I can send mail out with sendmail from my server but cannot receive it when sending it to myuseraccount@myipaddress.

Is it required to have an MX record setup in a DNS to be able to receive email at my server?

My HTTP server works fine when connecting to http://myipaddress but cannot receive mail and also when trying to send out mail via SMTP I get a cannot connect to port 25 error. Appreciate any help anyone can offer to put it all in perspective for me!

Thanks!
Brian

You only need an MX record in your DNS if you want people to be able to email "myuseraccount@myhostname.com". You do not need an MX record if people are going to email your IP address directly.

Can you connect to port 25 from the local machine?

Can you connect to port 25 from a different machine on the same network?

Can you connect to port 25 from a different machine on a different network (i.e. the Internet)?

I know the answer to the last question - No. I need to know the previous two questions as well, before i can help further.

OUTBOUND:



Here's what I have so far: If I try to send a mail outbound via sendmail it

goes fine to another address (but I cannot receive it on the server if I send it to myself even though it successfully [it seems] went out via sendmail). If I send to another of my addresses at my commerical ISP it gets delivered OK so it appears sendmail itself is working fine. Also some perl scripts that I am testing that invoke sendmail work fine so I think everything is OK with sendmail.



However if I try to send outbound via SMTP we have a different story. I get a "cannot connect to port 25 error-connection refused" and nothing gets to go out the door. Also regardless of source I cannot receive incoming mail.


I don't know if I know how to connect to


I have tried using brian@[IPADDRESS] and also have established a free domain name to point to my IPADDRESS and set the POP and SMTP server settings in the email client up trying it both ways to see if for some reason I was getting hung with a problem caused by the use of the IPADDRESS rather than a domain name, but this does not change anything. The port 25 connect error appears either way.



I am behind a router and I have the NAT set to open both ports 110 and 25 to the PC I am running the mail server on by the way. 80 is also open and no problems with connectivity from the outside for HTTP or FTP on port 21 either.



I have to believe I have some major configuration problem! By the way, brian is established as a user on the system and the password is correct. On the pop connect when the system asks for the user name and password it authenticates OK...if I use a bad password on purpose it alerts me and then when I use the correct password it connects but I don't get any mail in.

I almost thought it was a firewall problem but I've turned them all off. Boy this one is a tough one!

Configuration files? Conflicts with a collision with a previous installation of Postfix?

Appreciate the time spent helping!

Brian