Sendmail SMTP relay error but only from some ISPs

Dim_Git · June 6, 2009, 2:56am

Oops ! Double post, apologies.

On reflection and bearing in mind that the laptop issue seems to be a false lead because that is now not working, this does seem to be just an authentication issue.

Joe · June 6, 2009, 3:17am

Webmin, Dovecot, User and Login Options I find :

"SASL authentication realms" is set to "None"
"Default authentication realm" is set to "Default"
"Authentication methods" is set to "Plain-Text"

Dovecot and saslauthd are not the same thing. The Dovecot you see in Webmin is a POP/IMAP server; nothing to do with SASL at all. There is a Dovecot SASL server, but it’s probably not the one you have (it’s not the default in Virtualmin systems at this time, though I imagine it must be better than Cyrus), as it didn’t exist (or at least wasn’t production quality) way back in the dark ages when your OS was released.

So, don’t imagine SASL is setup just because Dovecot is. They almost certainly aren’t related in any way.

To see if saslauthd is actually running:

service saslauthd status

But…you should be aware that saslauthd is not very intuitive to setup. You’d probably remember it, if you’d set it up, because it takes a lot of reading if you don’t happen to stumble onto the right incantations early in the process.

Dim_Git · June 6, 2009, 3:36am

WOW ! You are very quick with your replies.

Not surprisingly, you get the right answers when you ask the right question. Until now I didn’t know the question should have been “Why can’t I authenticate”. This has been something of learning curve for me. Thanks for your help.

I didn’t set up saslauthd because I inherited this server and it’s problems. :o(

If I do : service saslauthd status

I get : saslauthd (pid 7961 7960 7959 7958 7957) is running…

Now I am looking for the right thing I have been doing some more reading of other threads here. I found your FAQ on setting up SASL, brilliant but not about Sendmail :o(

Anyway, I did the telnet session as suggested there :

[code:1][root@ns ~]# telnet localhost 25
Trying 127.0.0.1…
Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1).
Escape character is ‘^]’.
220 ns.the-servers-domain.co.uk ESMTP Sendmail 8.13.8/8.13.8; Sat, 6 Jun 2009 08:24:29 +0100
ehlo localhost
250-ns.the-servers-domain.co.uk Hello localhost [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250-SIZE
250-DSN
250-ETRN
250-DELIVERBY
250 HELP
exit[/code:1]

There were no "AUTH lines".

I continue my reading.

Thanks

Joe · June 6, 2009, 4:24am

So, you’re treading in waters where I have never been. While I have administered Sendmail servers in the distant past, I have never setup saslauthd with Sendmail (SMTP authentication didn’t even exist, as far as I know, the last time I setup a Sendmail server…it was still POP-before-SMTP, or you just gave it your IP addresse ranges).

We can help with saslauthd…but Sendmail, maybe someone else around here knows how to do it. I know Scott is a big Sendmail fan, and he’s a regular around these parts. Maybe he’ll chime in.

Dim_Git · June 7, 2009, 12:57pm

Me ? More like a doddery old fool like Mr Magoo but I think I would rather be Harpo, To be able to make music like that must be sooooo cool.

Anyway, thanks for sticking with this.

Today, it seems that the laptop cannot send when remote now. Since he was last able to send no changes have been made other than setting up reverse with the ISP (not the ISP that the laptop is connected to) I am beginning to wonder if that is a false lead.

Here is the log entry for that session :

[code:1]Jun 5 09:50:13 ns sendmail[27968]: n558oCTj027968: ruleset=check_rcpt, arg1=<me@mydomain.co.uk>, relay=cpc3-nott5-0-0-cust417.nott.cable.ntl.com [82.10.209.162], reject=550 5.7.1 < me@mydomain.co.uk>… Relaying denied

Jun 5 09:50:13 ns sendmail[27968]: n558oCTj027968: lost input channel from cpc3-nott5-0-0-cust417.nott.cable.ntl.com [82.10.209.162] to MTA after rcpt

Jun 5 09:50:13 ns sendmail[27968]: n558oCTj027968: from=< nick@senders-domain.co.uk >, size=0, class=0, nrcpts=0, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=cpc3-nott5-0-0-cust417.nott.cable.ntl.com [82.10.209.162][/code:1]

Just to make it clear, â

Dim_Git · June 7, 2009, 12:57pm