Can't send or receive mail.....Help!

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#1 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 12:47
southtucky

Can't send or receive mail.....Help!

If I had hair, I'd pull it out. I spent 8 hours yesterday googling and reading practically every post in these forums, but I just can't make heads or tails of anything. I've never messed with email servers, so my knowledge of how they work is pretty limited.

**1. On out-going mail, I can send to other virtual servers located on my server, but sending externally to an AOL or YAHOO address I get a 554 error. This is because I'm on a dynamic IP. This much I know. However, my ISP has a mail server I can use to send mail, but I don't know how to configure it with Virtualmin.

**2. I can only receive mail from other virtual servers located on my server. I cannot receive any mail from external sources. Incoming mail not delivered is not even listed in the Mail Queue of the Postfix Configuration. So I am at a loss here.

I really like Virtualmin/Webmin, but this email things got me bonkers. I'd appreciate any help I could get. Thanks in advance!

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 13:19
andreychek

Howdy,

In many cases, when dealing with a dynamic IP, ISP's prevent email from going both in and out. So you'll want to make sure your ISP isn't the issue here.

However, my ISP has a mail server I can use to send mail, but I don't know how to configure it with Virtualmin.

You can setup a relay in Webmin -> Servers -> Postfix -> General Options -> Send outgoing mail via host.

I can only receive mail from other virtual servers located on my server. I cannot receive any mail from external sources. Incoming mail not delivered is not even listed in the Mail Queue of the Postfix Configuration.

You may want to take a peek in your mail log, either /var/log/maillog or /var/log/mail.log for any errors or messages that your server is receiving.

However, if email isn't getting to your server, it may very well be that your ISP is blocking incoming email. Unfortunately, there's no good fix for that other than to use a dedicated server on a dedicated IP :-)

-Eric

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 13:32
southtucky

I can now send mail using the smtp server of my isp. but still can't receive mail. My ISP has a mail server to receive mail as well, how do I set this up?

Maillog is as follows:

Feb 2 19:18:44 h232 sendmail[2144]: alias database /etc/aliases rebuilt by root Feb 2 19:18:44 h232 sendmail[2144]: /etc/aliases: 76 aliases, longest 10 bytes, 765 bytes total Feb 2 19:18:45 h232 sendmail[2149]: starting daemon (8.13.8): SMTP+queueing@01:00:00 Feb 2 19:18:45 h232 sm-msp-queue[2158]: starting daemon (8.13.8): queueing@01:00:00 Feb 2 20:25:26 h232 sendmail[15979]: o131PMd7015979: from=root, size=1019, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=201002030125.o131PMd7015979@coolbeanshosting.info, relay=root@localhost Feb 2 20:26:28 h232 sendmail[16007]: o131PR17016007: from=root@coolbeanshosting.info, size=1297, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=201002030125.o131PMd7015979@coolbeanshosting.info, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1] Feb 2 20:26:28 h232 sendmail[16007]: o131PR17016007: to=root@coolbeanshosting.info, delay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, pri=31297, dsn=4.4.3, stat=queued Feb 2 20:26:29 h232 sendmail[15979]: o131PMd7015979: to=root, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:01:07, xdelay=00:01:02, mailer=relay, pri=31019, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (o131PR17016007 Message accepted for delivery) Feb 2 20:31:06 h232 postfix/postfix-script: starting the Postfix mail system Feb 2 20:31:06 h232 postfix/master[22743]: daemon started -- version 2.3.3, configuration /etc/postfix Feb 2 20:32:10 h232 dovecot: Dovecot v1.0.7 starting up Feb 2 20:32:10 h232 dovecot: Generating Diffie-Hellman parameters for the first time. This may take a while.. Feb 2 20:33:03 h232 dovecot: ssl-build-param: SSL parameters regeneration completed Feb 2 20:37:38 h232 postfix/smtpd[3724]: connect from localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1] Feb 2 20:37:48 h232 postfix/smtpd[3724]: 1904820254: client=localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 14:54
southtucky

Hate to be a pest: I still can't receive incoming mail. Anyone have any ideas?

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 17:12
andreychek

I can now send mail using the smtp server of my isp. but still can't receive mail. My ISP has a mail server to receive mail as well, how do I set this up?

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that... although most ISP's will allow you to route all outgoing email through them, it's another thing entirely to deal with incoming email.

In order for that incoming email to work, your ISP would have to configure it's servers to receive email for your particular domains.

And even then, that won't route it to your server.

In order for email servers on the Net to deliver email to the domains you're hosting, they really need to be able to directly talk SMTP to your server... and if your ISP blocks that, there's not much you can do :-)

-Eric

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 22:33
BIG MIKE

I'm not completely understanding... My ISP will allow mail to be delivered directly to such programs as Outlook which are directly on the computer. They do not block port 25 incoming or outgoing. What else could be the issue?

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 23:05
andreychek

Howdy,

Well, your ISP isn't delivering email directly to Outlook.

Instead -- your ISP created an email account for you on their server. When someone sends you an email, it routes to your ISP's email server, and sits on their server until you open Outlook.

When you open Outlook, it then connects to your ISP's mail server using POP or IMAP, and downloads the email.

The key in the above, is that your ISP had to setup your account for you... and that in many cases these days, email servers on the Internet can't directly talk to an SMTP server running on a dynamic IP -- ISP's block that capability in order to prevent spam problems.

One way to verify if that's the case would be to telnet into your Email Server from a remote server on the Internet, and then look in your email logs to see if the connection worked.

For example, if you have access to a remote Linux server, you could type:

telnet your_ip_address 25

Then, when you look at the email logs on your server, you should see a connection from the remote IP you were at.

-Eric

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 23:22
BIG MIKE

OK. I telneted from a different computer and this is the response of the telnet:

[root@coolbeanshosting ~]# telnet 173.190.7.180 25 Trying 173.190.7.180... Connected to h180.7.190.173.dynamic.ip.windstream.net (173.190.7.180). Escape character is '^]'.

Does this look right?

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 23:26
andreychek

Howdy,

Well, it's missing your Postfix banner, which is a problem... but there's a few possible reasons for that.

The only way to tell for sure if your ISP is blocking you is by looking in the mail log, and see if there's a connection logged from the IP you did the test from.

-Eric

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 23:29
BIG MIKE

Forgive me for asking, but where is the mail log located and I'll check right quick.

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 23:32
andreychek

No problem, though slightly odd, as you shared entries from your mail log in the third comment above ;-)

The mail log is either /var/log/maillog or /var/log/mail.log, depending in which distro you're using. You'd want to look towards the end of the file (ie, the newest entries are last).

-Eric

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 23:38
BIG MIKE

The above was copied from the command line output. FTPing the server I could not find anything at all related to mail.log, etc. From the command line, I accessed with this... I'm relatively new to linux, forgive me for my ignorance.

[root@coolbeanshosting ~]# vi /var/log/maillog Feb 2 19:18:44 h232 sendmail[2144]: alias database /etc/aliases rebuilt by root Feb 2 19:18:44 h232 sendmail[2144]: /etc/aliases: 76 aliases, longest 10 bytes, 765 bytes total Feb 2 19:18:45 h232 sendmail[2149]: starting daemon (8.13.8): SMTP+queueing@01:00:00 Feb 2 19:18:45 h232 sm-msp-queue[2158]: starting daemon (8.13.8): queueing@01:00:00 Feb 2 20:25:26 h232 sendmail[15979]: o131PMd7015979: from=root, size=1019, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=201002030125.o131PMd7015979@coolbeanshosting.info, relay=root@localhost Feb 2 20:26:28 h232 sendmail[16007]: o131PR17016007: from=root@coolbeanshosting.info, size=1297, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=201002030125.o131PMd7015979@coolbeanshosting.info, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1] Feb 2 20:26:28 h232 sendmail[16007]: o131PR17016007: to=root@coolbeanshosting.info, delay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, pri=31297, dsn=4.4.3, stat=queued Feb 2 20:26:29 h232 sendmail[15979]: o131PMd7015979: to=root, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:01:07, xdelay=00:01:02, mailer=relay, pri=31019, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (o131PR17016007 Message accepted for delivery) Feb 2 20:31:06 h232 postfix/postfix-script: starting the Postfix mail system Feb 2 20:31:06 h232 postfix/master[22743]: daemon started -- version 2.3.3, configuration /etc/postfix Feb 2 20:32:10 h232 dovecot: Dovecot v1.0.7 starting up Feb 2 20:32:10 h232 dovecot: Generating Diffie-Hellman parameters for the first time. This may take a while.. Feb 2 20:33:03 h232 dovecot: ssl-build-param: SSL parameters regeneration completed Feb 2 20:37:38 h232 postfix/smtpd[3724]: connect from localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1] Feb 2 20:37:48 h232 postfix/smtpd[3724]: 1904820254: client=localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 23:44
andreychek

Mmm, well, the entries I see in your mail log there are from back on Feb 2nd.

Are those the most recent entries you're seeing in there?

-Eric

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 23:49
BIG MIKE

yes. those are the most recent but i've sent mail from my server today several times for testing. No entries of outgoing mail either.

Don't know if this will help, but a couple of weeks ago, I had virtualmin/webmin installed on a local machine, and it received mail just fine.

This new server I got up and running a couple of days ago won't receive it. Same network. On the old server I had Centos 5.3 on the new one I've got Centos 5.4.

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