Mail Server Configuration

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LemonadeMan

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Joined
Apr 20, 2004
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Hi All,

I'm a novice to setting up an email server and I'm asking you for help as you can probably easily see what the problem is. Neither sending nor receiving email works.

Here is my current configuration:
Domain name: domain.com
FQDN: mail.domain.com
Domain IP: 'my IP address'
I am NOT using DNS servers defined in Windows TCP/IP, but rather, I put my IP address in both the Primary and Backup DNS server IP address.

In godaddy:
A(host): for HOST, i have my domain name. for POINTS TO, i have my IP address
MX record: priority 9. host is my domain. POINTS TO mail.domain.com

In outlook express,
my incoming server is a POP3 and I'm using mail.domain.com for both the incoming and outgoing servers.
for username, i'm using my entire email address: [email protected] and not just the username itself. i am NOT using SPA.
i have selected that my outgoing server requires authentication and it uses the same info as for the incoming.
Outgoing port is 25 and incoming is 110. I'm not using SSL on either of them.


PLEASE tell me where I'm going wrong.

Thank you.
 
1.Do you have an A entry in Godaddy that points mail.domain.com to your IP address?
2. Do you have any firewalls on your mailserver or portforwards?
3. Does your ISP allow you to run a mailserver? Most residential internet connections have incoming SMTP port 25 blocked and some even have outgoing SMTP port 25 blocked or rate limited to prevent spam leaving their network.
4. Can you ping mail.domain.com?

Try these sites to help determine where you are having problems:
http://www.mxtoolbox.com/
http://intodns.com/
http://www.abuse.net/relay.html (good tool to use after you get your mailserver working to be sure you aren't an open-relay, which means that your mailserver isn't able to send out spam by default).
 
hawk82 said:
1.Do you have an A entry in Godaddy that points mail.domain.com to your IP address?
2. Do you have any firewalls on your mailserver or portforwards?
3. Does your ISP allow you to run a mailserver? Most residential internet connections have incoming SMTP port 25 blocked and some even have outgoing SMTP port 25 blocked or rate limited to prevent spam leaving their network.
4. Can you ping mail.domain.com?

Try these sites to help determine where you are having problems:
http://www.mxtoolbox.com/
http://intodns.com/
http://www.abuse.net/relay.html (good tool to use after you get your mailserver working to be sure you aren't an open-relay, which means that your mailserver isn't able to send out spam by default).
Click to expand...

I bet his isp's blocking the outgoing ports!
 
best way to test is to see if you can telnet to port 25 from inside the network, if so then test from outside the network (from home) if you get a smtp reply then there is a config error as your server should be talking fine if you don't get a response then either your firewall is blocking it or your ISP is.

Just to make sure ....

in your controll panel for your domain name DNS setup an A record mail.yourdomain.com and point it to your external IP

then in the MX record add mail.yourdomain.com 10

Make sure port 25 is open on the firewall.
 
You didn't meantion what mail server software you were using or anything about how you set it up. Some details would help.
 
thank you for your responses. i'm using MDaemon. my ISP has 25 blocked they said they have 587 open and secure. i tried to telnet 587 from outside using my IP and inside using 192.168.1.1 (gateway) and 192.168.1.106 (my computer), but neither of them work. i think the dns configuration is set up properly. my a(host) is set up properly. pinging mail.domain.com works, but none of the ports are open. i'm not sure why none of the ports on my computer are responsive. i turned all firewalls off completely for this purpose. maybe it's the way i'm telnet'ing. when in telnet, i hit "o" then it says (to) and i type 'my ip', one space, 'port #'. by the way, the domain is tie-ties.com. any clues?
 
Pretty sure if your isp is blocking the ports you are sol, i could be wrong tho.
 
The only thing I can think you can do is use a catchall address and a pop connector, not ideal but if 25 is blocked I don't know what else you can do.

Can you telnet to your mailserver internally to 25?
 
i tried telnet'ing to 25 internally and that's not working either. in fact, i can't telnet internally to ANY port. perhaps i'm not telnet'ing correctly since i'm a novice at this. i have winxp so i go to start, run, telnet. dos-prompt comes up and i type in 'o' to open a connection and i press enter. it says '<to>' and i type in the internal IP of my computer followed by a space, then the port number. to no avail. i have also tried using the gateway IP and various ports. nada. ouch.
 
also, even though port 25 is blocked by my ISP, i have 587 open. can i use that one after we get over the hurdle at hand.
 
no, becuase other servers will be trying to accessport 25 to transfer the mail. If you really want to get around this you will need a store and foward service. You make them your MX Record they act as your port 25 then foward the mail onto your actual port 587

just type telnet ipaddress 25 in cmd prompt.

If its not working internally then SMTP is not working at all.
 
SMTP is not the problem because i can't telnet ANY port, not just SMTP. no port is responding. and even if i telnet just localhost without any port, it still says cannot connect. any idea why i can not even telnet localhost? not sure if it helps, but i'm using a cisco linksys router.
 
becuase your SMTP server is not working correctly

if you telnet localhost 25 and get no response there is a SMTP server config error.
 
You have a few issues here.

1: It would seem your SMTP is broken. SMTP should always be working internally. If you can't telnet 192.168.1.x 25 (or whatever port you have SMTP set to) then your SMTP is broken and you need to look and make sure there isn't a firewall on the server blocking the SMTP traffic, or that the service is started, or your configuration isn't messed up.

2: Even if you get 587 working internally you will not actually be able to use it externally because all mail traffic flows on port 25. Servers looking for you will resolve your mx record and try to make a connection to 98.239.xxx.xxx:25 which will fail because your mail server isn't listening on port 25.

To be honest you would be better running your domain through Gmail or getting comcast business class so that you can have 25 open.
 
C7J0yc3 said:
You have a few issues here.

1: It would seem your SMTP is broken. SMTP should always be working internally. If you can't telnet 192.168.1.x 25 (or whatever port you have SMTP set to) then your SMTP is broken and you need to look and make sure there isn't a firewall on the server blocking the SMTP traffic, or that the service is started, or your configuration isn't messed up.

2: Even if you get 587 working internally you will not actually be able to use it externally because all mail traffic flows on port 25. Servers looking for you will resolve your mx record and try to make a connection to 98.239.xxx.xxx:25 which will fail because your mail server isn't listening on port 25.

To be honest you would be better running your domain through Gmail or getting comcast business class so that you can have 25 open.
Click to expand...

This.
 
All of your ports are closed as of 5 mins ago.

tie-ties.jpg


Remember the K.I.S.S. principle. Until your ports are open, nothing you do will work. Resolve one issue then go on to the next. Unlike virus cleaning, you cannot use a big hammer approach because changing one setting may affect another.

Great site to test this stuff from.
 
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