email not working

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#1 Fri, 11/28/2014 - 10:40
eduardoeltortuga

email not working

My emails are not working. I am self hosting using Ubuntu 14.04. My server has a FQDN. I have multiple virtual servers. My FQDN was the same as one of my virtual servers, but I got a new one and still my emails are not working. Mail for domain is enabled. My second question concerns Post-Installation Wizard. what am I supposed to put in the Primary nameserver box? Do I put mt FQDN? What about in the secondary box? I am also using freedns.afraid.org and my domains are all pointing in the right direction.

Thanks Eddie

Fri, 11/28/2014 - 11:53
andreychek

Howdy,

Hmm, regarding the email issue you're seeing -- what problem are you having exactly? Are you receiving an error of some sort?

Also, you may want to take a look in the error log, that's available in /var/log/mail.log.

-Eric

Fri, 11/28/2014 - 13:23 (Reply to #2)
eduardoeltortuga

Oops. double post

Fri, 11/28/2014 - 12:20 (Reply to #3)
eduardoeltortuga

I am using Mozilla Thunderbird. When I try to email any of my virtual servers I get Delivery status notification stating "Final-recipient: rfc822; mail@xxx.com Action: delayed Status: 4.1.1 Last-attempt-Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 19:11:44 +0000"

mail.log shows the same two errors repeatedly:

Nov 28 09:26:53 ubuntu postfix/smtp[10869]: connect to mx2.comcast.net[2001:558:fe21:2a::6]:25: Network is unreachable and

Nov 28 10:46:53 ubuntu postfix/smtp[15107]: 070301C1024: to=evigil17@xxx.net, relay=none, delay=50840, delays=50780/0.02/60/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to mx2.comcast.net[68.87.20.5]:25: Connection timed out)

Thanks

Fri, 11/28/2014 - 16:20
andreychek

Howdy,

Hmm, it looks like you're not able to connect to port 25 of remote mail servers... is it possible that your provider is blocking port 25?

-Eric

Fri, 11/28/2014 - 18:57
eduardoeltortuga

I googled "Does comcast block port 25" and this is what I got:

Port 25 is unsecured, and Botnet spammers can use it to send spam. This does not affect XFINITY Connect usage. We recommend viewing Using Email Client Programs with Comcast Email to use port 587.

So, yes, Comcast blocks port 25.

I could not find where to change this in webmin. thanks

Fri, 11/28/2014 - 22:30 (Reply to #6)
eduardoeltortuga

I'm thinking that the router is where I change the port number? Is that correct?

I also tested to see if postfix was working with "telnet localhost 25" and it seems to work.

and also : "ehlo localhhost" and that works as well. Does this meen that port 25 is not blocked?

thanks

Fri, 11/28/2014 - 23:51
andreychek

Howdy,

Well, there isn't really a way around that... if Comcast blocks port 25 -- that's the port that email servers listen on for incoming email.

It looks like your test was just telnet'ing to localhost -- that wouldn't be blocked by Comcast. What you'd want to test is if you can telnet from your Linux server to port 25 on a remote email server.

If Comcast is indeed blocking that -- you'd either need to work with them to remove that block (it's often possible to get a business class IP address without that block), or you could try relaying email through your provider.

-Eric

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 10:57 (Reply to #8)
eduardoeltortuga

Thanks! That helps a lot. I will keep working on the issue.

Eddie

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 11:13 (Reply to #9)
eduardoeltortuga

Comcast said to use port 587. Do you have any information on doing it this way?

Thanks

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 10:21
andreychek

Howdy,

Well, your server is running on a Comcast IP address, is that correct? And you're trying to send an email to your server?

Sending to port 587 only works when you're in control of the sending process.

If you use, say, Gmail to send the email (or any other mail server) -- mail servers use port 25 to communicate with each other. There isn't a way to tell them to use port 587.

So you could use that port if you're using Thunderbird, and you're trying to use Thunderbird to directly access your server. But any other server on the Internet won't be able to communicate with your server on port 25.

-Eric

Sun, 12/07/2014 - 08:48 (Reply to #11)
eduardoeltortuga

Thanks for the advice. This is one of the best forums I've used. I always get a response.

Eddie

Mon, 12/08/2014 - 10:17
andreychek

Sure, I'm glad we can help!

A way to resolve the issue you're seeing might be to get a cheap VPS somewhere, and use that for hosting your email.

Or, some domain name registrars offer email forwarding, where you can set them up to accept email for your domain, and then forward it to an alternate address (such as a Gmail or Yahoo address).

Your server would still manage the websites in those cases, but your registrar would handle the email.

If you are just hosting a handful of accounts and you don't need a server/VPS, perhaps you could setup email forwarding for free with your registrar.

-Eric

Fri, 12/12/2014 - 11:17 (Reply to #13)
eduardoeltortuga

This is good advice!I will work on this.

Thanks again for all your help

Merry Christmas and Happy New year

eduardo el tortuga

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