[Dovecot] Bit of a Newbie Question

[F. Even]

> 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]
>
>
>> 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?

A good test would be to see if you can send a message from one computer
inside your network to your mail server.  Create an internal network of
sorts.  It sounds to me like you have a bit of reading to do on quite a
few basics....

>> 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?

There is no good way around this.  About the only thing you could do is
have another account store the incoming mail somewhere and you your local
mail server do a "pull" of sorts using something like "fetchmail" or
something.  ...or petition your ISP to unblock port 25 (unlikely) or see
if they have a "business class" type plan that will give you a static IP
and hopefully unblocked port 25.

Run some of the tests @ http://dnsstuff.com and see if they can connect to
any of your serivces.  Also, from the outside, simply telnet to port 25 of
your server and see if it is listening.

>> 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!
>  ;-)

How else would you expect to get information?!