postfix problem

[Fernando Duran]

--- Zbigniew Koziol <softquake-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> Again, searching on Google did not help so far. And
> too many silly discussions 
> of the problem irritate me.
> 
> The domain name is linuxfrontier.com . It is a new
> server, not fully 
> configured. This is the first time I use Postfix,
> but I think I will enjoy it 
> more than other mail servers.
> 
> linuxfrontier.com does have an MX record.
> 
> F..n Rogers that I use right now from home does not
> allow me to telnet there 
> at port 25.
> 
> I can however telnet to linuxfrontier.com at port 25
> from another remote 
> machine. The result is, though, not the one I did
> expect:
> 
> [zbych at localhost zbych]$ telnet linuxfrontier.com 25
> Trying 64.62.231.190...
> Connected to linuxfrontier.com.
> Escape character is '^]'.
> 
> and thats it. Nothing more.
> 
> SMTP is probably the the craziest protocol used on
> the Internet. It is simple. 
> But so ambiguous. I guess that one can receive the
> same error response in at 
> least 100 cases. 
> 
> In my case, when I send email to an existing user on
> the server, 
> zbych-Ugr1wgFcK0yJYWAMoLK9qgC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org from home, using google
> smatp server, I get this 
> response:
> ====
> This is an automatically generated Delivery Status
> Notification
> 
> Delivery to the following recipient failed
> permanently:
> 
>      zbych-Ugr1wgFcK0yJYWAMoLK9qgC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org
> 
> Technical details of permanent failure: 
> PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 9): 554 5.7.1
> <zbych-Ugr1wgFcK0yJYWAMoLK9qgC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org>: Relay 
> access denied
> ====
> 
> zbych-Ugr1wgFcK0yJYWAMoLK9qgC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org is supposed to be forwarded
> back to 
> softquake-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org, the email address I am sending
> from.
> 
> I can send emails from inside of the server, by
> using /usr/bin/mail . 
> 
> Pls. Or not. 
> 
> Regards,
> zb.
> 
> 

Hello zb,

Some mail troubleshooting tips:

Like Peter said, a good starting point is to isolate
the problem:

- check the MX record, you can use
http://pingability.com/

- check that is not a blocked port problem in your
network by testing your smtp server with a web
browser; you can use 
http://pingability.com/smtptest.jsp and
http://pingability.com/mailtest.jsp or
https://mail2web.com/

- from your local pc after you do the "telnet
your_server_ip 25" try "HELO localhost" and see if you
get something back

If your ISP blocks traffic on port 25 (I got Rogers
and they do that), then you can have Postfix run on
both 25 and some other port like 2525 (you don't want
it to run on just 2525; you need 25 too) or use
iptables to forward 2525 traffic to 25:
iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 2525 -j
REDIRECT --to-port 25

In your server:

- check that Postfix is running and listening on 25:
/etc/init.d/postfix status
ps auxf|grep postfix
netstat -talpn |grep 25

- are you running besides a pop/imap server? you need
one of those, like dovecot or courier. There's a
Postfix/dovecot how-to at:
http://rimuhosting.com/support/settingupemail.jsp?mta=postfix
dovecot just needs a line in its config file that says
you want to use it for pop3(/imap), you start it and
it's good to go.

- check your logs:/var/log/messages , /var/log/maillog
for problems


Once you can send/receive email at your account then
you can look at the forwarding.

Fernando

---------------------
Fernando Duran
http://www.fduran.com

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