re[2]: [SLE] [Resolved] SUSE 9.1 postfix won't talk to my ISP

7 Jun 2004

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All,
I have found with my ISP that I have to have the postfix relay host set
 to
[mail.atl.bellsouth.net]
Using
mail.atl.bellsouth.net
results in rejected e-mail.
I have no idea why this is true.  The fix was provided on my local LUG
Quoting Greg Freemyer :
 list.
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Maybe this will help out someone else.
PS: if this is a generic issue, maybe yast2 could be modified to add the
[] chars automatically.  Or maybe it does and I tried to set things
 manually.  I've forgotten.
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Greg
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RTFM, especially for something as complex as an MTA.
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[mail.atl.bellsouth.net] says to use this address as is, without doing
 a lookup for the MX (Mail eXchanger) record.  This is usually what you
 want for an outgoing smart relay host.  But not always.
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mail.atl.bellsouth.net without the brackets indicates lookup the MX
 for this address and use it instead.  This is usually what you want
 for sending or relaying mail to somewhere.
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Either RTFM or set your e-mail client to go directly to your ISP's
 SMTP and POP/IMAP servers, bypassing Postfix.  O'Reilly has an
 excellent book out entitled "Postfix".  SAMS also has one out, not as
 good.  IIRC, No Starch Press has one now out or out shortly.
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The Postfix docs alone are not really adequate.
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Jeffrey
Based on the above, I think it is the Yast2 project that needs to improve itself, not my RTFM skills.

I'm using this as a simple desktop machine behind a NAT firewall.  As part of my config, I ran the yast2 MTA setup which asked me what outgoing mail server to use.  I put in the name of my ISPs smtp server.

Why should I even think about buying a book on postfix to figure out how to answer such a common question.

FYI: yes, I am going to provide this as feedback to suse.  (assuming they still have a feedback web-page.)

Greg