E-mail providers issue

Try sending some test e-mails while monitoring your mail server's log files. (They should be under /var/log, with some obvious-looking name such as mail.err for error logs.) If any suspicious entries appear at the time you send your test e-mails, you can Google them, post them here, etc.

Also, some e-mail service providers just refuse e-mails from random servers. Unfortunately there's very little you can do about it in that case, other than switching to an external e-mail sending service (such as Amazon SES) that the recipient trusts.

Hello!

I am back.

I could find nothing in var/log , but I got something in exim4 dir. -

"15:37:37 1RfHIe-0002Jl-K8 ** ….@ukr.net R=dnslookup T=remote_smtp: SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:.....@ukr.net: host mxs.ukr.net [195.214.192.100]: 550 Sender verify failed"

What could it mean and how to fight that?

PS What about external e-mail sending service I am now using Google apps, but as I was told, it anyway needs internal (on-serrver) mail, so the only way to do it is through the problem above.

Help me pls, as I am going th give up soon:(

@shopz:

550 Sender verify failed
ukr.net is probably applying very strict sender verification rules. You may have to change a few things about your mail server setup in order to get past their spam filters.

1. Whose address is in the "From" field of your outgoing messages? If it's your own Hotmail/Gmail/etc. address, the recipient might reject it because your Linode is not authorized to send e-mail on behalf of Hotmail/Gmail/etc. addresses. Try using an address at your own domain. Also make sure that you have an SPF record at your domain, explicitly permitting your Linode to send e-mail on behalf of it.

2. What does exim think its hostname is? This needs to be a fully qualified domain name (preferably a subdomain of your own domain) that actually points to your Linode's IP address.

3. Do you have a proper Reverse DNS entry for your Linode's IP address? (The default members.linode.com entry is fine.)

Note that it can take a few hours to a couple of days before DNS changes take effect.

Thanks for Your advices, but I got lost now:)

1- I have my domain adress in "from", its ok.

But what about SPF record - I cannot find whereit is.

2 - Also OK, fully qualified domain name is there.

3 - As well I have no idea where is it.

All I could find there was

"NS Records

ns1.linode.com

ns2.linode.com

ns3.linode.com"

You can add SPF to your domain by going to the DNS manager and adding a TXT record. (An SPF record is a kind of TXT record.)

If the website is hosted on the same Linode, something like "v=spf1 a mx ~all" (without the quotes) should do. See here for more info.

As for reverse DNS, it's in the Network tab of your Linode Manager. It should be valid if you didn't touch it.

You might also want to check online forums in your own country (Ukraine?) to see if other people are having difficulty sending e-mail to ukr.net. They might be particularly strict about e-mails sent from small websites outside of the country.

Hi!

I used Your advice about SPF (I added it without name, right?), but nothing changed(

As to my provider (I mean ukr.net), it occures to have such problems often. And not only they. Few more mail providers in UA/RU have such restrictions that prevent lots of sites from sending mails to that providers.

Is thereany way tosolve that problem, or I should give up trying now?

Try sending a mail to me at rtucker@hoopycat.com … I'll take a look at the headers and my mail server logs to see if there's anything bad going on in there.

Hello, hoopycat!

I have just registred an account with Your e-mail on my site. So You should get message now.

Can You check what is wrong with it?

PS - I s that possible that problem will be solved after I change my VPS to other one?

Thanks for Your help!

Ah-ha:

Jan  3 10:06:20 framboise postfix/smtpd[13602]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from redacted.members.linode.com[redacted]: 450 4.1.8 <www-data@redacted.example.com>: Sender address rejected: Domain not found; from= <www-data@redacted.example.com>to= <rtucker@hoopycat.com>proto=ESMTP helo=<redacted.example.com></redacted.example.com></rtucker@hoopycat.com></www-data@redacted.example.com></www-data@redacted.example.com>

It looks like your system hostname is redacted.example.com, but that doesn't resolve in the DNS. Try adding an A record for redacted and see if that makes it happy…

Hoopycat, You rock!!!!!

I added proper A - name in DNS and it just started to send mails.

That is amazing!!!!

Many thanks for You, hoopycat, I could be in difficult situation still if not You!

Woot! I did get the e-mail.

Not every mail server checks for that condition, so it's simply luck that mine does… I'm not sure if it catches much spam, but it does catch this problem! :-)