Help, Mail server, mail gets blocked

[Alex Stan]

Hello,

I've been trying for 3 months to set up a mail server. I'm really desperate for this since i need this functionality for a couple of my sites that i host.

The server is at my home, with a few ports forwarded.

I recently followed the how to forge tutorial on a clean Ubuntu 7.10. I choose Postfix as my mail transfer agent, since Wikipedia claimed it was more bug free. As far I saw every daemon was working, except i couldn't send stuff. Every mail i tried to send to gmail(i used that primarily) was receiving a connection error.

I think it's one of 2 problems:
1. My ISP is blocking port 25, but i don't see why, since i disabled the firewall from my modem already. Good idea for that would be to switch ISPs.
2. My mail gets treated like spam. I have no idea what to do then.

Since my mail server didn't work i used google apps for your domain for a few email addresses. So i wonder if gmail could be used as a gateway for all my mail. In that case i need to know how to set PHP(the mail function) do that.

I don't know much about this area(mail transfer) but i usually learn fast. Thank you for all your help.

[jledhead]

what are you using as your mta, sendmail, postfix, exim,.....?

also what the the logs say for your above mta?

[Alex Stan]

Sorry, i forgot to include that. I'm using Postfix. It says in the tutorial though.

[jledhead]

from a command prompt, do (unless your log is differernt)
#tail -f /var/log/mail.info

then try to send an email and see what postfix says. copy and paste that part from the postfix log here.

[Alex Stan]

Hello

I'm sorry i didn't reply faster. I was busy studying for a few exams.

I get tons of these:

Jan 23 12:38:07 server postfix/smtp[32605]: connect to gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[64.233.167.27]: Connection timed out (port 25)

I searched some more how to forge and i found a guide on how to set postfix to relay the mail to another server. So i could use that as a basis for the gmail relay thing. It also says there that most dynamic ip's are blacklisted by the mail servers(i do have a dynamic ip)
Set Up Postfix For Relaying Emails Through Another Mailserver | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials

So there's nothing more i could do for that.
I need to fix my other problems now, like for some reason i can't connect to the smtp and the imap servers with a client, the only way i could send mail was with a command in a ssh session. I'm using Thunderbird and i'm getting connection timed out.

PS: if i do manage to make the relay work i would like to first clean the mail queue so my users don't get like 20 mails at once. How do i do that?

[Alex Stan]

Sigh... This i very annoying

For the gateway, I used a combination of these 2 guides:
Set Up Postfix For Relaying Emails Through Another Mailserver | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials
» Postfix Gmail SMTP Relay

my main.cf:

# See /usr/share/postfix/main.cf.dist for a commented, more complete version

# Debian specific:  Specifying a file name will cause the first
# line of that file to be used as the name.  The Debian default
# is /etc/mailname.
#myorigin = /etc/mailname

smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu)
biff = no

# appending .domain is the MUA's job.
append_dot_mydomain = no

# Uncomment the next line to generate "delayed mail" warnings
#delay_warning_time = 4h

#auth
smtp_sasl_auth_enable=yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587

# TLS parameters
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/smtpd.cert
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/smtpd.key
smtpd_use_tls = yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${queue_directory}/smtpd_scache
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${queue_directory}/smtp_scache
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtp_sasl_tls_security_options = noanonymous
smtp_tks_note_starttls_offer = yes
tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom
smtp_tls_scert_verifydepth = 5
#smtp_tls_key_file=/etc/postfix/smtp.key
#smtp_tls_cert_file=/etc/postfix/smtp.pem
smtpd_tls_ask_ccert = yes
smtpd_tls_req_ccert =no
smtp_tls_enforce_peername = no


# See /usr/share/doc/postfix/TLS_README.gz in the postfix-doc package for
# information on enabling SSL in the smtp client.

myhostname = server.hypertriangle.com
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
myorigin = /etc/mailname
mydestination = server.hypertriangle.com, localhost, localhost.localdomain
relayhost = 
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8
mailbox_size_limit = 0
recipient_delimiter = +
inet_interfaces = all
virtual_alias_domains = 
virtual_alias_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_forwardings.cf, mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_email2email.cf
virtual_mailbox_domains = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_domains.cf
virtual_mailbox_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailboxes.cf
virtual_mailbox_base = /home/vmail
virtual_uid_maps = static:5000
virtual_gid_maps = static:5000
broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_unauth_destination
transport_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_transports.cf
virtual_create_maildirsize = yes
virtual_mailbox_extended = yes
virtual_mailbox_limit_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailbox_limit_maps.cf
virtual_mailbox_limit_override = yes
virtual_maildir_limit_message = "The user you are trying to reach is over quota."
virtual_overquota_bounce = yes
proxy_read_maps = $local_recipient_maps $mydestination $virtual_alias_maps $virtual_alias_domains $virtual_mailbox_maps $virtual_mailbox_domains $relay_recipient_maps $relay_domains $canonical_maps $sender_canonical_maps $recipient_canonical_maps $relocated_maps $transport_maps $mynetworks $virtual_mailbox_limit_maps
content_filter = amavis:[127.0.0.1]:10024
receive_override_options = no_address_mappings

sasl_passwd (i'm using google apps for your domain, that's why there's hypertriangle instead of gmail(i tested that account)):

 gmail-smtp.l.google.com user@hypertriangle.com:password
smtp.gmail.com user@hypertriangle.com:password

But the mail is not using the gateway and it's not going through normally either(from tail):

Jan 23 13:26:34 server postfix/cleanup[1237]: 2CFA1918C3A: message-id=<20080123182634.2CFA1918C3A@server.hypertriangle.com>
Jan 23 13:26:34 server postfix/qmgr[1229]: 2CFA1918C3A: from=<root@server.hypertriangle.com>, size=312, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Jan 23 13:26:35 server postfix/smtpd[1244]: connect from localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]
Jan 23 13:26:35 server postfix/smtpd[1244]: C85E6918C39: client=localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]
Jan 23 13:26:35 server postfix/cleanup[1237]: C85E6918C39: message-id=<20080123182634.2CFA1918C3A@server.hypertriangle.com>
Jan 23 13:26:35 server postfix/qmgr[1229]: C85E6918C39: from=<root@server.hypertriangle.com>, size=797, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Jan 23 13:26:35 server amavis[18388]: (18388-03) Passed CLEAN, <root@server.hypertriangle.com> -> <mynormalemailaddress>, Message-ID: <20080123182634.2CFA1918C3A@server.hypertriangle.com>, mail_id: ElIJCDhVHGpc, Hits: 2.48, queued_as: C85E6918C39, 1675 ms
Jan 23 13:26:35 server postfix/smtp[1240]: 2CFA1918C3A: to=<mynormalemailaddress>, relay=127.0.0.1[127.0.0.1]:10024, delay=5, delays=3.3/0.01/0.01/1.7, dsn=2.6.0, status=sent (250 2.6.0 Ok, id=18388-03, from MTA([127.0.0.1]:10025): 250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as C85E6918C39)
Jan 23 13:26:35 server postfix/qmgr[1229]: 2CFA1918C3A: removed
Jan 23 13:26:35 server postfix/smtpd[1244]: disconnect from localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]
Jan 23 13:27:05 server postfix/smtp[1246]: connect to gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[64.233.167.114]: Connection timed out (port 25)
Jan 23 13:27:35 server postfix/smtp[1246]: connect to gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[64.233.167.27]: Connection timed out (port 25)