Ok I'll start off by saying that im a linux noob so try not to be tooooo technical if you decide to respond.

I installed redhat 9, setup apache, and then started setting up sendmail. I ran the M4 sendmail.mc sendmail.cf thing and I left all the default values. I edited the "local-host-names" file to include mail.mydomain.com, mydomain.com, and www.mydomain.com. I have all the port forwarding setup on my router (standard 4 port linksys), and i can see the mail files in /var/spool/mail.

Right now I can log into my mailbox through mozilla and using thinmailer. When I send an email to my new server I dont get a bounce back and I can see it logged in my routers incoming log files. When I log in to my email it gets logged in the /var/maillog file.

Now the bad news, None of the messages are hitting my mailbox. Whenever I log in it says I have no messages. I also can't send messages. The send errors dont show up in the maillog file so i really dont know whats going on. Are there any last steps i need to do so messages actually hit my mailbox and so I can start sending messages out. Any help would be much appreciated.

does anyone have any ideas that might help?

Are you trying to access your mail from the local server or from a remote client such as Outlook?

ive tried through a remote computer using outlook express, netscape, mozilla, and a webmailer. They all let me in but my mailbox is empty. For some reason messages that get sent to the machine never make it to my mailbox. I also cant send any messages.

Im using the defualt sendmail config if that helps.

As far as I can remember the only things you need to change in the default sendmail.mc file are Local_Domain_('your.domain.name')dnl and make sure that you have at least these two MAILERS: SMTP & procmail. They will be located at the bottom of the file. If you have to make any changes, m4 and then restart sendmail. Those are the only two things that I have changed from the default and I have two servers up and running. If you already have those things done I would start up Evolution at the local box and configure that to retrieve email. If it gets it, then it is simply a configuration problem with your remote application. Look at these things and repost.

Im at work now so I wont be able to test it until I get home this evening. But since I dont think I changed ANYTHING in the sendmail.mc file, i have a feeling changing those things you suggested will help a lot. Thanks for the input, I'll post the results later this evening.

Just as a side note/comment, I experienced MANY problems with sendmail and it's cryptic configuration.... then I started using postfix, and life is better for it
http://www.postfix.org

ok i ssh'd into my box and still no luck. I cant send any mail, and when I send a message to my mailbox I don't get a bounce back, the router logs detects the incoming message on port 110, but the message never hits my mailbox. AAARRRGGGHHH!

How long would it take to configure postfix if I decide to take that route?

edit: im downloading the postfix-1.1.11-11.i386.rpm file now.

One more thing, have you got all the MX records pointing to the correct location? Check to make sure.

is that something I do locally or something I do through the company that registered my domain?

I have it setup through the company I registered so that mail.mydomain.com goes to my servers ip. Also like I said if I use NSLOOKUP tool in the command like and I set the query to mx, when i query mydomain.com it lists all of the naimserver settings with the correct IPs.

I have a feeling it might be an mx problem though becuase I setup postfix and its doing the same thing as sendmail

edit: One good note is that I can still log on through my Netscape mail client, I dont get any error saying that the pop server cannot be found or anything like that.

edit2: Im a retard (no offense to retarded people), but I didnt specify an mx server ::tries to bite his own left ear::

ok i just spoke with a tech support guy from the company that is hosting my dns and he said that i have it configured right but my server is refusting connections. Im almost positive that I have all of the ports setup for forwarding to my server. And I made sure to turn off iptables and ipchains to test everything. This is frustrating.

I recently had a problem like that with my isp. They lost their dns servers so none of the email could get through. My email server is pointed at their dns servers and it couldn't resolve any of the domains. Once they got their dns servers back up it worked ok. My gut feeling is that it is not sendmail since you said postfix is reacting the same way. Unless it is something that is common to both. Have you messed with any of the hosts.allow or hosts.deny files? I believe that could keep you out. You didn't say if you had yet or not but can you retrieve mail locally via Evolution?

i havent messed with the hosts.allow and hosts.deny files yet. I also havent had a chance to mess with Evolution. Im stuck at work for about 4 more hours. But that will be the first thing I do when i get home.

Is there anything specific I need to do with the hosts files?

edit: And just so ya know im want to try to work out the sendmail issues instead of moving to postfix. I think ill try posting on some sendmail forums.

No, I found that unless someone is spamming or dropping viruses on you, to leave them alone. I'm just a small time guy though. I'm sure the big guys have to use them. As far as what I would do is this:

1) Configure Evolution on your server. Check your email at the local terminal via evolution. If everything works then it is outside of sendmail(my best guess anyway).

2) If it doesn't retrieve any mail, go back to the basics and check all of your basic settings and configuration(i.e., user is authorized user on linux machine, password works, I can ping other networks and machines, etc...)

3) Take a look in the sendmail.cf file for any errors. This is a daunting file with about 1700 lines of code so it can be overwhelming at first. Most of the stuff you would want to mess with is up at the front anyway. Just take a look at it to make sure that the variables you entered in the sendmail.mc file actually made it to the sendmail.cf file. Take a few minutes to browse through it and see whats there. There is quit a bit of documentation.

4) I might recommend taking out the router and plugging directly to the world. This would rule out any flakiness going on with the router. At least this would rule it out and it would become one less connection to mess with.

5) Check to make sure that your firewall isn't blocking anything.

Take a look at these things and repost. You can also go to www.sendmail.org for any documentation you might need. I have servers to maintain so I went and got the O'Reilly book "Sendmail". Totally awesome and allot of good info.

thanks a lot for your post, I have definately started to consider the direct internet connection. Like you said, this would rule out the possibility of a router issue. I guess I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that evolution will work when i get home, becuase at least thats a starting point. I'll keep ya posted.