Ok I humbly appeal to the cobalt gurus here to help solve a problem. We just picked up our first cobalt server and we are having problems with the mail all being bounce back. Here is the error we get (actual domain replaced with mydomain):

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<support@mydomain.com>
(reason: system config error)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
553 5.3.5 mail.mydomain.com. config error: mail loops back to me (MX problem?)
554 5.3.5 <support@mydomain.com>... Local configuration error

Here is the current DNS configuration:

You are logged in as "mydomain"
mydomain.com has an IP of 216.234.xxx.xxx
mail for mydomain.com is delivered to mydomain.com with a preference of 5
www has an IP of 216.234.xxx.xxx
mail for www is delivered to mydomain.com with a preference of 5
mail for www is delivered to mail.mydomain.com with a preference of 5
Non-matching DNS requests forwarded to 216.234.xxx.xxx

The domain resolves fine but all e-mail gets bounced back. The entries in the /etc/mail/local-host-names file appear to be correct.

The server has been updated with all the latest cobalt security patches with no problems and MySQL 3.22 has been installed using the .nl package with no problems.

I telneted into the server and as the superuser looked at the maillog file. Here is a clip of the errors there:

Mar 4 05:45:02 www imapd[2951]: Logout user=??? host=localhost [127.0.0.1]
Mar 4 05:45:03 www sendmail[2953]: NOQUEUE: localhost [127.0.0.1] did not issue MAIL/EXPN/VRFY/ETRN during connection to MTA

I am not running the DNS on the RAQ4. So anybody out there have any ideas as to the problem? I am working with the tech support department where my server is located but no results yet. Thanks for any help you might have!

Personally, I'd remove all of the 'mail' DNS settings you have.

Hey Chicken,

I actually added those in an attempt to get it to work but still no luck. Not real happy at this point. Oh and I'm also still working on the other problem we talked about without success.

When we suffered a similar problem we fixed it by having the mail for :

mydomain.com
www.mydomain.com
mail.mydomain.com

each of which had an MX record which pointed to to www.mydomain.com as the mail server.


[Edited by madmax on 03-05-2001 at 02:13 PM]

I know this was just suggested in another thread for another problem, but you'd be amazed at how many times this works:

Delete site, re-add it.

If you've ever worked on a Mac, you know the best thing to do to solve problems is reboot it (works for windows too). Seems this method also entends to RaQs. I've had problems with sites and after re-adding them, everything worked fine.

It is a stupid fix, I realize, but deleteing what isn't working and then adding it again (to DNS and/or server), often fixes things that *should* work, but don't for whatever reason.

Thanks Chicken, I too have used that highly sophisticated technique before. I think I may have found the problem. Apparently other folks were able to send e-mails without them bouncing back and as soon as I switched to a hotmail account or another account the mails in fact did arrive. It appears that even though I registered the DNS servers with OpenSRS and sorta with Network Solutions that Network Solutions has not fully added them to the system. I "assumed" that when the domain resolved I was good to go but I'll give it another day or so. Not like I am working on anything else <grin>.