5:09 p.m.
Hello Everyone
For quite a while I have been running a mail server (sendmail) on a Fedora 8
system with no apparent problems.
Now I have a new system (Fedora 11) and I access my email from that system
using an IMAP account set up in KMail.
Unfortuantely, I have been seeing a RADICAL decrease in mail that I receive
from (at least) this list. We are talking that in the same time that I
received right around 70 messages from this list on my Gmail account I only
received 5 in my afolkey2.net (that is my domain name) subscription to this
list.
Here are all the details that I can think of that may be relevant:
1. My internet provider is Comcast. Other than this issue (which may be
unrelated to being on Comcast) my service from them is excellent.
2. I have "define(`SMART_HOST',`smtp.comcast.net.')" set as my smart
host in
"/etc/mail/sendmail.mc"
3. The cable from Comcast connects to a Linksys cable modem and the Fedora 8
and Fedora 11 systems that are on this network are connected to a Linksys
router that is connected to the modem.
4. Also, I know for a fact that I do NOT have a static IP address. This has
not as of yet caused any know problems (though this issue may be the first...)
So, any help you can give me in figuring this out is greatly appreciated.
Thank You,
Steven P. Ulrick
5:05 a.m.
Steven P. Ulrick wrote:
> Steven P. Ulrick wrote:
>
>> removed: I removed "smtp.comcast.net" from being a smarthost. Ran the
>>
>>
> ...
>
>> not, because a LONG time ago I had to define "smtp.comcast.net" as
>>
smarthost,
>> or I could not even send email from my afolkey2.net account. For now,
>>
anyway,
>> the problem I initially brought to this list is resolved :) So, we'll
>>
see...
>>
>>
> Remember that a lot of places run automatic spam filters which have
> blacklisted all residential adsl/cablemodem user ip's by default. So it
> would be advisable to route your outgoing emails trough comcasts email
> server.
>
That is probably why I had initially configured "smtp.comcast.net" (and before
that the appropriate Insight server) as smarthost. So it strikes me as odd
that this would be the case:
With "smtp.comcast.net" as smarthost:
1. Not receiving all the the mail from this (and possibly other) mailing
lists.
2. Able to successfully send email.
WITHOUT "smtp.comcast.net" as smarthost:
1. I am now receiving all of the mail from this (and possibly other) lists.
2. I am also still able to send email to at least this list.
Should this work? I don't know. I just know that it does, and that the
removal of "smtp.comcast.net" as my smarthost seems to have resulted in me
receiving all of the email from my lists.
So, if I receive a copy of this message/see it in the fedora-list archives, it
will be the second message I've sent with no smarthost... On a residential
modem...
Steven P. Ulrick
It's not all places using the filter. As for how smarthost affects
sendmail I can't say (using postfix) but I think it shouldn't affect the
incoming mail. More plausible reason for incoming mail now working is
that you restarted the sendmail when changing the configuration and that
made it work. But if I were you I would follow it for a while to see how
the things go and keep track if you get bounce messages for the e-mails
you send.
In any case upgrade your server to more recent fedora 10-11 or if you
don't feel upgrading the server once a year I would recommend changing
to CentOS. In any case running old Fedora open to internet is just
invitation to get hacked.
-vpk
4:27 a.m.
Steven P. Ulrick wrote:
>
> removed: I removed "smtp.comcast.net" from being a smarthost. Ran the
>
...
> not, because a LONG time ago I had to define "smtp.comcast.net" as
smarthost,
> or I could not even send email from my afolkey2.net account.
For now,
anyway,
> the problem I initially brought to this list is resolved :) So,
we'll
see...
>
>
Remember that a lot of places run automatic spam filters which have
blacklisted all residential adsl/cablemodem user ip's by default. So it
would be advisable to route your outgoing emails trough comcasts email
server.
That is probably why I had initially configured "smtp.comcast.net" (and before
that the appropriate Insight server) as smarthost. So it strikes me as odd
that this would be the case:
With "smtp.comcast.net" as smarthost:
1. Not receiving all the the mail from this (and possibly other) mailing
lists.
2. Able to successfully send email.
WITHOUT "smtp.comcast.net" as smarthost:
1. I am now receiving all of the mail from this (and possibly other) lists.
2. I am also still able to send email to at least this list.
Should this work? I don't know. I just know that it does, and that the
removal of "smtp.comcast.net" as my smarthost seems to have resulted in me
receiving all of the email from my lists.
So, if I receive a copy of this message/see it in the fedora-list archives, it
will be the second message I've sent with no smarthost... On a residential
modem...
Steven P. Ulrick
4:17 a.m.
Steven P. Ulrick wrote:
removed: I removed "smtp.comcast.net" from being a smarthost. Ran the
...
not, because a LONG time ago I had to define
"smtp.comcast.net" as smarthost,
or I could not even send email from my afolkey2.net account. For now, anyway,
the problem I initially brought to this list is resolved :) So, we'll see...
Remember that a lot of places run automatic spam filters which have
blacklisted all residential adsl/cablemodem user ip's by default. So it
would be advisable to route your outgoing emails trough comcasts email
server.
-vpk
2:52 a.m.
On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 17:39:59 -0500,
Linus Ulrick <meow8282(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Slightly off of the thoughts stated above, but I have a free DNS
account with dnsexit.com. So in rare situations where my IP address
does change I just change my IP address at dnsexit.com and everything
is back to normal.
Just remember the DNS records have TTLs associated for them and it may
take a while (on the order of a day) for cached records to expire.
Even for planned changes where you can lower the TTLs, some ISPs don't
honor the TTLs and will cache them for on the order of a day anyway.
--
Hi,
Is there perhpas a misconfigured mx-entry in your dns-entry?
Also, check /var/log/maillog, if you find mails you haven't potentialle received.
Perhaps, mails are still in mailq?
Or, do you have a spamfilter that does to much work? ;)
Roger
6:04 p.m.
On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 17:39:59 -0500,
Linus Ulrick <meow8282(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Slightly off of the thoughts stated above, but I have a free DNS
account with dnsexit.com. So in rare situations where my IP address
does change I just change my IP address at dnsexit.com and everything
is back to normal.
Just remember the DNS records have TTLs associated for them and it may
take a while (on the order of a day) for cached records to expire.
Even for planned changes where you can lower the TTLs, some ISPs don't
honor the TTLs and will cache them for on the order of a day anyway.
5:39 p.m.
On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 5:22 PM, Frank Cox<theatre(a)sasktel.net> wrote:
On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:09:03 -0500
Steven P. Ulrick wrote:
> 4. Also, I know for a fact that I do NOT have a static IP address. This has
> not as of yet caused any know problems (though this issue may be the first...)
The purpose of a domain name is to associate the name with an IP address.
Understood.
If you don't have a static IP address, then your IP address will
change at
intervals.
Also understood, with one qualification: understanding that Comcast
has no obligation to not change my IP address, the fact is that they
HAVEN'T changed it for quite a long time. Again, that does not mean
that they won't change it while I'm typing this email, it's just to
say that they HAVEN'T changed it for a very long time.
If your IP address changes then your domain name will be pointing to
an
incorrect IP address and any email sent to your domain name will not arrive at
your mailserver.
Again understood. But that has not been the case with my
situation,
since in fact my IP has not changed. So if I can assume that if my IP
address doesn't change that my mail will be delivered to me
successfully, then that would account for the fact that up until VERY
recently this admittedly fragile setup has been working like a charm.
No guarantees that it would continue to work of course, just stating
that it HAS worked for a very long time.
Slightly off of the thoughts stated above, but I have a free DNS
account with dnsexit.com. So in rare situations where my IP address
does change I just change my IP address at dnsexit.com and everything
is back to normal.
Anyway, if you have any more thoughts based on my above reply, I would
love to hear them.
Thank You,
Steven P. Ulrick
5:22 p.m.
On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:09:03 -0500
Steven P. Ulrick wrote:
4. Also, I know for a fact that I do NOT have a static IP address.
This has
not as of yet caused any know problems (though this issue may be the first...)
The purpose of a domain name is to associate the name with an IP address.
If you don't have a static IP address, then your IP address will change at
intervals.
If your IP address changes then your domain name will be pointing to an
incorrect IP address and any email sent to your domain name will not arrive at
your mailserver.
--
MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com
4:06 a.m.
On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 17:39:59 -0500,
Linus Ulrick <meow8282(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Slightly off of the thoughts stated above, but I have a free DNS
> account with dnsexit.com. So in rare situations where my IP address
> does change I just change my IP address at dnsexit.com and everything
> is back to normal.
Just remember the DNS records have TTLs associated for them and it may
take a while (on the order of a day) for cached records to expire.
Even for planned changes where you can lower the TTLs, some ISPs don't
honor the TTLs and will cache them for on the order of a day anyway.
--
Hi,
Is there perhpas a misconfigured mx-entry in your dns-entry?
Also, check /var/log/maillog, if you find mails you haven't potentialle
received.
Perhaps, mails are still in mailq?
Or, do you have a spamfilter that does to much work? ;)
Roger
Hello Roger
OK. Now this situation is kind of strange. After I sent my initial message
on this subject to the list, I tried something that should NOT have worked: I
removed: I removed "smtp.comcast.net" from being a smarthost. Ran the
required "make" command in the "/etc/mail" directory. Restarted
"sendmail"
The result is, that after running all night, KMail shows 29 messages from this
list in BOTH my gmail.com and my afolkey2.net accounts! Now after I attempt
to send this message, I will really find out if this will work perfectly or
not, because a LONG time ago I had to define "smtp.comcast.net" as smarthost,
or I could not even send email from my afolkey2.net account. For now, anyway,
the problem I initially brought to this list is resolved :) So, we'll see...
Thank You,
Steven P. Ulrick
5413
days inactive
5421
days old
9 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
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Bruno Wolff III -
Frank Cox -
Kevin Kofler -
Roger Grosswiler -
Steven P. Ulrick -
Steven P. Ulrick -
Veli-Pekka Kestilä