[Dovecot] Rejected mails

[sunhux G]

Sending outgoing emails from this dovecot/postfix server is Ok
(ie emails received at destination) but incoming mails keep
getting the logs below :

smtp.myportaltech.com[202.6.163.31]:25: Connection timed out
Feb 21 16:37:04 hostname postfix/smtp[1381]: 8B35C200060:
to=<recipient_idg at myportaltech.com>, relay=none, delay=30,
delays=0.1/0.01/30/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to
smtp.myportaltech.com[202.6.163.31]:25: Connection timed out)


>From this postfix server, if I tried doing "telnet 202.6.163.31 25"
it won't respond.  That is the public IP address.

If I issue "telnet private_IP_address 25" , it responds.  My firewall
colleague said it's not feasible to create a firewall rule from this
server to its own external public address - is this a valid comment?

I'm not sure if this is the issue but I've also defined
smtp.myportaltech.com  in /etc/hosts to point to my server's
private address but seems like smtp/postfix (or dovecot?) is
still trying to connect to the external private address when it
attempts to connect to smtp.myportaltech.com



Thanks
Sun