I am using Redhat 9.0 and postfix 1.1.11-11. I am having trouble getting postfix to receive any mail other than mail sent internally (i.e. via the mail command to another_user@localhost). After reading many other posts on this topic, I tried telnetting to localhost 25 and it seems to work fine:

Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.xxxx.com ESMTP Postfix

Here is the result of postconf -n:
[root@xxxx sbin]# ./postconf -n
alias_database = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases
alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases
command_directory = /usr/sbin
config_directory = /etc/postfix
daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix
debug_peer_level = 2
inet_interfaces = localhost
mail_owner = postfix
mailq_path = /usr/bin/mailq.postfix
manpage_directory = /usr/share/man
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, $mydomain,
mydomain = xxxx.com
myhostname = mail.xxxx.com
newaliases_path = /usr/bin/newaliases.postfix
queue_directory = /var/spool/postfix
readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-1.1.11/README_FILES
sample_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-1.1.11/samples
sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix
setgid_group = postdrop

This has been a problem for a few weeks now, and I decided that I should seek help now. Thanks in advance for any input.

Hello all.
Still haven't had any success getting this stuff to work. I've been reading a lot of posts on this site concerning postfix problems, but nothing yet has helped. Here is my main.cf file, its a little different now, but I can't tell that it has helped:

alias_database = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases
alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases
command_directory = /usr/sbin
config_directory = /etc/postfix
daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix
debug_peer_level = 2
mail_owner = postfix
mailq_path = /usr/bin/mailq.postfix
manpage_directory = /usr/share/man
newaliases_path = /usr/bin/newaliases.postfix
queue_directory = /var/spool/postfix
readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-1.1.11/README_FILES
sample_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-1.1.11/samples
sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix
setgid_group = postdrop

Another thing: my /var/log/maillog displays absolutely nothing about mail received from an external sender. The only messages it displays are concerning the mail that I send locally.

Still thinking...Should I be able to telnet into my mail server from the outside? Because I can't. Maybe my problem has to do with some unopened ports or something.

ok, not too familiar with postfix, but since no one else is offering asistance...
the following is from sendmail:
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl

where 127.0.0.1, the loopback address, needs to be removed for sendmail to accept incoming mail. I'm guessing that postifx might have a similar config line.

what do you get when you telnet in from another box? if nothing, you might want to check your iptables...

It sounds like postfix is listening on port 25 ok but your firewall is preventing other machines from reaching this port.

Yeah, I think you are right, and I'm not exactly sure what the iptable configuration should be. Is there any easy command line addition i can make to solve this problem? And what should I post to show you my current iptables config? Obviously, I'm not very experienced with iptables.

Hi
Dont know if this might help - I had a lot of problems with my Postfix installation for starters and I seem to remember this problem relates to mynetworks, inet_interfaces and relayhost parameters in main.cf.
First of all relayhost are commented out. Secondly I have sat inet_interfaces=all (=all domains on the server) and last but no least mynetworks=subnet -> I'm not sure about this since this might relate to some of my other problems (i.e. not beeing able to reply to a mail send from my host, from an external POP3 reader)... :-(

Hope you finde this helpful!

/JeO

i too, dont know how to use iptables (/etc/sysconfig/iptables)
BUT,
all ive done, is, using good old vi,
is to copy a line (like 80, 23 etc),
and changing the port to 25........

seems to work (redhat 8)

Well, I figured out the problem. Actually I had some help. The problem was with my hosts file in /etc/hosts. I had my hostname and domainnames the same. i.e.
192.168.1.100 myhostname.com myhostname.com

All I had to do to fix this was

192.168.1.100 myhostname.com myhostname (or anything else that is not myhostname.com)

I can't exactly explain why that works, because I haven't been able to find a lot of good information about the hosts file in detail, but it does work. Thanks a lot for all of your suggestions.

hi

here is why it works now

the canonical name or short name shouldnt be the same as the fqdn - fully qualified domain name. it uses the host name is /etc/hosts for mail records. without it the record wont resolve properly

regards
rahul sundaram