unable to make smtp connection

[kmjpr]

my qmail server is not able to send mails to outside of the domain. internally it is sending mails.
when u inject any outbound mails it says
sorry, i wasn't able to make an smtp connection
i'm able to nslookup the DNS.
when i do qmasilctl stat it shows all the 4 services up -qmail-clean,qmail-rspawn,qmail-lspawn and qmail-send are working alongwith supervisor and multilog.
any help !!

 

[meekrob]

Is there a firewall issue?

 

[meekrob]

Try running nmap against your server and see if port 25 is available from a remote location. If you do not have nmap or a friend you can trust, I will run it for you. I would not suggest publishing your IP in this forum. Email me:

meekrob at mitosys.com

 

[jshanley]

> when u inject any outbound mails it says
> sorry, i wasn't able to make an smtp connection

I believe meekrob is on the right track. First, check your local machine to make sure you're allowing it to make the outgoing connections. Here's my guess: Your ISP is one of the many who are now filtering outgoing SMTP from it's users. If you're using Mindspring/Earthlink, as an example, you're not allowed to connect to someone elses SMTP directly - you must use their SMTP servers. This is, apparently, an attempt to cut down on spammers.

You can, of course, just call your ISP and ask them if they filter SMTP. However, you might get a tech that really has no idea, so he gives you the wrong answer, and just says "no".

Here's an easy way to test, and see if it's your ISP.

create a file called: /var/qmail/control/smtproutes

in that file, put one line, like this:

:mail.earthlink.net

-- ie: if your ISP is earthlink, and their SMTP server is mail.earthlink.net, that's what you'd put in the file. Adjust the name to suit your situation. Be sure to include the : mark at the beginning of the line, as shown.

Then, reload qmail so it knows about the change, and will start relaying mail through your ISP's mailserver. I believe this will solve your problem.