can't receive email

Sounds like you don't have your hostname set, so it doesn't know the proper name to call itself. Try using the hostname command to set the hostname and see if POP3 identities itself when you telnet to the port.

As for not receiving mail.. are you getting mail OK in your /var/spool/mail folder? Check your /var/log files, such as messages, security, and maillog to see if there is any log reports from the pop daemon.

Check your reverse DNS configuration in the Linode.com Members area. There's an entry for reverse DNS, which you should update with hostnames that are valid reverse entries for your ip address(es).

Various servers use DNS for name resolution, reverting to a nameserver lookup if they can't determine their name via hostname or /etc/hosts. Also, make sure any hostname-related options in the pop3d config files(s) are set properly.

Just as an additional note, a lot of email functionality depends on having reverse DNS entries properly configured. Some mail servers and filtering software will reject mail based on a bad name lookup.

Hey thanks!

it looks like i had to configure the mailserver to accept emails originating from outside the local host. i'm getting there slowly.