sendmail: no error, but mail doesn't arrive

dbc001 · 03-08-2008, 07:48 AM

sendmail looks like it's working on my brand new Slackware 12 machine, but it's not sending any mail. I just sent a message to an external email account, and according to the logs the message went through... But it hasn't showed up nearly 20 minutes later.

Here are the last few lines of /var/log/maillog:

Code:

Mar  8 07:31:36 sol sendmail[4184]: m28DVa6t004184: Authentication-Warning: sol.mydomain.com: saturn owned process doing -bs
Mar  8 07:31:36 sol sendmail[4184]: m28DVa6t004184: from=<saturn@sol.mydomain.com>, size=289, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<Pine.LNX.4.64.0803080731170.4183@sol.mydomain.com>, proto=ESMTP, relay=saturn@localhost
Mar  8 07:31:36 sol sm-mta[4187]: m28DVaGk004187: from=<saturn@sol.dynamip.com>, size=543, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<Pine.LNX.4.64.0803080731170.4183@sol.mydomain.com>, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=localhost [127.0.0.1]
Mar  8 07:31:36 sol sendmail[4186]: m28DVa6t004184: to=<dbc@hotmail.com>, delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=120289, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (m28DVaGk004187 Message accepted for delivery)

What am I doing wrong here?

rayfordj · 03-08-2008, 01:05 PM

It looks like sendmail is working from that little snippet.

It may be that hotmail is accepting the message but then not delivering it. I've seen this with other mail hosts. It usually comes down to the fact that they neither want to respond with a failure furthering the "spam" on the net or deliver mail from "dynamic" IPs of ISPs.

Have you tried sending to other @domains? like gmail? or yahoo? or ...?

dbc001 · 03-08-2008, 03:44 PM

It looks like messages aren't going out to any domains. They're bouncing back:

Code:

Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 11:56:11 -0600
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <MAILER-DAEMON@sol.mydomain.com>
To: postmaster@sol.mydomain.com
Subject: Postmaster notify: see transcript for details
Parts/Attachments:
   1     Shown     10 lines  Text
   2     Shown    274 bytes  Message, "Delivery Status"
   3     Shown    2.5 KB     Message, "Warning: could not send message for p
   3.1   Shown     12 lines  Text
   3.2   Shown    324 bytes  Message, "Delivery Status"
   3.3   Shown    784 bytes  Message, "test to rrp from sol"
   3.3.1 Shown      1 lines  Text
----------------------------------------

The original message was received at Sat, 8 Mar 2008 11:56:08 -0600
from localhost

   ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<saturn@sol.dynamip.com>
    (reason: 553 5.3.5 system config error)

   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
553 5.3.5 sol.dynamip.com. config error: mail loops back to me (MX
problem?)
554 5.3.5 Local configuration error

    [ Part 2: "Delivery Status" ]

Reporting-MTA: dns; sol.mydomain.com
Arrival-Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 11:56:08 -0600

Final-Recipient: RFC822; saturn@sol.dynamip.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.3.5
Diagnostic-Code: SMTP; 553 5.3.5 system config error
Last-Attempt-Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 11:56:11 -0600

rayfordj · 03-08-2008, 04:38 PM

Do you have a public MX record that points to your system? forward and reverse DNS is almost a must these days as well. There are several sites that will test your DNS (A, MX, ...) entries.

I've really not a lot of mail experience but managed to trudge through a couple of SOHO installations/configurations that are still in use today without problems. If you are on a dynamic-IP your dyn-ip name-to-IP service may offer a feature to also direct or update MX for you as well.

Is this system able to receive mail from external? @gmail to someone@your.domain.com?