natxo asenjo wrote:
Firstly, after following the instructions meticulously, I found that I could not send out mail because (according to /var/log/maillog) the From address was tim@localhost.localdomain , and this was rejected by the recipient host or rather his ISP.
tim@localhost.localdomain MAIL FROM domain does not exist (in reply to MAIL FROM command)
I cured this by adding tim tim@gayleard.eu to /etc/hosts . I don't know if this is the best way to go about it?
That is a very odd hosts file entry :-).
Sorry, that was a curious typo from my notes. It should have read:
the From address was tim@localhost.localdomain , and this was rejected by the recipient host or rather his ISP. ------------------------------- tim@localhost.localdomain MAIL FROM domain does not exist (in reply to MAIL FROM command) -------------------------------
So in order to find out what postfix thinks $myhostname is in its default settings, try this:
# postconf -d | grep myhostname
I'm afraid I can't at the moment, as I have lost connection to the remote server (in Italy), probably due to a power outage, fairly common there at this time of year.
But I was asked in /etc/postfix/main.cf for $myhostname, and set it to my fqdn. What is the point of asking for this if it is not used?
I'm sure it is also set in /etc/hosts , but as I said I can't check that at the moment.
If you set a fqdn in myhostname, then you will not have that problem.
If you mean myhostname in /etc/postfix/main.cf then as I just said it is set to the fqdn. Also I should point out that sendmail has been working perfectly there, without any such messages in /var/log/maillog .
Trying to run an MTA on a dial-up host is an exercise in futility. You may agree of disagree whether this is fair, but it is a fact.
It may be a fact, but it is a totally irrelevant one in this context, since I am not "running an MTA on a dial-up host". I have a perfectly standard broadband connection (admittedly a little flaky in Italy).
If you want to have a test postfix server with an acceptable IP address, get yourself a vm on any cloud provider. Then you will not be blocked unless you start spamming :-) . Those vm's are very affordable (from 5$/month on).
This suggestion, like others along the same lines, seems more or less crazy to me. Why on earth should I want to get a VM on a cloud provider? I have perfectly good internal and external IP addresses (the latter thanks to dyndns).
As I have said, I have postfix/amavis working perfectly now. But it was much more time-consuming than it should have been, due in my opinion to very bad documentation, or possibly lack of documentation for someone setting up a home network.