Problems sending messages with sendmail

F

Fabrizio

Registered
Hello here.

I'm trying to send messages to remote hosts through sendmail on MacOS X 10.2.2 but I'm unable to have success.

Here is an example of output when I try to send a message to the remote host "virtualsheetmusic.com" I also own:

------------------------------------------
fabrizio% sendmail -v test@virtualsheetmusic.com
test
.
test@virtualsheetmusic.com... Connecting to virtualsheetmusic.com. via esmtp...
220 www.virtualsheetmusic.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.10.2/8.10.2; Sat, 7 Dec 2002 03:17:55 -0800
>>> EHLO computer-di-fabrizio-ferrari.local
250-secure37.schmolie.com Hello adsl-191-85.38-151.net24.it [151.38.85.191], pleased to meet you
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-8BITMIME
250-SIZE 10485760
250-DSN
250-ONEX
250-ETRN
250-XUSR
250-AUTH PLAIN
250 HELP
>>> MAIL From:<fabrizio@computer-di-fabrizio-ferrari.local> SIZE=5
501 5.1.8 <fabrizio@computer-di-fabrizio-ferrari.local>... Domain of sender address fabrizio@computer-di-fabrizio-ferrari.local does not exist
fabrizio... forward: /Users/fabrizio/.forward.computer-di-fabrizio-ferrari+: Group writable directory
fabrizio... forward: /Users/fabrizio/.forward+: Group writable directory
fabrizio... forward: /Users/fabrizio/.forward.computer-di-fabrizio-ferrari: Group writable directory
fabrizio... forward: /Users/fabrizio/.forward: Group writable directory
/Users/fabrizio/dead.letter... Saved message in /Users/fabrizio/dead.letter
Closing connection to virtualsheetmusic.com.
>>> QUIT
221 2.0.0 secure37.schmolie.com closing connection
------------------------------------------


Any idea to fix this issue is really appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely

Fabrizio.
 
Whats happening is the remote server is setup to reject any mail that comes from a host that does not properly resolve in DNS. You're telling the remote server that your hostname is 'computer-di-fabrizio-ferrari.local', so that server does a DNS lookup to check to make sure that it is a valid and live domain, which fails as it is not. This is a feature enabled by default in sendmail now adays as it blocks alot of spam, as alot of spammers do not use valid hostnames.

There are one of four ways to fix this, you probably won't like any of them:

Option 1: Have the sendmail server on the remote side remove the check for reverse lookups. (this is the easiest to maintain)

Option 2: Add 'computer-di-fabrizio-ferrari.local' to the hosts list in /etc/hosts on the remote computer pointing to the IP address it's currently using. The problem with this is you have to keep the hosts file on the remote site updated if your IP changes.

Option 3: Change your computer name and domain to match what your ISP gives you which is 'adsl-191-85.38-151.net24.it'

Option 4: modify sendmail.cf so that the Dj variable is set to the name your ISP gives you, which is once again 'adsl-191-85.38-151.net24.it'

Brian
 
Thank you very much Brian for your kind reply.

I think that the best solution for me would be the number 4, but (sorry my unknowledge) I don't know how to change the Dj variable that looks as the following line:

#Dj$w.Foo.COM


Thank you for any help.

Sincerely

Fabrizio
 
You want the Dj variable to read:
Djadsl-191-85.38-151.net24.it

Once this is set, assuming the hostname is still valid for you, not sure how long you keep your IP on your DSL, I'm assuming it's fairly consitant, you should be able to send mail without a problem.

Brian
 
Sorry Brian to bother you again, can you tell me if (and how) is possible to change the username in the sendmail.cf or anywhere else from my "fabrizio" to "anotherone" without to change my name in the login configuration of MacOS X?

In other words, if I send a message the recipient will read "fabrizio@adsl-191-85.38-151.net24.it" as sender. Well, I'd like to be able to change the sender name to "anotherone@adsl-191-85.38-151.net24.it".

Thank you for any advice.

Sincerely

Fabrizio.
 
The easiest way to do this is in your mail client, not sure what you're using to send the mail, but have it set the from and return-address parts of the mail header. Also, you can setup a virtual user table, but that gets a big complicated. You can read about that at www.sendmail.org. There are some good links there for FAQ's and some How To's, it's a bit much to go into here on setting it up.

Brian
 
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