major email server setup issues (Linux and Win<>cannot recieve)

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Mar 15, 2002
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First I tried Postfix, then Sendmail and now I'm on Exchange. The same problem persits, I cannont recieve mail on my server. I can send email anywhere but that is all. Right now I have a default setup in Exchange. It connects fine to my domain controller and all looks well. Like I said it is a default install of Exchange 2000 for the domain bnettech.net. FQDN mail.bnettech.net. I haven't added any options or set any paramaters in Exhcange, and all I have done is added some user mailboxes and that is it.

Story: I have registerd a domain name a while back - bnettech.net from Dyndns.org. It is "custom" (pay for) so I don't need to add the bnettech.dyndns.org to it. My IP is of course dynamic. Then I noticed that my ISP blocks ports 1024 and below (I think because my webserver cannot connect on port 80 so I set it up for port 8080 and forwarded port 8080 to 80 for my webserver and all works fine). Anyway, my ISP blocking lower ports is OK, dyndns offers MailHop Relay. This setup will allow their server to relay email to your server on port 2525 or whatever to get around the issues of ISPs blocking lower ports.

The mailhop relay service adds an MX record to my DNS zone: "bnettech.net MX mx1.mailhop.org"

Full DNS zone: [www.bnettech.net "A" 216.145.85.xx]<>[mail.bnettech.net "A" 216.145.85.xx]<>[bnettech.net "A" 216.145.85.xx]<>[bnettech.net "MX" mx1.mailhop.org]<>[mail.bnettech.net "MX" mx2.mailhop.org(I added this one during experimentation)]

Looking at the DNS zone, can anyone tell me if there are any errors in this zone. I am a novice when it comes to DNS. Being that I have an internal domain with a domain controller I didn't see the need to put an MX record into my internal domains DNS zone since my DNS server isn't public.

When I setup my accounts in Outlook I have setup for Exchange then I setup a POP/SMTP acccount. For the outgoing SMTP I have tried mail.bnettech.net and the mx1.mailhop.org with no luck on receiving mail either way. For incoming POP3 server I put mail.bnettech.org.

Outlook has no issues validating everything and says all is OK. Test email gets sent to me and that is all I can accept. I can send mail anywhere but I cannot reiceive.

Could this be an ISP issue? Can the ISP also be blocking port 25 incoming and outgoing? Would this be the root to my woes or is it the DNS zone for my public domain? I have smoothwall for my router/firewall and I have forwarded ports [TCP all incoming IPs<> 192.168.0.189<>port 2525 to 25] and also [TCP all incoming IPs<>192.168.0.189<>port 110 to 110].

I don't really know what else to do. Can anyone connect to me and run some testing to verify they can connect to me through port 25 and 2525. Like I said I have port 2525 forwarded to 25 because of the mailhop relay service. Damn my dynamic IP. Oh, and dyndns is updating my IP correctly via smoothwall.

When I try to send mail to my email address [email protected] from the internet (hotmail) I never get a failure of delivery reply. It is like the email gets lost out in cyberspace somewhere.

Any and all advice is much appreciated.
 
I just did a telnet to port 2525 of bnettech.net looks good here is the response from your server:

220 mail.bnettech.net Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.6713 read
at Wed, 28 Jul 2004 08:53:08 -0400

BUT I can not test if I can telnet to port 25 since I am at work and they block it.

edit: dyndns needs to forward ALL port 25 requests to port 2525 for your stuff to work. Yes the ISP can block ALL traffic on 25 and many do to cut down on spammers.

Ok I sshed to my home machine and I get connection refused anytime I try to telnet to port 25. Are you sure you have the dyndns setup correctly?
 
Thanks for the input. I have the straight route to port 25 blocked on smoothwall. Do I need to open that port too along with the forwarding rule of 2525 to 25?

I am now getting emails from the dyndns mailhop relay service to my ISP's email account stating that the email isn't getting to [email protected] becaue there is "No route to host" or "connection refused" and "operation timed out".

EDIT:
I am now getting delivery status notification failures from my hotmail account. So the email are bouncing off of something. I have opened up a straight shot to port 25.

I can send email from my server so I suppose that means outbout port 25 is open on my ISPs side?
 
Private Citizen said:
Thanks for the input. I have the straight route to port 25 blocked on smoothwall. Do I need to open that port too along with the forwarding rule of 2525 to 25?

I am now getting emails from the dyndns mailhop relay service to my ISP's email account stating that the email isn't getting to [email protected] becaue there is "No route to host" or "connection refused" and "operation timed out".

EDIT:
I am now getting delivery status notification failures from my hotmail account. So the email are bouncing off of something. I have opened up a straight shot to port 25.

I can send email from my server so I suppose that means outbout port 25 is open on my ISPs side?

I think your issue is the forwarding rule to port 25. You exchange server is responding on port 2525 so just let that go through.

MailHop Relay should be set to send all mail traffic to your server on port 2525

Oh shit hold on disregard above. You need to allow port 25 on your host through your firewall IF you are doing a redirect on the firewall of 2525->25
 
I am still not getting mail. Not sure what to make out of this. I have tried a few other port combinations but nothing seems to work. Any other suggestions.
 
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