Ok, I'm quite lost. I've installed the package for postfix and have tried to configure it properly, but I can't get it to send out an e-mail! all the e-mails it tries to send all get timed out on the recieving server's end. How do I correct this?

EDIT: Oh, and what is this sasl thing? Is that like SSL encryption? do I need to incorporate sasl? I don't think I need to have any security on this, as it's only going to be used to relay e-mails from my wordpress site to users.

Do you have port 25 filtered by iptables on the mail server? If so, execute the following as root.

/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 25 -j ACCEPT

If you are referencing a software firewall, then no I don't have one running I use a double hardware firewall. Yes, port 25 is forwarded, and i am able to connect to it via telnet.

Postfix accepts the e-mails, it just has not delivered them. whenever it tries to contact the server that hosts the recipient's e-mail address, the connection times out. specific error here(from webmin):

connect to gsmtp83.google.com[66.249.83.27]: Connection timed out

This error was attatched to the message and I get mailer-daemon messages attempting to go out as well, but again they are timed out.

What's wrong?

I've done a little reading and have seen many(if not all) setups use a Relay server, or "relayhost" which basically redirects the mail that the postfix server recives to an external SMTP server. Is this all that postfix does? can it not deliver messages directly by itself? If not, I can't use this.... I need a completly independent SMTP server that can directly deliver messages, as i don't have an external SMTP server to relay messages for me.

Postfix should be able to do what you want as it's a complete MTA. It looks to me like your external port 25 connections are being blocked somewhere? Perhaps by your ISP? Maybe your server got put on a spam blacklist? Can you try, on your machine, to telnet to port 25 (smtp) on some of the servers it's trying to contact and seeif you get through? if not, you're being blocked somewhere.

Hmm... that's probably what's wrong. I'm with Bell Sympatico, so they probably don't want people using their home connections as servers *laugh*

Is there a way to configure postfix to use another port besides 25, or am I pretty much screwed?

Well I just checked, I can contact one of the hosts, but i don't get any reply. should I?

The other one doesn't connect. Says it doesn't exist.

EDIT: Well maybe it's not a connection, it's a timeout just like all the e-mails.

As far as I am aware (I'm a relative beginner) postfix can
deliver local mail. It can also exchange mail with other
internet servers that are running a mail exchange server. If
you want to sent internet mail the easiest way is to get an
external email address. Set this up on your linux machine as
a relay address and set up masquerading so that all internet
emails appear to come from this address. You may also have to
turn off email DNS MX lookup.

Edit /etc/postfix/main.cf and where you see the line relay host enter;

relayhost = [isp_mail_server_outbox]

where isp_mail_server_outbox is the address that you use to send mail with your email client in the form outmail.isp.com

You may see small errors like server won't verify itself etc but the mail is still sent. There is one caveat to this and that is some mail servers filter mail coming from sources that have no official DNS source and the mail does not get to the recipient because it is filtered as spam. This happens in one of the big isp's in Australia.

I understand that, but my ISP nees ssl and regular authentication. how do I enter username/password for that "relay" server and enable it to use SSL?

Have a look at this page which shows you how to set this up.
Alternatively you would have to look at setting up your own DNS.