I added to my sendmail.mc
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=80,Addr=0.0.0.0, Name=MTA')dnl
ran make -C /etc/mail
then stopped and restarted sendmail. I verified that locally I could connect on port 80 and get the usual sendmail connection. I then went to another terminal session connected via VPN to one of my servers at work, connected to my own server on port 80 and got what I expected - a sendmail prompt. I did the normal trickery of mail from: xxx@xxxxxxx, rcpt to: homer, data etc.
then disconnected.
I checked my local account, and the message is there as I expected. So the problem is obviously not with sendmail, it has to be the linksys, the cable modem or the ISP. The linksys config is really easy and almost impossible to set up port forwarding incorrectly. I'm not aware of any way to configure the cable modem. The only problem I am aware of is that the firmware on my linksys is rather old (1.42.3, Jan 28 2002) and the latest firmware doesn't want to install on it. This may be a problem. At least now I have a definite direction (or 3 directions!) to go in.
Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions, I will let you know the solution when I find it.
From: "Robert Boucneau" <rboucneau@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Reply-To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx> To: "For users of Fedora Core releases" <fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx> Subject: RE: Fedora core 1 sendmail problems Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 17:49:01 -0700
Hi Homer,
I'm jumping in late here, but I have read all the preceding messages...it looks to me as though Alexander, et. al. have all the sendmail issues covered. If sendmail works inside and you have your gateway properly configured (which it appears you think you do) then this should not be a sendmail issue.
To completely rule out sendmail, I'd suggest setting up a telent server to listen on port 25 (after turning off sendmail) and seeing if you can log in for the outside. If you *can* it's sendmail's configuration. If not, it's either your OS *or* your network. (Personally, I'd skip this step and go right to the networking suggestions below...but this is a valid first step...)
Put another machine on your email server's IP address and try to connect to it. That will either show the problem to be internal or external to your machine. (I'm guessing external.)
If it's internal to your machine (i.e. you can log onto a different
machine's port 25 from the outside if it is on your server's IP address),
you can troubleshoot the networking components of your system (the Netfilter
(iptables) guys have some pretty clean ways to watch packets transit your
system, if you want to troubleshoot) or reinstall the OS (I'd scrub and
install, myself, but that's just an opinion.)
If it is external to your machine (my guess), then it is either your
firewall/router, your cable-modem, or the ISP's router. I'd guess it's
your firewall/router or your cable modem (the cable modem is actually a sort
of router, not a modem, and it has Network Address Translation, too. so it
could be dropping reply packets silently...)
To test this, I'd put a machine on the "outside" of your Linksys router/firewall and see if it can connect (i.e. eliminate the cable modem) or I'd remove the firewall/router and see if things work with just the cable-modem.
My guess is that in one of those configurations you'll be able to connect from the outside. Whichever device is not connected is the culprit. I'd guess it is the cable modem and you'll have to reconfigure NAT on it...
I hope this helps.
All the best,
Bob
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