Hi,My network consists of an XP box and a Slack 10.2 box running Apache.They sit behind a DLink DI-604 router that provides dhcp. The firewall has the proper ports forwarded to allow my Slack box to host the web server and mail.My Internet connection is static. Following the tutorials Apache is working fine able to host web pages. Sendmail is my current issue. Following Shilo's guide for email i can send mail but not receive it. Also when i nmap localhost it does not show IMAP 143. I've have that line uncommented. I've followed siegex guide for smtp auth client and server and everythings dandy.
I know its got to be something simple but i'm a noob in linux and this ones got me stumped. I'm using Pine for my email client.I think its a reverse dns issue but do not know how to go about fixing/testing . Please inform me if you need further info.

Nmap localhost 22/tcp open ssh
25/tcp open smtp
80/tcp open http
587/tco open submission

nslookup -sil testmail.blank.com

Server 192.168.x.x
Address 192.168.x.x#53

Non-authoritative answer:
testmail.blank.com canonical name = blank.com

Name: blank.com
Address: 127.0.0.2

nslookup -sil 192.168.x.x
Server 192.168.x.
Address 192.168.x.

**server can't find x..x.168.192.in-addr.arpa: NXDOMAIN


/etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.x.x myhostname.mydomain
192.168.x.x myhostname.mydomain


/etc/resolv.conf nameserver 192.168.x.1


I've got localhost [127.0.0.1] did not issue MAIL/EXPN/VRFY/ETRN during connection to MTA in my maillog

Please can someone shed some light?

Thank You,

Max

Email can be sent directly to you if you have:
- registered a domainname and set up a MX record (take care of backup MX as well),
- remote users/servers bypass MX records and route email directly to you (unlikely but possible),
- your ISP has a mechanism for "dumping" email to your MTA (mailkick).


nslookup -sil testmail.blank.com
Next to "dig mx domainna.me" here's another way of resolving MX records.
echo "/mx blank.com"|/usr/sbin/sendmail -bt
If it does not point to your box you have no registered domainname or did not set up MX records or you haven't told Sendmail about it. Reading the rest of your post you probably have no registered domainname. Look for free DNS service providers. They usually do MX for cheap.


I've got localhost [127.0.0.1] did not issue MAIL/EXPN/VRFY/ETRN during connection to MTA in my maillog
That means the remote client didn't announce itself to the MTA in a way the MTA can deal with. This is fallout from scanning (or monitoring).

Thank You unSpawn! I forgot to include in my post that i have registered with dyndns. My hosts are centralcoast-hobby-site.com and mijo.selfip.org. Is this the information needed for an MX record, and if so do I add this information to /etc/mail/local-host-names? I'm not sure where MX records need to be located


Thanks again unSpawn!!

You need indeed to add those two host names to "/etc/mail/local-host-names" .
But I tried telnetting to port 25 of your IP address and there is no response (I hope I'm excused for the probe). Either you turned off the computer or port-forwarding port 25 from the router to the computer is not configured correctly.
Port 25 (SMTP) is the port Sendmail will be listening on for incoming email. The IMAP port (143) does not need to be accessible from the Internet if you want to read your mail only on computers located inside your home network.

Eric

Hi Alien Bob, I appreciate you helping and realize your approach just makes sense, but depending on when you telnetted my computer might not have been on it was shut down last night. Please try again i'll keep it on. I checked and port 25 smtp is forwarded to my slack bon on my router. Here'e the output of nmap localhost (abbreviated).

25/tcp open smtp


echo "/mx blank.com|/usr/sbin/sendmail -bt returns

> getmxrr(blank.com) returns 1 value (s):

mail:blank.com


dig mx domainna.me returns my.routers.I.P#53



I've added the two host names to /etc/mail/local-host-names and to the MX records at dyndns.com

Also my /etc/mail/access has this
centralcoast.hobby-site.com RELAY
mijo.selfip.org RELAY

I cannot get access to your box's services:

No contact with the SMTP port, nor with the webserver port.

Eric

Hi Alien Bob, had a minor mishap don't know how but my interface somehow switched to a second nic I've got in my box and to make a long story short I ended up physically removing it so this can't happen again.Can you please try one more time i'll leave the box on. Its the same easy process forwarding the ports on my DLink router so port 80 at the minimum should work now since i can now hit my webpage from both centralcoast.hobby-site.com and mijo.selfip.org

Thank You


Max

Still no connection...

Eric

sorry AlienBob had my box down last night I discovered I had missed define(`confCLIENT_CERT',`/etc/mail/certs/sendmail.pem')dnl

in my .mc file. Made the update. Sent mail from my yahoo and hotmail accounts got undeliverable message again.

My maillog now has gethostbyaddr(192.168.0.100)failed
what does this mean?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it's fairly likely that Sprint simply isn't allowing connections to go to port 25 on broadband customer's IP addresses, in order to cut down on the number of open relays being set up by knobs.

For illustration, I can traceroute all the way to mijo, but I am not even getting so much as an RST or even an ICMP packet back when I try to connect to port 25 there. Either you don't actually have port forwarding set up correctly, or your Sprint is filtering that traffic and you're just out of luck.

Hi evilDagmar, Due to a dangerous heat wave these last three days and continuing thru today my server has been turned off (blackouts have occurred). I'm fortunate unlike alot of other people that my power is even available. Tomorrow the weather here will return back to normal and I will resume testing. My ISP is not Sprint but Earthlink. I've have a cool wireless broadband setup that Sprint started back in 01', they stopped growing the network inpart due to the dot.bomb syndrome in 02'. I had to contact earthlink last week to get my username and password as I was implementing SeigeX's SMTP AUTH howto, I had forgotten since I don't use my earthlink email account. I'll send off an email to earthlink for clarification regarding allowing port 25 connections.

Can you please answer this question since i don't have experience setting up MX records, what should I enter in the Mail Exchanger field at my dyndns.com account for host mijo.selfip.org? Hostname on my box is centralcoast.

Thank You

Max

If you want be able to receive mail for the domain mijo.selfip.org at the server mijo.selfip.org, you can leave the "Mail Exchanger" field empty. I have setup my dyndns account just like that. It does say "(optional)" next to "Mail Exchanger"...

Eric

Thank You!

echo "/mx hobby-site.com"|/usr/sbin/sendmail -bt

> getmxrr(hobby-site.com) returns 2 value(s):
mail.dyndns.org
mx2.mailhop.org


What do I need to correct?


Max

Well your server is not called hobby-site.com. That domain hosts a zillion private internet hosts each potentially with their own mailserver. The MX record for hobby-site.com is just for the DynDNS organization itself.

And remember - if no MX record is found when attempting the delivery of an email, the IP address of the hostname (in your case centralcoast-hobby-site.com) will be used to deliver to. So, that's the reason you can leave the "Mail Exchanger" field empty.

Eric