I hate to do this but I am a newbie to linux. I recently purchased a dedicated server through ipower.com and expected something similar to what I get with their shared servers. I was surprised when what I got was a linux box with apache installed and nothing configured. It came with usr/sbin/sendmail. I found this to be standard according to what I am used to on my shared accounts. I then uploaded formmail.pl and created a webpage with a form to call the perl script. I set the delivery email address to an internal address. When I complete the form the email goes throught to the internal email with no problems. When I change the delivery email address to an external address I get the folloing errors in the /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog file....

Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.242087 new msg 3948633
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.242187 info msg 3948633: bytes 558 from <root@localhost.localdomain> qp 19127 uid 48
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.249458 starting delivery 156: msg 3948633 to remote jim@jimstouffer.com
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.249520 status: local 0/10 remote 2/20
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.730301 delivery 156: failure: 66.235.216.130_does_not_like_recipient./Remote_host_said:_550-Verification_failed_for_<root@localhost.localdomain>/550-unrouteable_mail_domain_"localhost.localdomain"/550_Sender_verify_failed/Giving_up_on_66.235.216.130./
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.730367 status: local 0/10 remote 1/20
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.735385 bounce msg 3948633 qp 19129
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.735443 end msg 3948633
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.736223 new msg 3948636
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.736273 info msg 3948636: bytes 1301 from <> qp 19129 uid 2522
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.765690 starting delivery 157: msg 3948636 to remote root@localhost.localdomain
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.765785 status: local 0/10 remote 2/20
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.833361 delivery 157: failure: Sorry,_I_couldn't_find_any_host_named_localhost.localdomain._(#5.1.2)/
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.833714 status: local 0/10 remote 1/20
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.839257 bounce msg 3948636 qp 19131
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.839440 end msg 3948636
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.840012 new msg 3948633
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.840143 info msg 3948633: bytes 1810 from <#@[]> qp 19131 uid 2522
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.887994 starting delivery 158: msg 3948633 to remote postmaster@localhost.localdomain
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.888089 status: local 0/10 remote 2/20
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.953238 delivery 158: failure: Sorry,_I_couldn't_find_any_host_named_localhost.localdomain._(#5.1.2)/
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.953568 status: local 0/10 remote 1/20
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.953653 triple bounce: discarding bounce/3948633
Jan 13 10:52:24 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642344.953714 end msg 3948633
Jan 13 10:58:58 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642738.047949 delivery 152: deferral: Connected_to_64.156.215.18_but_connection_died._(#4.4.2)/
Jan 13 10:58:58 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642738.048044 status: local 0/10 remote 0/20
Jan 13 10:58:58 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642738.048060 starting delivery 159: msg 3948637 to remote chaseme282003@yahoo.com
Jan 13 10:58:58 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642738.048073 status: local 0/10 remote 1/20
Jan 13 10:59:01 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642741.650635 delivery 159: success: 64.156.215.7_accepted_message./Remote_host_said:_250_ok_dirdel/
Jan 13 10:59:01 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642741.650699 status: local 0/10 remote 0/20
Jan 13 10:59:01 ds209-133 qmail: 1105642741.650716 end msg 3948637

It appears sendmail is trying to send the email but the recieving mail server is rejecting because of the unknown sender <root@localhost.localdomain>

When I run sendmail via the command line, the maillog shows the same errors.

When I run email through horde I can send external emails with no problems. It replaces <root@localhost.localdomain> with an actual email address in the maillog. I don't think that webmail uses sendmail though does it?

How do I get sendmail to send to an external address? I searched the web and found tons of pages about setting up sendmail and creating the sendmail.cf file. I did a locate sendmail.cf and got no returns.

The problem is that you don´t have an real dns name setup in nis or hosts file.

When sending mails to other mail servers they try to identify where your mail were sent from.
If the sns-lookup shows anything else than what your server reports, the mail will not get accepted.


So, instead of localhost.localdomain it should be an real dns name, accepted on the internet and that is connected to the ip-address your mailserver is setup on.


If you do not have an dns name, then get an free one from dyndns.org for example.

I do have a real domain name and a DNS pointing to the IP of my machine. What file do I need to edit and put this information in?

Well, easiest is to put it in the /etc/hosts file.
Example:
ipaddress dnsname.com mailhost


also, look at www.sendmail.org for more info.

#
# Aliases in this file will NOT be expanded in the header from
# Mail, but WILL be visible over networks or from /bin/mail.
#
# >>>>>>>>>> The program "newaliases" must be run after
# >> NOTE >> this file is updated for any changes to
# >>>>>>>>>> show through to sendmail.
#

Is your /etc/aliases file set up correctly? i.e;

# Basic system aliases -- these MUST be present.
mailer-daemon: postmaster
postmaster: root
root: "username"

# local aliases
"username@foo.com": "username"
"Username": "username"

(quotes to be removed)

Then run /usr/bin/newaliases. You could also shutdown and restart Sendmail
after executing the above, but the aliases are regenerated a short time
after the change - normally.

nz