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Postfix rejects mail to any recipient

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  • Domain
  • SMTP
Last response: in Linux/Free BSD
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March 7, 2014 4:54:08 PM

I just set up my postfix SMTP for a new domain but it doesn't allow me to send mail to everyone but to myself.

I'm completely new with Postfix, I asked for help in another thread on how to set it up and ended up using Webmin on my server with all other services disabled.

if it's possible to offer help through a chat to debug my problem, this would be highly appriciated.

Ruben

More about : postfix rejects mail recipient

March 7, 2014 7:25:08 PM

There is a good chance your ISPs blocks outgoing SMTP port in order to fight spam. If you have relatively low volume of emails, you can configure Postfix to use your GMail account for that.
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March 8, 2014 5:02:30 AM

I forgot to mention that this server is a VPS hosted at Digital Ocean and should be configured to send mail for multiple domains from one server.

I have multiple domains hosted on one webhost, but due "kids with DDoS software (booters)", I want to keep my server's IP "hidden".
As for hiding my IP, I'm doing a great job. No one can grab my IP in any way. MyBB "avatar-from-url" function is removed so there is no remote connection to other servers that they might listen to possible. The only vulnerability is my mail. I set up my mail server and mail sent from one domain seems to be accepted, but not from another.

I do not want to use GMail because if I want this for custom domains it'd cost me money (Google Apps).
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March 10, 2014 9:14:29 AM

Cyberuben,

You do realize that any mail leaving your e-mail server will carry your server' IP address, don't you?
As for "DDoS kidies" - raise this problem with your hosting. Then have better tools to fight DDoS than you have from your server.
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March 11, 2014 5:10:26 AM

Alabalcho said:
Cyberuben,

You do realize that any mail leaving your e-mail server will carry your server' IP address, don't you?
As for "DDoS kidies" - raise this problem with your hosting. Then have better tools to fight DDoS than you have from your server.


I have a seperate mail server, and I do understand that THIS IP will be visible, but not my webservers, which is my main concern. I'm not here to fight about hiding my IP, I just need to get my mail server working and that's why I ask for support here. I set up the mail headers not to show the originating IP from either my mail client or my webserver, though, I'm not able to send any outgoing mail from any domain.
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March 11, 2014 5:57:56 AM

If you have set up the mail headers to hide the IP address of your mail server then just about any other mail server will reject your mail. Transmitting SMTP mail requires an element of trust; one part of that trust is that your server tells the remote server who it is and allows that information to be checked by a reverse lookup on the IP address. Certainly the mail servers that I used to manage would have just dropped any mail from a server that hid its IP address without even a notification that this had been done.

The thing is, if you look like a spammer you are likely to get treated as one.
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March 11, 2014 6:03:23 AM

Ijack said:
If you have set up the mail headers to hide the IP address of your mail server then just about any other mail server will reject your mail. Transmitting SMTP mail requires an element of trust; one part of that trust is that your server tells the remote server who it is and allows that information to be checked by a reverse lookup on the IP address. Certainly the mail servers that I used to manage would have just dropped any mail from a server that hid its IP address without even a notification that this had been done.

The thing is, if you look like a spammer you are likely to get treated as one.


I don't want to hide the IP of my mailserver, but from the client or server sending the mail.

And the problem I am having is that the mail does not even leave my server.
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March 11, 2014 6:29:54 AM

Quote:
I don't want to hide the IP of my mailserver, but from the client or server sending the mail
I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean here. The server sending the mail is your mailserver. And the IP address of the client that the mail originates from is also important, being another link in the chain of trust.

Are you trying to hide IP addresses in your mail headers or not? If you are than I predict trouble.
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March 17, 2014 12:35:20 AM

If i would send mail using PHP mail(), the headers would show my webserver's IP. Since I want to try to hide this in any way, I want to set up a seperate mail server. I do not see how it could cause problems to hide the IP of the client who actually sends the mail while the mailserver's IP is sent in the headers. This would be exactly the same as sending a mail using PHP mail() on my mailserver, wouldn't it?

I still have the problem where I can not send any email, and it's starting to cause things to not function as they should. Is there anyone willing to give me 1 on 1 support so I can resolve my problem? I know this is possible as I've been told to use a certain set-up multiple times, I just can't seem to figure it out myself.
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March 17, 2014 2:53:18 AM

I still don't understand why you want to hide the IP address of your web server. Assuming it is a public server then it is in the public domain anyway. Trying to hide an IP address like this on mail headers is suspicious behaviour (it's what spammers do) as far as a mail server is concerned. You may not see why this is the case but I have managed mail servers for a very large company. Believe me, we would have just dropped mail that behaved like this.
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March 17, 2014 3:10:33 AM

Ijack said:
I still don't understand why you want to hide the IP address of your web server. Assuming it is a public server then it is in the public domain anyway. Trying to hide an IP address like this on mail headers is suspicious behaviour (it's what spammers do) as far as a mail server is concerned. You may not see why this is the case but I have managed mail servers for a very large company. Believe me, we would have just dropped mail that behaved like this.


Then once again. I do not see why hiding my webservers IP makes my mail look suspicious as this IP wouldn't appear either if the mail was sent from the mailserver itself using PHP mail().

The reason I want to hide my webservers IP is because I host a few websites for small gaming communities for i.e. Garry's Mod and Minecraft. These servers attract load of little kids with booters that like to take down websites. As I do not feel like spending an enormous amount of money on "DDoS protection" as far as that is a valid name for it, I want to make sure the IP for my webserver is "hidden", hidden behind CloudFlare and all MX records pointing towards a mailserver that handles my mail for me.

So, could you please explain me why it would cause a problem to hide the IP from the client / server that requests the mail to be sent, while the IP from the mailserver is visible in the headers? I have a SPF record set up allowing my mailserver to send mails for the domains hosted on my webserver and configured this properly in the DNS settings for those domains, so why would it matter to hide the IP from my webserver? The sending server still identifies itself with an IP that's allowed to send mail by a SPF record in the DNS for the said domain.


But once again, the problem I have is that my own mail server rejects any mail from being sent, not the hiding of my IP. I need help with being able to sending my mail. Could anyone please help me with that? Once that works I'll see what to do with hiding the IP.
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