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@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