sendmail queue growing, host name lookup fails

[Eliot Stock]

Paul Howarth wrote:

>On Sun, 2004-11-14 at 13:47 +0000, Paul Howarth wrote:
>  
>
>>On Sun, 2004-11-14 at 13:04 +0000, Eliot Stock wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>I just moved from FC2 to FC3 and I think I have my mail sendmail config
>>>
>>>just as it was for FC2. Sendmail receives mail for local delivery just 
>>>fine, but outgoing mail does not send.
>>>
>>>I use my ISPs SMTP server as a smart host. In sendmail.mc:
>>>
>>>
>>>define(`SMART_HOST',`relay.plus.net')
>>>
>>>
>>>'mailq' shows a bunch of mail not being sent due to host name lookup 
>>>failures:
>>>
>>>
>>>iACC9XnN003813*    6874 Fri Nov 12 12:14 MAILER-DAEMON
>>>                (Deferred: Name server: relay.plus.net: host name 
>>>lookup fail)
>>>                                        <accounts at realcontacts.com>
>>>iACB9XVo003702     8287 Fri Nov 12 11:12 MAILER-DAEMON
>>>                (Deferred: Name server: relay.plus.net: host name 
>>>lookup fail)
>>>      
>>>
>
>It might also be worth trying:
>
>define(`SMART_HOST',`relay:[relay.plus.net]')
>
>Paul.
>  
>
It works! Thanks so much.

why does it work though? what does the relay:[] thing do?

Eliot Stock.