Emails don't reach inbox

Help! (Home for newbies)
1

Hi all,

Fresh install with install.sh, haven’t done any configuration changes except bind DNS. Created a virtual server and the website loads fine. Setup emails however outside emails don’t reach the inbox. I sent emails from different domains hotmail, gmail etc none of them reaches. No mails in “Read User mail” or when I connect with Thunderbird.

/var/log/maillog :

Oct 11 21:05:14 server1 dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<info.la5tfer>, method=PLAIN, rip=xx.xxx.xx.xxx, lip=xxx.x.xxx.xxx, mpid=32670, TLS
Oct 11 21:05:14 server1 dovecot: pop3(info.la5tfer): Disconnected: Logged out top=0/0, retr=0/0, del=0/0, size=0

What should I check?

Thanks for any replies

2

Howdy,

What you’re seeing in your maillog there is Thunderbird connecting, and that part is good… do you see any connection attempts from the sending server though? If you’re trying to send an email from Gmail, for example, do you see the Gmail servers trying to contact your server?

-Eric

3

Nope Eric I sent a couple of emails from gmail but nothing related in log files

4

Also have problem sending mail with SSL, using port 465. I get a connection timeout message in Thunderbird as soon as I connect smtp server. No problem with port 26 tough.

5

Howdy,

Hmm, is port 25 of your server open and listening for connections? If for some reason port 25 is inaccessible (ie, some ISP’s block port 25), that would cause the problem you’re seeing now.

-Eric

6

Thanks Eric

Yes, port 25 is blocked, so I configured port 26 and it works fine.

However the issue with port 465 remains. Dunno what to do

7

Well, let’s come back to port 465 in a moment, that’s trickier :slight_smile:

Does port 587 work for sending email?

-Eric

8

yup port 587 works fine

9

Ports 26 and 587 seems working in thunderbird(I get a mail sent message)
However after checking the mail logs I see these error messages:

Oct 14 08:36:49 server1 postfix/smtp[21327]: 5EEE610169F: to=info@myotherdomain.net, relay=none, delay=558, delays=528/0.01/30/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to myotherdomain.net[208.xx.xx.xx]:25: Connection timed out)
Oct 14 08:36:49 server1 postfix/smtp[21328]: 07D09101642: to=cpanel@myotherdomain.net, relay=none, delay=4688, delays=4658/0.02/30/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to myotherdomain.net[xx.xxx.xx.xxx]:25: Connection timed out)
Oct 14 08:36:49 server1 postfix/smtp[21330]: A88BB1016A0: to=cpanel@myotherdomain.net, relay=none, delay=544, delays=514/0.02/30/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to myotherdomain.net[xx.xxx.xx.xxx]:25: Connection timed out)
Oct 14 08:37:14 server1 postfix/smtp[21304]: connect to alt2.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[173.194.69.26]:25: Connection timed out
Oct 14 08:37:19 server1 postfix/smtp[21329]: connect to alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[173.194.70.27]:25: Connection timed out

My mails don’t reach remote inboxes.

I can telnet remote machine without problems:

[root@server1 ~]# telnet myotherdomain.net 25
Trying xx.xxx.xx.xx…
Connected to myotherdomain.net.
Escape character is ‘^]’.
220-server3.myotherdomain.net ESMTP Exim 4.80 #2 Sun, 14 Oct 2012 11:42:13 +0300
220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport unsolicited,
220 and/or bulk e-mail.

Also ping works fine:

[root@server1 ~]# ping myotherdomain.net
PING myotherdomain.net (64.131.70.143) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from server3.myotherdomain.net (xx.xxx.xx.xx): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=89.9 ms
64 bytes from server3.myotherdomain.net (xx.xxx.xx.xx): icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=89.9 ms
64 bytes from server3.myotherdomain.net (xx.xxx.xx.xx): icmp_seq=3 ttl=53 time=89.9 ms

Any idea what causes this timeouts?

10

Well, if you get connection timed out errors trying to access port 25 on another server, I’d usually suggest that looks like you’re seeing a problem with port 25 being blocked. A lot of ISP’s will block port 25.

It’s unusual that you can telnet to it though, but not access it from within Postfix.

Are you by chance running a firewall on your server?

For example, what does this output:

iptables -L -n