Sendmail can't receive from remote or another domain

[Stuart Sears]

On Monday 23 August 2004 17:48, Ben Sewell wrote:
> > > By the way...in doing some digging, if this is for your mmg.com.mm, you
> > > may have more issues.
> > >
> > > I see that all of your MX records for your mmg.com.mm domain point
> > > elsewhere (bagan.net.mm).  If you don't control the 4 bagan.net.mm mail
> > > servers which are set up as your MX records, or don't control
> >
> >mmg.com.mm's
> >
> > > DNS server, you won't be able to receive mail for mmg.com.mm, anyhow.
> >
> >I didn't understand what do you mean this one above ?
okay. The way SMTP mail delivery works (simplified):
1. external user sends message addressed to user at yourdomain using a mail 
client to their smtp server
2. their smtp server looks at the DNS records for your domain, looking for an 
MX record (Mail eXchanger), and then negotiates an smtp connection with the 
server it saw in the MX record.
3. that server then 'decides' whether it will accept the email for delivery, 
based on its configuration.

however, should an external smtp server look for an MX record for your domain, 
it will see something like this:
# dig mmg.com.mm MX
<snip>
mmg.com.mm.             17166   IN      MX      20 mx2.bagan.net.mm.
mmg.com.mm.             17166   IN      MX      5 mailrx.bagan.net.mm.
mmg.com.mm.             17166   IN      MX      10 mailtx.bagan.net.mm.
mmg.com.mm.             17166   IN      MX      15 mail.bagan.net.mm.
<snip>
so it will attempt to talk to the smtp servers listed there.
Is one of these _your_ sendmail server? If not, and the servers on this list 
are not set up to forward emails to your sendmail server, messages will not 
be delivered to it.

you need to talk to the people who manage your nameservers (which appear to be 
the following two machines)
ns1.bagan.net.mm.
ns0.bagan.net.mm.
about altering their DNS records to include an MX record pointing to your 
mailserver.

Then you can worry about allowing sendmail to accept mail from external hosts.


> >Thanks in advance

> Looks like you need IMAP or POP3 server to receive emails by my
> understanding. Sendmail only sends emails. It does not recieve them.
unfortunately, no.
users may _collect_ email using one of these protocols but mail will be 
delivered locally by sendmail (or by a Mail Delivery Agent that it passes 
mail onto).

hope this helps

Stuart Sears
RHCE, RHCX

-- 
   Hobbes : Well, you still have afternoons and weekends 
   Calvin : That's when I watch TV.