[Dovecot] Bit of a Newbie Question

[Jud]

Forgot to cc the list on my reply to Wouter:

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 05:06:24 +0100 (CET), "Wouter Van Hemel"
<wouter-dovecot at fort-knox.rave.org> said:
[snip]
> But local isn't remote. There is relatively little that can go wrong with 
> postfix locally delivering a message to a folder, and dovecot then
> picking 
> it up from there on. Accepting email on a residential line with a dynamic 
> ip over a SSL secured SMTP protocol in a spam-secured-by-default MTA is a 
> whole other can of worms.

Indeed, as I'm learning.
 
> You have not yet told us if you actually can receive email from outside; 
> both with respect to your MTA configuration and an open (i.e. not 
> firewalled) internet ip.

I will have to investigate my MTA configuration.  It's not clear to me
what is meant by an "open (not firewalled) internet ip."  What
can/should I do on my system to create this condition?
 
> There is no difference for dovecot. For now, I'd say rather that the 
> problem is either that your MTA doesn't accept email, or that your isp 
> firewalls port 25 (which is rather likely on a dynamic ip home 
> connection).

It is probably true that my isp blocks port 25; it will be easy to
determine for sure.  If so, are there any solutions you can suggest?
 
> Read the MTA logs. See if there is any connection at all. If there is, 
> check what happens with the messages (refused?). If there is not, you 
> either are not accepting connections on your outside interface, or your 
> provider has blocked access to port 25.
> 
> Did you receive any bounces?

Yes, though I deleted them, not even thinking to read them for
information.  However, it is quite simple for me to create more bounces!
 ;-)

Thanks to you and Robert Cooper for your assistance,

Jud