Sendmail won't receive remote messages
My mail server has been working without a glitch for a number of months. All of a sudden it won't receive messages from the Internet. Local mail within my network is still received. Our ISP is under new management - so maybe its not a problem with my system!
I'm able to access my webpage OK over the net at http://www.mydomain.com.au.
Could somebody let me know whether there's a problem with my config, or is there a problem with my ISP?
Below is a description of my setup:
OS: Slackware 9.0
Sendmail 8.12.9
Firewall: only port 25 open to receive mail
I access my mail with Squirrelmail and IMAP2
If I telnet to my mail server from a dialup, everything looks OK (I've substituted my address with a fictitious one):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# telnet myserver.com.au 25 220 myserver.com.au ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.9/8.12.9; Tue, 26 Aug 2003 07:34:58 +1000 helo 63.60.42.226 250 myserver.com.au Hello 1Cust226.tnt3.cbr2.da.uu.net [63.60.42.226], pleased to meet you mail from: [email protected] 250 2.1.0 [email protected]... Sender ok rcpt to: [email protected] 250 2.1.5 [email protected] ... Recipient ok data 354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself this is a test - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [email protected] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
Quoted 9 lines · Robert
My mail server has been working without a glitch for a number of months. All of a sudden it won't receive messages from the Internet. Local mail within my network is still received. Our ISP is under new management - so maybe its not a problem with my system!
I'm able to access my webpage OK over the net at http://www.mydomain.com.au.
Could somebody let me know whether there's a problem with my config, or is there a problem with my ISP?
How? You don't give us any meaningful information about either your ISP or your "config". You don't even say what the failures look like from the remote end.
Does ALL external mail not arrive, or just some sites (could be an auth issue if only some sites fail)?
If you bypass your usual remote-access methods anh just use vi to look at the mail spool file, are the messages still missing?
Are there any differences between the addressing of the local and remote mails? I mean something that might cause sendmail to think it is being asked to act as a relay when off-site mail comes in? Since you obfuscated at least some of the info in your test below, I can't infer anything from it about address issues.
The obvious thing to try as a test is telnet'ing to port 25 on your server from a comparably (to the e-mail failures) remote site (one outside your ISP's address block). Since you "substituted my address with a fictitious one", I cannot do that test for you,nor can anyone else here. But if that is the test you describe below as "telnet to my mail server from a dialup" (that is, if the "dialup" is from a different ISP), then you might complete the report of its results. After you complete the e-mail with the specified "." only line, what happens? Does the message go through?
Since you mention an ISP management change, the possibility that your ISP now blocks port-25 connections that bypass their e-mail relays is a real one in principle, but hard to reconcile with the test you report below (but since I don't know where the "dialup" is relative to your server, I can't be sure of anything).
Quoted 10 lines
Below is a description of my setup:
OS: Slackware 9.0
Sendmail 8.12.9
Firewall: only port 25 open to receive mail
I access my mail with Squirrelmail and IMAP2If I telnet to my mail server from a dialup, everything looks OK (I've substituted my address with a fictitious one):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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# telnet myserver.com.au 25 220 myserver.com.au ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.9/8.12.9; Tue, 26 Aug 2003 07:34:58 +1000 helo 63.60.42.226 250 myserver.com.au Hello 1Cust226.tnt3.cbr2.da.uu.net [63.60.42.226], pleased to meet you mail from: [email protected] 250 2.1.0 [email protected]... Sender ok rcpt to: [email protected] 250 2.1.5 [email protected] ... Recipient ok data 354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself this is a test -
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"Ray Olszewski" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:5.1.0.14.1.20030826070427.01f0a9f0@celine...
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Quoted 3 lines · Robert
My mail server has been working without a glitch for a number of months. All of a sudden it won't receive messages from the Internet. Local mail within my network is still received. Our ISP is under new management -
so
Quoted 3 lines
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maybe its not a problem with my system!
I'm able to access my webpage OK over the net at
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Could somebody let me know whether there's a problem with my config, or
is
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there a problem with my ISP?
How? You don't give us any meaningful information about either your ISP or your "config". You don't even say what the failures look like from the remote end.
I get no acknowlegdement of failures from the remote end. There is no evidence that a message has ever been sent.
Quoted 5 lines
Does ALL external mail not arrive, or just some sites (could be an auth issue if only some sites fail)?
If you bypass your usual remote-access methods anh just use vi to look at the mail spool file, are the messages still missing?
There is no record of the messages arriving in the mail spool or in the /var/log/maillog
Quoted 6 lines
Are there any differences between the addressing of the local and remote mails? I mean something that might cause sendmail to think it is being asked to act as a relay when off-site mail comes in? Since you obfuscated at least some of the info in your test below, I can't infer anything from it about address issues.
Presumably if my server thought it was being asked to act as a relay it would leave messages in /var/log/maillog
Quoted 7 lines
The obvious thing to try as a test is telnet'ing to port 25 on your server from a comparably (to the e-mail failures) remote site (one outside your ISP's address block). Since you "substituted my address with a fictitious one", I cannot do that test for you,nor can anyone else here. But if that is the test you describe below as "telnet to my mail server from a dialup" (that is, if the "dialup" is from a different ISP), then you might
complete
Quoted 1 line
the report of its results. After you complete the e-mail with the
specified
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"." only line, what happens? Does the message go through?
The message does go through fine when I telnet port 25. I hope you don't mind - I've emailed you my server address. I'd be very grateful if you could run some tests. I'm too paranoid about spam to put my server address on this newsgroup.
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Since you mention an ISP management change, the possibility that your ISP now blocks port-25 connections that bypass their e-mail relays is a real one in principle, but hard to reconcile with the test you report below
(but
Quoted 2 lines
since I don't know where the "dialup" is relative to your server, I can't be sure of anything).
The dialup is from a completely different ISP.
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Below is a description of my setup:
OS: Slackware 9.0
Sendmail 8.12.9
Firewall: only port 25 open to receive mail
I access my mail with Squirrelmail and IMAP2
Quoted 4 lines
Quoted 2 lines
If I telnet to my mail server from a dialup, everything looks OK (I've substituted my address with a fictitious one):
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Quoted 2 lines
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# telnet myserver.com.au 25 220 myserver.com.au ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.9/8.12.9; Tue, 26 Aug 2003
07:34:58
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+1000
helo 63.60.42.226
250 myserver.com.au Hello 1Cust226.tnt3.cbr2.da.uu.net [63.60.42.226], pleased to meet you
mail from: [email protected]
250 2.1.0 [email protected]... Sender ok
rcpt to: [email protected]
250 2.1.5 [email protected] ... Recipient ok
data
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
this is a test
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OK, Robert, here's the deal.
1. A message sent directly to robert@[yourdomain].com.au ... I'm keeping the real name of [yourdomain] confidential at your request ... appears from this end to go out. It's not in the mailq on my MTA server.
2. If I telnet to the MTA actually running at [yourdomain].com.au, I appear to be able to send a message from here to robert@[yourdomain].com.au .
You might let me know which, if either, of those messages actually arrives.
But ...
3. If I run the command "host -t MX [yourdomain].com.au", I get 3 results, none of which is the server [yourdomain].com.au ... all 3 are [something].iinet.net.au ... your ISP, I assume. This means that ordinary off-site e-mail will be sent to one of those servers, not yours. Only God and your ISP know what happens to it after that. This is probably your problem.
Quoted 8 lines · Robert
"Ray Olszewski" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:5.1.0.14.1.20030826070427.01f0a9f0@celine...
Quoted 4 lines
Quoted 3 lines · Robert
My mail server has been working without a glitch for a number of months. All of a sudden it won't receive messages from the Internet. Local mail within my network is still received. Our ISP is under new management -
so
Quoted 1 line
Quoted 1 line
maybe its not a problem with my system!
[details deleted]
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More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
Quoted 4 lines
OK, Robert, here's the deal.
1. A message sent directly to robert@[yourdomain].com.au ... I'm keeping the real name of [yourdomain] confidential at your request ... appears
from
Quoted 3 lines
this end to go out. It's not in the mailq on my MTA server.
2. If I telnet to the MTA actually running at [yourdomain].com.au, I
appear
Quoted 3 lines
to be able to send a message from here to robert@[yourdomain].com.au .
You might let me know which, if either, of those messages actually
arrives.
Quoted 4 lines
But ...
3. If I run the command "host -t MX [yourdomain].com.au", I get 3
results,
Quoted 4 lines
none of which is the server [yourdomain].com.au ... all 3 are [something].iinet.net.au ... your ISP, I assume. This means that ordinary off-site e-mail will be sent to one of those servers, not yours. Only God and your ISP know what happens to it after that. This is probably your
problem.
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Quoted 4 lines · Robert
"Ray Olszewski" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:5.1.0.14.1.20030826070427.01f0a9f0@celine...
Quoted 2 lines
Quoted 1 line · Robert
My mail server has been working without a glitch for a number of
months.
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All of a sudden it won't receive messages from the Internet. Local
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within my network is still received. Our ISP is under new
management -
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so
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maybe its not a problem with my system!
The telnet message arrived but the "ordinary" one didn't. I've finally managed to contact my ISP about this. It looks as if my static IP address has been corrupted, as you have correctly pointed out. With any luck it will be fixed in the next few hours.
I'm just posting this so that readers can see the end of the story!
Robert.
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