Mail doesn't send

I've noticed this because a lot of users e-mail me directly saying that they aren't getting the registration/activation e-mail whenever they join my phpBB. On my end, I'm getting all of the e-mails very quickly, but for some reason I don't think they are being sent out. I'm not sure if they are being sent out but just very delayed or maybe not even sent out at all.

Is there something I need to configure to make this process more faster and reliable?

 

It could be that your ISP is blocking port 25, and so stopping emails beeing send outside you LAN.

Is the (mail)server within your private LAN?

 

Well my ISP is Time Warner. In phpBB, if I select it to use the internal mail server, it will send the mail, but some of the guys said it'll take about an hour or so to receive the message. If I tell phpBB to use an SMTP server that I specify, it sends instantly. That's why I'm thinking it's a configuration setting on my end. So, I guess the mail does send, but it delayed big time.

 

Any errors in your mail log?
Please check if your server is blacklisted: http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

 

Well, I have 13 records of being blacklisted. I'm not sure what the errors mean, but my IP is 24.59.42.77.

As for the mail log, where would that be located?

 

Look like you are on Road Runner (if thats you IP)

They block port 25 as far as I can tell.

http://www.google.com/search?q=road...t:*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

 

Alright. I changed it over to use RR's SMTP server, but is there anyway to check and see what e-mails are being sent through my server? Somehow I'm sending over 1000 e-mails a day and after 1000, RR blocks use of the SMTP server for 24 hrs.

 

It's in the mail log which you can find in the /var/log directory.

 

Re: Email not sending

I am also a Time Warner customer, I do know for a fact that Time Warner does not allow private email servers on their Residential side they do block the email server so you would have to change the port to something other than 25 for smtp and 110 for pop3 and 143 for imap. They do filter it out even if you change your email server to another port it will still not send everything because they have some type of setup where you are blacklisted if you have a residential IP Address subnet. They do this by design for protection against spammers.

Just my two cents.

See ya,

 

Odd. There are no logs at all in the /var/logs/mail directory. Just a 'statistics' file that isn't readable.

 

it's not /var/logs/mail, but /var/log

Within /var/log you should have files like mail.err, mail.info, mail.log ect...

 

Oh I see it now. Well, out of the ordinary, I have a 300mb file for March 24 and a 555mb file for March 25. It seems like someone is using my server as a spam relay for fake eBay stuff.

Code:

[root@server log]# tail -f maillog.24-03-07_23-59-03
Mar 24 23:59:45 server postfix/smtp[27196]: 3B5262A0155: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=18, status=deferred (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 451 4.1.8 Domain of sender address [email protected] does not resolve (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Mar 24 23:59:45 server postfix/smtp[26373]: 697112A0154: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=28, status=deferred (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 451 4.1.8 Domain of sender address [email protected] does not resolve (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Mar 24 23:59:45 server postfix/smtp[27203]: 200772A0153: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=37, status=deferred (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 451 4.1.8 Domain of sender address [email protected] does not resolve (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Mar 24 23:59:45 server postfix/smtp[27196]: 3B5262A0155: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=18, status=deferred (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 451 4.1.8 Domain of sender address [email protected] does not resolve (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Mar 24 23:59:46 server postfix/smtp[26373]: 697112A0154: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=29, status=deferred (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 451 4.1.8 Domain of sender address [email protected] does not resolve (in reply to MAIL FROM command))Mar 24 23:59:46 server postfix/smtp[27203]: 200772A0153: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=38, status=deferred (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 451 4.1.8 Domain of sender address [email protected] does not resolve (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Mar 24 23:59:46 server postfix/smtp[27196]: 3B5262A0155: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=19, status=deferred (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 451 4.1.8 Domain of sender address [email protected] does not resolve (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Mar 24 23:59:46 server postfix/smtp[27203]: 200772A0153: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=38, status=deferred (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 451 4.1.8 Domain of sender address [email protected] does not resolve (in reply to MAIL FROM command))Mar 24 23:59:46 server postfix/smtp[28238]: 9BCA92A0156: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=10, status=deferred (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 451 4.1.8 Domain of sender address [email protected] does not resolve (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Mar 24 23:59:46 server postfix/smtp[26373]: 697112A0154: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=29, status=deferred (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 451 4.1.8 Domain of sender address [email protected] does not resolve (in reply to MAIL FROM command))

And is /etc/mail/access, the file shows this:

Code:

# Check the /usr/share/doc/sendmail/README.cf file for a description
# of the format of this file. (search for access_db in that file)
# The /usr/share/doc/sendmail/README.cf is part of the sendmail-doc
# package.
#
# by default we allow relaying from localhost...
localhost.localdomain           RELAY
localhost                       RELAY
127.0.0.1                       RELAY

What else could it be?

 

Yes, definitely! And that's the reason why you can't send mails out - the recipient servers block mails from your server because it is/was abused by spammers!
Do you use SMTP-AUTH? If so, the spammers were successful in guessing a valid username and password, or they abused a contact form on one of the web sites on your server.
If you don't use SMTP-AUTH, you should configure it NOW!

 

Do you have a How-To on setting up SMTP-AUTH? I thought I'd fixed this error since none of the relay testers were able to use me as a relay. Then I wake up to being unable to send mail again because of some spammer.

Code:

Apr 16 11:20:15 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=4, status=bounced (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply to
MAIL FROM command))
Apr 16 11:20:15 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=4, status=bounced (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply
to MAIL FROM command))
Apr 16 11:20:15 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=4, status=bounced
(host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Apr 16 11:20:15 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=4, status=bounced (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply to
MAIL FROM command))
Apr 16 11:20:15 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=4, status=bounced (host
smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Apr 16 11:20:15 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=4, status=bounced (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Apr 16 11:20:15 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=4, status=bounced (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply to MAIL
FROM command))
Apr 16 11:20:16 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=5, status=bounced (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Apr 16 11:20:16 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=5, status=bounced (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply to
MAIL FROM command))
Apr 16 11:20:16 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=5, status=bounced (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Apr 16 11:20:16 server postfix/smtp[17133]: 9334649003E: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60], delay=5, status=bounced (host smtp-server.columbus.rr.com[65.24.7.60] said: 550 5.7.1 Outbound Mail Refused - 24.95.42.77 - See http://help.rr.com/outboundemail - 070416 (in reply to MAIL FROM command))