Sendmail.. can send outside but can't receive
 

Hi, I am new to Linux so bear with me please.

I have recently installed SuSe Linux, and am setting up a listserv with sendmail/majordomo/webmin.

I have most of it installed and functioning (seemingly) but have one nagging problem. I can send mail to the outside world successfully but when I reply I get nothing.

Right now I have the built in firewall disabled (at least it says it is) so I would assume port 25 is open.

I have checked everyhing I can think of so far... is there some steps I can take to ensure that port 25 is open? Any other ideas?

Thanks much!

Kevin

http://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?rh1dkyd2

You can use that site to try to probe port 25.

I don't know a lot about sendmail per sé, but is it just an SMTP server or is it also a POP3 server? Because SMTP cannot receive e-mails, to my knowledge. It can only send them. POP3 runs on port 110, fyi.

I did that grc.com sheilds up thing... it hits our firewall.. and lists its IP address, so it says "stealth" to everything.

My Boss swears he has it so its allowed access through the firewall, but things still aren't working.

help!

Have you tried using alternate ports? Perhaps your ISP is blocking the default SMTP and POP3 ports.

ISP is not blocking, this I am sure of. Could it be something in the sendmail.cf file? I knoew next to nothing about this but it looks very complex. When I look at my M4 there are very very few lines that dont have DNL in front. Its like all the features are turned off or something.

I still am able to send mail externally... just getting it is a problem.

If I telnet to myserver.domain.com 25 I get a blank screen.
If I telnet to our other mail machines I get a connection.

Your e-mail program won't download from port 25. Port 25 is for SMTP, which is strictly for sending e-mail. E-mail uses either POP3 or IMAP for receiving e-mails. Those would be ports 110 and 143, respectively.

I know what you need to do but do not remember how. :( I once had a sendmail server, long time ago. Sendmail listens only on local address by default, you need to change it. The other thing is you need to tell sendmail what domain to accept mail for.