sendmail: "unrecognized host name" 1

[shadedecho]

I've got sendmail installed (and working to an extent) on a debian 3.1 machine. I am able to connect to it via telnet both from on the box and from an external source, and send mail to local accounts on the machine just fine.

However, when I try to send from a local account (not relaying) out to an external address, I get "unrecognized host name". I also get the same message if I issue a:

sendmail -bv [name]@[othermailserver.com]

The domains I am trying to send to are functioning email servers, I get mail at them all the time, and the mail server and domain name are all resolvable from this machine. DNS is running locally on the same box, and working just fine (though it is not the SOA on the particular domain I am trying to send to).

I'm sure there is just something stupid and simple I'm not doing... but I have scoured Sendmail books and the internet, and can't figure out why Sendmail won't resolve/recognize the domain names via DNS.

HELP!

 

[normntwrk]

A temp fix would be to put the other mail servers IP address/name in your /etc/hosts file.


Have you tried NSLOOKUP or DIG from your server to try to see where the resolving process is breaking down?

nslookup
set type=MX
domain name you are trying to reach.com

should return the DNS server you are using and the proper mailserver name

Norm

 

[RhythmAce]

I think the host name it can't find is its own Try adding your domain name to /etc/mail/local-host-names along with any other domains you are hosting. You are also in an acute state of denial. When you send from one place (local) to another (external), then we call that relaying. Your access.db should at least let you relay from the localhost. Add these lines if they aren't there already:

127.0.0.1 RELAY
localhost RELAY
localhost.localdomain RELAY

 

[shadedecho]

Thank you all for your input... I never did find out why Sendmail wasn't being able to "relay", as you point out. I ended up going with Postfix, and it works like a charm. Thanks!