Hi, Im writting about my never ending quest to setup my mail server.
Im using sendmail. I can connect localy (when i telnet through my own network) but I cant recieve mail from external networks or mail servers.
I can send mail to external servers fine, just cant recieve it. I have set my MX record to my IP address, but when i try to send mail to myself from gmail or hotmail or something I get a message back saying…
Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 553 553 sorry, that address is unknown (state 14).
I have setup my router to forward traffic to my mail server on port 25, snd I have configured sendmail to listen to incomming mail on port 25. I dont know whats goin wrong. any ideas?
PS:
when I attmept to send mail to myself I get the following message in my mail log…
Jun 12 07:07:56 luke sendmail[4306]: n5CE7j56004306: S010600062508ca0d.vs.shawcable.net [70.71.43.55] did not issue MAIL/EXPN/VRFY/ETRN during connection to MTA
yes I have a domain, but I was told to enter my MX record as my external ip address in a previous post. I can telnet my mail server through port 25 successfully when im on my local network, just not through external networks or mail servers
shuks wrote:
> yes I have a domain, but I was told to enter my MX record as my external
> ip address in a previous post. I can telnet my mail server through port
> 25 successfully when im on my local network, just not through external
> networks or mail servers
>
>
And mentioning the hostname of this MX pointer here, or your domainname,
so others can diagnose the problem doesn’t occur to you?
Should we just try to guess at dozens of scenarios why it could be failing?
I don’t think I’m going to bother without at least some clues.
Hi
So when sending the email from an external host to valid_user@your.doman it doesn’t arrive. Assuming your posting from the
system in question (I use nntp so can see your ip address) I did a quick
port scan but only see http open…
It’s not uncommon for ISPs to block port 25 incoming to consumer broadband accounts. Also port 25 outgoing except to the ISP’s mail relay. If you google your provider’s name and “smtp port” or something like that you might get some info.
And mentioning the hostname of this MX pointer here, or your domainname, so others can diagnose the problem doesn’t occur to you? Should we just try to guess at dozens of scenarios why it could be failing?
My MX record it set as my external ip address (70.71.43.55), and my domain name is steadydippin.com.
Hi
So when sending the email from an external host to valid_user@your.doman it doesn’t arrive. Assuming your posting from the system in question (I use nntp so can see your ip address) I did a quick port scan but only see http open…
Yes. Im posting from my mail server machine. Thats interesting that port 25 is closed. I have set my router to forward traffic on port 25 to this machine. Im thinking my ISP mail provider (shawmail.vc.shawcable.net) must be blocking traffic through that port.
I know when I attempt to send mail to someone on my domain (eg… james@steadydippin.com) from an external mail server or external network a message gets logged in the /var/log/mail file that says…
Jun 12 07:07:56 luke sendmail[4306]: n5CE7j56004306: S010600062508ca0d.vs.shawcable.net [70.71.43.55] did not issue MAIL/EXPN/VRFY/ETRN during connection to MTA
so im assuming the MX record is ok because smtp traffic is getting loged in my mail log file, im just not sure what the message means.
It’s not uncommon for ISPs to block port 25 incoming to consumer broadband accounts. Also port 25 outgoing except to the ISP’s mail relay. If you google your provider’s name and “smtp port” or something like that you might get some info.
Ive tried to google (shawmail incoming smtp port) and I found some results saying port 25 is blocked for outgoing email unless you are using a shawmail server, but nothing about incoming mail on port 25. If they do block incoming mail on port 25 how do I get around that?
shuks wrote:
>> And mentioning the hostname of this MX pointer here, or your domainname,
>> so others can diagnose the problem doesn’t occur to you? Should we just
>> try to guess at dozens of scenarios why it could be failing?
>
> My MX record it set as my external ip address (70.71.43.55), and my
You may think so, but the DNS pointers say otherwise.
And on these hosts there are indeed mail servers running.
$netcat q1.netfirms.ca 25
220 qmail-in-norm-0.netfirms.com ESMTP
But that server doesn’t know you I’m afraid.
$telnet q1.netfirms.ca 25
Trying 38.113.184.235…
Connected to q1.netfirms.ca.
Escape character is ‘^]’.
220 qmail-in-norm-0.netfirms.com ESMTP
helo ferrets4me.xs4all.nl
250 qmail-in-norm-0.netfirms.com
mail from: <theo@van-werkhoven.nl>
250 ok
rcpt to: <james@steadypiggin.com>
553 sorry, that address is unknown
Notice the IP address of this server host; 38.113.184.235
Not at all what you think it should be.
> so im assuming the MX record is ok because smtp traffic is getting
> loged in my mail log file, im just not sure what the message means.
I think you need to have another look at the DNS settings.
LittleRedRooster wrote:
> shuks wrote:
>>> And mentioning the hostname of this MX pointer here, or your domainname,
>>> so others can diagnose the problem doesn’t occur to you? Should we just
>>> try to guess at dozens of scenarios why it could be failing?
>> My MX record it set as my external ip address (70.71.43.55), and my
>
> You may think so, but the DNS pointers say otherwise.
>
> $dig -n -t mx +short steadydippin.com
> 10 q1.netfirms.ca.
> 10 q0.netfirms.ca.
>
> And on these hosts there are indeed mail servers running.
> $netcat q1.netfirms.ca 25
> 220 qmail-in-norm-0.netfirms.com ESMTP
>
> But that server doesn’t know you I’m afraid.
>
> $telnet q1.netfirms.ca 25
> Trying 38.113.184.235…
> Connected to q1.netfirms.ca.
> Escape character is ‘^]’.
> 220 qmail-in-norm-0.netfirms.com ESMTP
> helo ferrets4me.xs4all.nl
> 250 qmail-in-norm-0.netfirms.com
> mail from: <theo@van-werkhoven.nl>
> 250 ok
> rcpt to: <james@steadypiggin.com>
All that info was getting a little bit over my head. netfirms.com is the registrar where I bought my domain name. My understanding is the my MX record can have multiple values so as to create better reliability. If one server does not respond hopefully one of the others will (please correct me if Im wrong).
When I go to enter my MX record there are three slots to enter mail server addresses. The default name in the first two slots was q0.netfirms.com and q1.netfirms.com. I erased the top slot and entered my external ip address. Something is happening when my server tries to receive mail because the attempt get logged in my /var/log/mail file.
Can you please simplify your explination of the above information and suggest a diagnosis for the problem?
You can multiple MX records for a domain, and a priority associated with each record, however all of them must be willing to accept mail for your domain. Since you have not registered with .netfirms.com to have them be your backup MX, you should not use them at all, but have only one MX record, your mail server. You won’t lose mail as long as you are not offline for too long because the sender will retry.
This doesn’t mean you don’t have additional problems with the port 25 being reachable.
shuks wrote:
> Thanks for the analysis rooster.
>
> All that info was getting a little bit over my head. netfirms.com is
> the registrar where I bought my domain name. My understanding is the my
> MX record can have multiple values so as to create better reliability.
> If one server does not respond hopefully one of the others will (please
> correct me if Im wrong).
>
> When I go to enter my MX record there are three slots to enter mail
> server addresses. The default name in the first two slots was
> q0.netfirms.com and q1.netfirms.com. I erased the top slot and entered
> my external ip address. Something is happening when my server tries to
> receive mail because the attempt get logged in my /var/log/mail file.
>
> Can you please simplify your explination of the above information and
> suggest a diagnosis for the problem?
Ken explained it well.
Put your own domainname (not IP addres, it must be an A record in DNS)
in the first MX pointer and leave the other two empty.
Give the MX pointer a preference number of e.g. 10, as so:
@ means the domain, if the control panel of your DNS service doesn’t know
about this, use ‘steadydippin.com.’ (notice the extra dot).
Then configure the mail server to accept mail for this domain and to put
accepted mail in mailboxes or forward them to where ever you want.
Keep the maillog file open with tail -f and try again to send a mail,
after you confimed that the DNS data is correct (it can take half a day
or so for the DNS data to propagate to other servers).
The mail log should tell you if your end acceped the mail and what happened
with it.