Remote cannot establish SMTP connection

[RandomStab]

I just installed and configured qmail on a gentoo system. So far, everything I've tested seems to work fine but when I inject a message to a remote user, the message is defered and never successfuly delivered. I've tried several destination domains.

The qmail-send log says:

deferral: Sorry,_I_wasn't_able_to_establish_an_SMTP_connection._(#4.4.1)/

How can I get a more detailed diagnostic of the failure?

 

[slylos]

Are you able to determine the IP address that qmail is trying to establish an SMTP connection with? Or atleast the domain? If you can get the IP address, try to establish an SMTP connection yourself through a telnet session . . . If you only have the domain, try to ping the domain to get the IP address, then try to telnet - if you are successful, check to make sure the MX records for the remote domain are in place and correct.

 

[RandomStab]

Thank you slylos.

I assumed that if I can ping it that I can connect smtp. I understand, that most smtp servers, these days, do not accept connections from source addresses that do not have a MX record - I have a DSL connection.

 

[slylos]

No they (usually) will accept with no MX record, its the PTR record most ISP's are looking for . . . your PTR record is established through your ISP (when a reverse lookup is performed, your ISP's DNS servers are contacted for a reverse lookup record). You can check yours by going to dnsstuff.com . . .