[ILUG] Can I run my own mail-server?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Timothy Murphy (tim at birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie):

> I have a domain, gayleard.com [...]

> According to nslookup...

You might want to give "dig" a try.[1]  Anyway, nothing wrong with your
DNS setup, assuming 86.43.71.228 is your bitty box:

$ dig -t mx gayleard.com +short
10 mail.gayleard.com.
$ dig -t a mail.gayleard.com +short
86.43.71.228

> As far as I can see, email sent to tim at gayleard.com (or
> tim at mail.gayleard.com) from outside my system disappears without
> trace.

So, set up your MTA on the IP 86.43.71.228 box so that it responds to
port 25 on the outward-facing interface (and not just to connections
from localhost).  That's likely your problem.

If memory serves, you favour some Scarlet Chapeau-type thing.  The
ruddy hatters started limiting the default MTA configuration to
localhost only, some years back (RH 7.1 and later).  Changing that
default is thus a FAQ: http://www.linuxselfhelp.com/quick/sendmail.html

When you've succeeded, doing this from a shell prompt at a second
machine (from anywhere but the MTA host itself) will get you an MTA
greeting banner, rather than just stony silence:

$ telnet 86.43.71.228 25

ObTroll:  A man once had the problem of needing to establish SMTP
service, and said to himself "I know!  I'll just use sendmail."  
Now, he had _two_ problems.

[1] http://www.wanshop.com/tech-corner/the_isc_bind_dig_tool.php
http://safari.oreilly.com/0596100574/dns5-CHP-12

-- 
Cheers, "Your program just attempted an illegal instruction.  No worries, mate."
Rick Moen                         -- Australian error messages, #14 in a series
rick at linuxmafia.com