smtp does not work

[vinodadhikary]

Do I have to explicitly open port 25 even if I am using my ISP's smtp address? I have router enabled in my FC4, and configured a DNS server as well. I am using iptables as well.

[ccrvic]

Do I have to explicitly open port 25 even if I am using my ISP's smtp address?

For what? Are you sending or receiving?

I have router enabled in my FC4, and configured a DNS server as well. I am using iptables as well.

Not using man, though...

Vic.

[vinodadhikary]

Yes I am using sending and receiving, I am not new to linux. But surely am new to servers, because I have not been in these sorts of problems.

[ccrvic]

Yes I am using sending and receiving,

OK. How do you expect to receive data on a port when that port is closed?

Vic.

[vinodadhikary]

Great that helped me. tried that and it works. thanx so much.

[vinodadhikary]

Hey, the problem continues. I am using Outlook express program in one of my windows machine. I have been using my ISP's smtp server. I can telnet to the ISP's SMTP address with port 25, but still my mails are all bounced. What can be the problem here?

[gavinw6662]

what e-mail server package are you using?? The default Sendmail install for Fedora/Redhat is for it to listen only on the loopback (localhost) adaptor. Meaning it listens on 127.0.0.1 because the command "mail" actually invokes the 'sendmail' program. In order to make sendmail work on a Redhat box, you have to put a 'dnl' in front of the line with the 127.0.0.1. Or you can doo what I did which was duplicate it, and then replace the loopback IP address with the address of your NIC's address.

And finally - a better way yet to get help is to post some of your bounced errors as well as let us know which app you are using. It is possible that your ISP won't accept connections on port 25. But we never know until we can see some error messages from the log files and get some more input (as I am not familiar with postfix if that is what you are using).

[vinodadhikary]

Here is the message I recieve everytime I try to send an email message

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: new
Sent: 5/12/2006 12:52 PM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

'vinod@hotmail.com' on 5/12/2006 12:52 PM
None of your e-mail accounts could send to this recipient.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am using Microsoft's Outlook for Email. I talked to my ISP and they tell me that SMTP is working. I even can telnet to their smtp address. When I post a "nmap localhost", then I can see that port 25 is open. I now want to disable that port and allow it 192.168.0.1 NIC. I guess that would solve the problem wouldn't it?

[ccrvic]

I can telnet to the ISP's SMTP address with port 25, but still my mails are all bounced. What can be the problem here?

I don't know. Why don't you tell us the error that was reported?

Vic.

[gavinw6662]

Here is the message I recieve everytime I try to send an email message

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: new
Sent: 5/12/2006 12:52 PM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

'vinod@hotmail.com' on 5/12/2006 12:52 PM
None of your e-mail accounts could send to this recipient.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am using Microsoft's Outlook for Email. I talked to my ISP and they tell me that SMTP is working. I even can telnet to their smtp address. When I post a "nmap localhost", then I can see that port 25 is open. I now want to disable that port and allow it 192.168.0.1 NIC. I guess that would solve the problem wouldn't it?


If you are trying to send e-mail to 'local' users (which are users on your linux box) then yes you need to tell sendmail (or postfix - but it sounds like you are using the default sendmail install) to listen on the address of your NIC - or all ethernet interfaces. I explained how to do that above. To be more exact here is a how to

open up /etc/mail/sendmail.mc
add 'dnl' in front of the like that has 127.0.0.1 or like I said, you can copy that line and replace 127.0.0.1 with the IP of your system (or if you multiple NIC's - the IP of the interface that you want sendmail to listen on)
then you need to regenerate the sendmail.cf by:
m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
then you need to do:
service sendmail stop
service sendmail start

If you did it all correctly sendmail should be listening on the proper interface.

[vinodadhikary]

Thanx gavinw6662, I actually was in confusion to use the sendmail file because I thought, if I will be using my ISP mail server then why edit my configuation file. But once I read the configuration file, I saw the line where I needed to edit. I thank you for this.