Outbound emails disappear 10.1.4 server

[itry2hide]

I'm having the worst time trying to set up email services in 10.1.4. I was running Communigater and SIMS-PPC on an older computer. Everything worked dandy.

Switching over to 10.1.4 server has been a nightmare. While it appears that I can receive emails, outbound emails just disappear. I don't get any error messages, but the recipiants never get the emails.

I'm trying to host the SMTP services, as I have several internal email users. Some earlier posts have suggested using the SMTP server of my ISP. I don't think that will work, as they usually reject addresses not in their domain.

Any suggestions on tutorials? You would think this would be easy, but it doesn't appear so.

Here are some log entries - maybe they'll help

From the mail log
Nov 13 2002 15:55:44 GetMXRecord for capitalsi.com.cn failed.
Nov 13 2002 15:55:44 SMTP failed to connect to server "capitalsi.com.cn:25" using TCP/IP during connection attempt for "capitalsi.com.cn".
Nov 13 2002 15:55:44 SMTP connection attempt for host "systex.com.cn". DNS Cache entry has expired. Retrieving new DNS cache entries.
Nov 13 2002 15:55:44 Resolver: TRY_AGAIN.

System Log
Nov 13 23:28:38 home_server lookupd[314]: DNSAgent: dns_fqdn_query_server - query failed for 216.148.227.68
Nov 13 23:28:43 home_server lookupd[314]: DNSAgent: dns_send_query_server - timeout for 204.127.202.4
Nov 13 23:28:48 home_server lookupd[314]: DNSAgent: dns_send_query_server - timeout for 204.127.202.4
Nov 13 23:29:43 home_server lookupd[314]: DNSAgent: dns_read_reply - wrong XID in reply (expected 33366 got 28148)
Nov 13 23:29:48 home_server lookupd[314]: DNSAgent: dns_send_query_server - timeout for 204.127.202.4
Nov 13 23:32:01 home_server lookupd[314]: DNSAgent: dns_send_query_server - timeout for 204.127.202.4
Nov 13 23:32:12 home_server last message repeated 2 times


The two IP addresses are the upstream DNS servers used by AT&T broadband. I can ping my mail server.

Thanks for any help

[Craig R. Arko]

Nov 13 2002 15:55:44 GetMXRecord for capitalsi.com.cn failed.

Is <capitalsi.com.cn> your domain, or a particular machine? If so, the error message is saying that there is no MX record in DNS for it.

At any rate, this certainly appears to be a DNS issue and not a mail server issue. Can you say more about your setup?

[itry2hide]

No, my domain is romley.net. If I do a MX lookup for Romley.net using the Network Utility, I get this:

Server: ns2.attbi.com
Address: 216.148.227.68

romley.net preference = 0, mail exchanger = mail.romley.net
romley.net preference = 100, mail exchanger = mx2.zoneedit.com
romley.net nameserver = ns1.zoneedit.com
romley.net nameserver = ns4.zoneedit.com

here are the results for systex.com.cn:


systex.com.cn preference = 5, mail exchanger = mail.systex.com.cn
systex.com.cn nameserver = ns.capitalnet.com.cn
mail.systex.com.cn internet address = 211.147.97.19
ns.capitalnet.com.cn internet address = 202.106.148.1

I think the problem I have is DNS related. The error message in my original post is repeated for multiple domain names.

Setup: Beige G3/266 572 megs of ram, system 10.1.4 server. Broadband connection is cable to AT&T. I use an Asante broadband router running DHCP/NAT. I have ports 110, 25 and 80 forwarded to the beige G3.

Mail host configuration - I allow SMTP relay for incoming. Outgoing Mail - "Allow Outgoing Mail" Network settings - "MX List and A Records"

Mail Service Configuration -
Filter - "Check incoming SMTP connections" is checked. Use default server for junk mail rejection is selected, log connection if SMTP... is checked.

Protocols - SMTP for message transfer,
POP3 is enabled

BTW, I can't start the web service anymore either. I guess I'm just sh-t out of luck!

Thanks for any help

[itry2hide]

I ran mail server on OS X for a while. It appears that emails show up day's later. So, it must be a DNS problem. What are the pros and cons of running DNS on my server? It doesn't appear to be very easy!

Thanks

[mac_lover]

I guess you have a better control over your emails and settings, one could argue if its worth the hassle :/