sendmail & Verizon

[Michael E. Maher]

On Mon, 2013-03-04 at 23:11 -0500, Kevin J. Cummings wrote:
> Sorry, just re-subscripbed after a long absence.  Not sure if my
> original went through, so I'm resending.  Sorry if it is a duplicate, I
> wouldn't have seen any of the early responses....
> 
> Once upon a time, I was using a standard, out of the box, sendmail
> configuration to send email directly from my computer to any other on
> the internet.  Nice.
> 
> Then, while RCN was my ISP, RCN decided that home users couldn't send
> email (something about stopping SPAM) directly to the internat, and all
> email had to be forwarded through RCN's email servers.  Fine, I added:
> 
> > define(`SMART_HOST',`relay:[smtp.rcn.com]')dnl
> 
> to my sendmail.mc file.
> 
> Then, later, I switched to Verizon from RCN.  I not only had to change
> the SMART_HOST line to:
> 
> > define(`SMART_HOST',`relay:[outgoing.verizon.net]')dnl
> > define(`RELAY_MAILER',`smtps')dnl
> > define(`RELAY_MAILER_ARGS', `TCP $h 587')dnl
> 
> but I also had to set up /etc/mail/authinfo and add support for it to
> sendmail.mc:
> 
> > FEATURE(`authinfo', `hash -o /etc/mail/authinfo.db')dnl
> 
> and my /etc/mail/authinfo file looks like:
> 
> > AuthInfo:outgoing.verizon.net "I:userId" "P:password" "M:PLAIN"
> 
> And everything works fine.
> 
> NOW:  Verizon wants to:
> 
> 	1) change the outgoing server name to smtp.verizon.net
> 	2) change the port from 587 (MSA) to 465 (SMTPS), and
> 	3) require SSL for communication.
> 
> Sure, I can change my iPhone settings, and each Thunderbird instance in
> the house (and it works), but I want to keep the home network using *my*
> sendmail server for email, and have *IT* forward to Verizon.  (Besides,
> I have a few scripts that want to send a few housekeeping emails without
> invoking Thunderbird.)  I tried the obvious changes, but I think I'm
> missing something:
> 
> > define(`SMART_HOST',`relay:[smtp.verizon.net]')dnl
> > define(`RELAY_MAILER',`smtps')dnl
> > define(`RELAY_MAILER_ARGS', `TCP $h 465')dnl
> 
> > AuthInfo:smtp.verizon.net "I:userId" "P:password" "M:PLAIN"
> 
> This configuration results in "Communication Timed Out with
> smtp.verizon.net" or "read error from smtp.verizon.net", and mail justs
> sits in my local mqueue waiting to be delivered.
> 
> Can some sendmail guru please point out what I've missed?
> 
> Please keep the "switch to another MTA" to yourself.  I've been using
> sendmail at home since 1996!
> 
> THANKS!

Hi Kevin,

Just to get you started can we confirm connectivity to the server:
  # host smtp.verizon.net
  # ping smtp.verizon.net

Then see if you can open a session using telnet on all the ports and run
the SMTP hello message:
  # telnet smtp.verizon.net 25
    ehlo hostname    
  # telnet smtp.verizon.net 465
    ehlo hostname 
  # telnet smtp.verizon.net 587
    ehlo hostname 

With these we should be able to judge connectivity and available options
on the ports.


Thanks,
Michael