I'm getting this error while trying to send/receive mail from outlook. I can't seem to fix this. I think something is wrong with the sendmail setting on my server. Any ideas?

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The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

'kevinfeng43@aol.com' on 11/12/2001 10:59 PM
550 5.7.1 <kevdaman@aol.com>... Relaying denied

Have you looked at this page on the Sendmail site?

http://www.sendmail.org/tips/relaying.html

Dan

Originally posted by TheRealDeal
I'm getting this error while trying to send/receive mail from outlook. I can't seem to fix this. I think something is wrong with the sendmail setting on my server. Any ideas?

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The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

'kevinfeng43@aol.com' on 11/12/2001 10:59 PM
550 5.7.1 <kevdaman@aol.com>... Relaying denied


You should try to use the SMTP server of your ISP.

I followed the instructions listed and it still don't work. :(

Ok it worked.

I added following to the /etc/mail/relay-domains
------------------------------------------------------------------------
file: relay-domains
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.com
.net
.org

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But when I list my own domains, it won't work and I get a relay denied error. Weird

I still don't understand why it worked.

:confused: I guess I have to go with this setting for now. Is there any kind of security risk? Any comments? Thanks

Ummmm, yes. Now I am NOT a server geek as much as some of the other people here, but if I'm not mistaken that sets up an open relay for any.com/net/org domain and this is something you don't want to do (for fairly obvious reasons).

Something like POP Auth would be a better idea.

Edit: You aren't sending mail from your domain, though it seems like you are. It is coming from your ISP, so if you listed your ISP domain, then it should work, although I wouldn't do this either.

Personally, I don't know why anyone is still using sendmail. In my opinion, it's way too hard to configure and it's got too many security holes to even bother. I personally recommend qmail (www.qmail.org). It's free, simple to set up, and has some nice stuff for POP-authenticated relay. And it's secure, nobody has been able to break it.

Originally posted by Chicken
Ummmm, yes. Now I am NOT a server geek as much as some of the other people here, but if I'm not mistaken that sets up an open relay for any.com/net/org domain and this is something you don't want to do (for fairly obvious reasons).

Something like POP Auth would be a better idea.

Edit: You aren't sending mail from your domain, though it seems like you are. It is coming from your ISP, so if you listed your ISP domain, then it should work, although I wouldn't do this either.

Your right, adding your ISP does work. Hmm... You wouldn't prefer this? How come?

Got any ideas on setting up POP Auth? Thank for you help.

Originally posted by ShellBounder
Personally, I don't know why anyone is still using sendmail. In my opinion, it's way too hard to configure and it's got too many security holes to even bother. I personally recommend qmail (www.qmail.org). It's free, simple to set up, and has some nice stuff for POP-authenticated relay. And it's secure, nobody has been able to break it.

Could install qmail along with sendmail? Will this cause a conflict between each other?

Far as I know, you can have both if you'd like (though I'd get a second opinion from the gang here) and the reason you shouldn't do this is because (we'll use you as an example), if you enter aol.com then anyone of the sixty gazillion AOL'ers out there would be able to relay mail through the server which isn't what you'd want.

Originally posted by Chicken
Far as I know, you can have both if you'd like (though I'd get a second opinion from the gang here) and the reason you shouldn't do this is because (we'll use you as an example), if you enter aol.com then anyone of the sixty gazillion AOL'ers out there would be able to relay mail through the server which isn't what you'd want.

Ok Got it. What if: All the domains are for myself. No clients accounts. Will my server become a target for spammers?

Originally posted by TheRealDeal


Could install qmail along with sendmail? Will this cause a conflict between each other?

qmail actually takes the place of sendmail, and it even has its own sendmail-clone binary for programs that require it. While I don't have any specifics on how to set it up, I've got a server with this system on it (qmail was installed by someone else) and haven't had anyone attempt to hack into it.

Originally posted by TheRealDeal


Ok Got it. What if: All the domains are for myself. No clients accounts. Will my server become a target for spammers?

Security by obscurity is not a good thing. I've got a little SMTP relay for myself on my personal Windows 98 (soon to be XP) machine behind a NAT router and a software firewall. Still, because my computer is an open channel to the Internet (I've got it in DMZ mode for myself), I use SMTP authentication in an attempt to keep spammers out. So far, nobody has even tried, and I'd like to keep it that way.

You need to set up some sort of POP authentication system, like the gotta-log-in-before-relay idea. Many software clients, especially web-based e-mail ones, don't like authenticated SMTP, so I'd stay away from it unless you know what you're doing.