Hello, I''ve been running the Debian exim4 package on a co-located host for (a small number of) family and friends for several months now, and generally have experienced no problems. Except, I have become aware that not all mail sent to us is being received by us. For example, the host name is aldavies.net and my mail name is alastair, but when I attempted to subscribe to this list using this address, I did not receive the confirmation email. (That is why I am using my Yahoo account.) There is a similar problem with receiving mail from openBC.com, and from Ryanair.com. (In other words, it is mail from some web sites that I am not receiving; mail from friends is OK. It is also consistent, in that no mail from these sites is ever received, no matter how often I try.) I haven''t tinkered with the default Debian settings beyond entering my details in the configuration wizard. I have a couple of questions, that I''d be very grateful for the benefit of your experiences in answering. When I am searching for a known missing message, where should I look? Are the log files in /var/log/exim4/ the place to start? AFAICT, there is no trace of these message in there. Is this (likely to be) happening because of the strictness of the default ACLs? Is there an advisable loosening that is commonly performed? Many thanks. Any other suggestions or comments gratefully received. Alastair -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-exim4-users/attachments/20060529/d073be92/attachment.htm
On 2006-05-29 Alastair Davies <alastair_davies@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: [mail not received]> For example, the host name is aldavies.net and my mail name is alastair, > but when I attempted to subscribe to this list using this address, I did > not receive the confirmation email.[...]> When I am searching for a known missing message, where should I look? > Are the log files in /var/log/exim4/ the place to start? AFAICT, there > is no trace of these message in there.Yes, /var/log/exim4/ is indeed the place to start, you should try to find out whether mail was not sent to you or whether you did not accept it. Search for haydn.debian.org or 192.25.206.28.> Is this (likely to be) happening because of the strictness of the > default ACLs? Is there an advisable loosening that is commonly performed?The default ACLs are not very strict, by default. I have *added* some tests and still get to read this mailinglist without problems. cu andreas -- The ''Galactic Cleaning'' policy undertaken by Emperor Zhark is a personal vision of the emperor''s, and its inclusion in this work does not constitute tacit approval by the author or the publisher for any such projects, howsoever undertaken. (c) Jasper Ffforde
On Mon, May 29, 2006 at 05:29:16PM +0100, Alastair Davies wrote:> Hello, > > I''ve been running the Debian exim4 package on a co-located host for (a > small number of) family and friends for several months now, and > generally have experienced no problems. Except, I have become aware > that not all mail sent to us is being received by us.If your domain or IP is on one or more blacklists, that might explain the problem. Though I''ve usually run into that more as an issue where mail *from* blacklisted hosts is not received. At any rate, the problem isn''t necessarily at your end of the wire. Andreas indicated how to track that down. Ross Boylan
Hi Alastair, If you want to check the logs that would be a good place to start. I have no idea if you can reach the logs on your co-located machine, very often logs require you to be root so if you can''t become root it will be a little tough to read the logs. My logs are stored here /var/log/exim4/mainlog, /var/log/exim4/paniclog, and /var/log/exim4/rejectlog. I recommend reading the mainlog first, look for the term "frozen" which is used to freeze a message that has some issues with delivery. You can look in the rejectlog as well of course, paniclog too, though I doubt there will be that much interesting stuff there. There are other tools, locations, commands to use, but start with the logs and post anything you want clarification of. There are some knowledgeable users on the list though the jargon can fly fast and thick as well. Good luck, Jeremiah On Mon, 2006-05-29 at 17:29 +0100, Alastair Davies wrote:> I''ve been running the Debian exim4 package on a co-located host for (a > small number of) family and friends for several months now, and > generally have experienced no problems. Except, I have become aware > that not all mail sent to us is being received by us. > > For example, the host name is aldavies.net and my mail name is > alastair, but when I attempted to subscribe to this list using this > address, I did not receive the confirmation email. (That is why I am > using my Yahoo account.) There is a similar problem with receiving > mail from openBC.com, and from Ryanair.com. (In other words, it is > mail from some web sites that I am not receiving; mail from friends is > OK. It is also consistent, in that no mail from these sites is ever > received, no matter how often I try.) I haven''t tinkered with the > default Debian settings beyond entering my details in the > configuration wizard. > > I have a couple of questions, that I''d be very grateful for the > benefit of your experiences in answering. > > When I am searching for a known missing message, where should I look? > Are the log files in /var/log/exim4/ the place to start? AFAICT, > there is no trace of these message in there. > > Is this (likely to be) happening because of the strictness of the > default ACLs? Is there an advisable loosening that is commonly > performed? > > Many thanks. Any other suggestions or comments gratefully received. > Alastair > > _______________________________________________ > Pkg-exim4-users mailing list > Pkg-exim4-users@lists.alioth.debian.org > http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-exim4-users
Jeremiah Foster, Ross Boylan and andreas all wrote:> <much helpful advice for finding logs> >The culprit was something else entirely, which I only discovered when my first reply to the list was rejected with the message: <pkg-exim4-users@lists.alioth.debian.org>: 192.25.206.28 does not like recipient. Remote host said: 550-Verification failed for <alastair@aldavies.net> 550-It appears that the DNS operator for aldavies.net 550-has installed an invalid MX record with an IP address 550-instead of a domain name on the right hand side. 550 Unable to verify sender Giving up on 192.25.206.28. That''s the first time I''ve had a message that I''ve sent returned to me, but I guess this error is much more likely to affect mail that is sent to me, isn''t it? So I changed the IP address to "aldavies.net" (is that right?) and at least one of my problem mailers is now sending me mail OK. This would be consistent with there being no trace in my logs of the missing messages, wouldn''t it? In other words, my exim4 was never involved, since the remote mailer would never even have gotten so far as to contact it. Thanks for the friendly advice, Al (And thanks to whoever set up the mailer with such a clear and helpful rejection message!) ___________________________________________________________ All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
On 2006-05-30 Alastair Davies <alastair_davies@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:> Jeremiah Foster, Ross Boylan and andreas all wrote: > ><much helpful advice for finding logs>> The culprit was something else entirely, which I only discovered when my > first reply to the list was rejected with the message:> <pkg-exim4-users@lists.alioth.debian.org>: > 192.25.206.28 does not like recipient. > Remote host said: 550-Verification failed for <alastair@aldavies.net> > 550-It appears that the DNS operator for aldavies.net > 550-has installed an invalid MX record with an IP address > 550-instead of a domain name on the right hand side. > 550 Unable to verify sender > Giving up on 192.25.206.28.> That''s the first time I''ve had a message that I''ve sent returned to me, > but I guess this error is much more likely to affect mail that is sent > to me, isn''t it?Yes, but. ;-) Mail hosts often test whether the envelope *sender* is a deliverable address, to be sure that they would be able to send the mail back (bounce) if they would not be able to deliver it to the designated recipient.> So I changed the IP address to "aldavies.net" (is that > right?) and at least one of my problem mailers is now sending me mail OK.Looks ok, and http://dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=aldavies.net is happy with it. ;-)> This would be consistent with there being no trace in my logs of the > missing messages, wouldn''t it? In other words, my exim4 was never > involved, since the remote mailer would never even have gotten so far as > to contact it.[...] Correct. cu andreas -- The ''Galactic Cleaning'' policy undertaken by Emperor Zhark is a personal vision of the emperor''s, and its inclusion in this work does not constitute tacit approval by the author or the publisher for any such projects, howsoever undertaken. (c) Jasper Ffforde