javax.mail.MessagingException: Could not connect to SMTP

Hi,

I've got a linode running with apache tomcat/catalina serving web pages on its own. The tomcat web application works well, but I can't configure it to send emails. I think it's because I am using the wrong mail host name, since tomcat gives the following exceptions:

javax.mail.MessagingException: Could not connect to SMTP host: localhost, port: 25;
  nested exception is:
    java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused
    at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.openServer(SMTPTransport.java:1972)
    at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.protocolConnect(SMTPTransport.java:642)
    at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:295)
    at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:176)
    at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:125)
    at javax.mail.Transport.send0(Transport.java:194)
    at javax.mail.Transport.send(Transport.java:124)
    at core.AnswerResponseServlet.processRequest(AnswerResponseServlet.java:61)
    at core.AnswerResponseServlet.doPost(AnswerResponseServlet.java:213)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:641)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:225)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:168)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:98)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:927)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1001)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:585)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:312)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.doConnect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:339)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:200)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:182)
    at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:391)
    at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:579)
    at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:528)
    at com.sun.mail.util.SocketFetcher.createSocket(SocketFetcher.java:319)
    at com.sun.mail.util.SocketFetcher.getSocket(SocketFetcher.java:233)
    at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.openServer(SMTPTransport.java:1938)
    ... 26 more

My context.xml file's Context tag contains the following:

In the example here (http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc … l_Sessions">http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/jndi-resources-howto.html#JavaMail_Sessions) they use "localhost" which is what i did too. I've also tried "mail.localhost", and since my computer's name is "plato", I've tried "plato" and "mail.plato". But all give me the same exception.

I read this javax.mail-related thread but I think it's an unrelated problem : http://forum.linode.com/viewtopic.php?p=26863

Any tips would be appreciated. I'm pretty sure that I'm just messing up the name of my mail server, so rather than localhost it's something else but I don't know what.

Thanks a lot,

Keith