tex.net).

SuSE does not install MX records, so I'm wondering if this may be part of the problem. I'm trying to discover if any M$ users have any problems.

Any ideas? All suggestions welcome.

Octalman

 

[RhythmAce]

Do you HAVE to go through your ISP's mail servers? If you have sendmail, then you have everything you need to run your own mail server. If making changes to your DNS records is a pain, then check out

http://www.zoneedit.com

and you will be in complete control over your DNS "A" and "MX" records. Not to mention that the changes take effect immediately instead of days. All you would have to do is create an "A" record and point mail.yourdomain.com to your IP address. Then create an "MX" record showing that mail.yourdomain.com handles the mail for your domain.com. Within seconds your mail should be coming to your server. Then you will need a POP server such as qpopper and your all set.

 

[Octalman]

Thanks for the reply, RhythmAce. In my configuration, SuSE Linux doesn't run DNS. Saves a lot of hassle and eliminates some (potential) security holes. That was part of what was confusing me because the ISP insisted that _I_ was causing the problem somehow, that he had "made no changes" and mail.pan-tex.net was the correct server for me to access. I finally figured out last night how to access _his_ DNS (SuSE utility called dnsquery) and then figured out how to access his real local mailserver, which is _not_ mail.pan-tex.net ... that address is (always has been) an alias for a nameserver, which now redirects incoming (to the ISP) mail to an offsite mail filter. It seems to have reduced porno mail by 75% to 80% and spam in general by maybe 20%. But I wonder why he didn't use Real Time Blackhole and/or ORDB onsite. Surely that would cost less than the $500 a month he is paying the offsite filter operators.

Without a published site name and no direct Internet link, I have to go through the the ISP's mail server. As for receiving mail, I have to use the ISP's mail server because I suspect he wouldn't appreciate me being connected full time on my 56k dialup ;-(( DSL probably is out of the question because I'm a little over two as-the-birds-fly miles from the CO. Not to mention $$. Two ordinary Southwestern Bell home lines costs less than $38 a month and service here (both voice and data) is super.

BTW, I'm replying so someone else can perhaps benefit too. I wish _all_ original posters would reply with their solutions so the rest of us could benefit from their experiences.

Octalman