Mail Service Suddenly Stopped Working

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Level 1

11 points

Mail Service Suddenly Stopped Working

Mail server on Mac Mini 10.6 server stopped receiving and sending mail. I get the following message bounced back when I sent an email to one of my accounts:

Message-id: <1F830AAB-26F4-4569-9F9F-1164C7781130@mac.com>

Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:00:21 -0700

From: "Me" <xxxxxxxx@mac.com>

To: Me <alan@mydomain.com>

Subject: test 4/25 9:00pm

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

Recipient address: alan@mydomain.com

Reason: Remote SMTP server has rejected address

Diagnostic code: smtp;554 5.7.1 <alan@mydomain.com>: Relay access denied

Remote system: dns;mydomain.com (TCP|17.172.204.240|63215|xxx.xx.xxx.xx|25) (server.mydomain ESMTP Postfix)

Original-envelope-id: 0M3200MT5J443O00@st11p01mm-asmtp005.mac.com

Reporting-MTA: dns;st11p01mm-asmtp005.mac.com (tcp-daemon)

Arrival-date: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:00:04 +0000 (GMT)

Original-recipient: rfc822;alan@mydomain.com

Final-recipient: rfc822;alan@mydomain.com

Action: failed

Status: 5.7.1 (Remote SMTP server has rejected address)

Remote-MTA: dns;mydomain.com

(TCP|17.172.204.240|63215|xxx.xx.xxx.xx|25)

(server.mydomain ESMTP Postfix)

Diagnostic-code: smtp;554 5.7.1 <alan@mydomain.com>: Relay access denied

I have read quite a few posts about similar issues but none of them have helped. My DNS, Mail, and Web Services all appear to be configured properly in Server Admin. Any thoughts or ideas how to fix this mess?

Thanks

Mac mini Server (Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Apr 25, 2012 9:23 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

MrHoffman

Community+ 2024

Level 10

116,139 points

Apr 26, 2012 5:10 AM in response to Alan Rowe1

This is an attempt to relay, which means that either the server doesn't have the proper name for itself (if it is the target), or it isn't configured to host the other (target) domain.

First line of investigation here is always an invalid DNS configuration.

That the MX record, the server host name and the reverse DNS do not match. This involves testing the DNS with dig or related commands; not looking at the Server Admin displays. dig MX example.com for your public DNS domain gets the mail server host, then dig mail.example.net gets the mail server IP address, then dig -x your.mail.server.ip.address should return mail.example.net (forward and reverse match) and the mail server would (for this example) be set to mail.example.net host name. I'm here intentionally using example.com for your domain name and mail.example.net for your mail server name; those two don't have to match. And within Server Admin.app, your mail server would be mail.example.net, or could be set to virtually host that domain if you have another NAT'd domain around.

And given you've obfuscated sufficiently completely, I can't check your public DNS settings.

Second line of investigation is a look at the mail server logs around the time of the error. Or at the unexpurgated mail headers, and comparing those against the mail server domain name, and any virtual domains hosted by that mail server.

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Answer 2

Alan Rowe1 Author

Level 1

11 points

Apr 26, 2012 10:07 AM in response to MrHoffman

Thanks for your help, MrHoffman. I have narrowed down a problem (though I don't know if it is THE problem.) In checking my DNS settings, I ran the -checkhostname command in terminal. It gave me the following response:

Primary address = 108.66.223.18

Current HostName = server.b-hiveindustries.com

DNS HostName = 108-66-223-18.uvs.irvnca.sbcglobal.net

It gave me instructions on how to change it so that both names match but I ended up with both names being the sbcglobal.net name and NOT my server name. I changed it back to the above configuration before deciding to ask for more help.

Any thoughts on if this could be my problem or how to fix it?

I also realized that everything in the email response is public knowledge so here is the complete un-obfuscated email response.

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

Recipient address: alan@b-hiveindustries.com

Reason: Remote SMTP server has rejected address

Diagnostic code: smtp;554 5.7.1 <alan@b-hiveindustries.com>: Relay access denied

Remote system: dns;b-hiveindustries.com (TCP|17.172.204.238|34601|108.66.223.18|25) (server.b-hiveindustries.com ESMTP Postfix)

Original-envelope-id: 0M3300KZOIBN9100@st11p01mm-asmtp003.mac.com

Reporting-MTA: dns;st11p01mm-asmtp003.mac.com (tcp-daemon)

Arrival-date: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:40:35 +0000 (GMT)

Original-recipient: rfc822;alan@b-hiveindustries.com

Final-recipient: rfc822;alan@b-hiveindustries.com

Action: failed

Status: 5.7.1 (Remote SMTP server has rejected address)

Remote-MTA: dns;b-hiveindustries.com

(TCP|17.172.204.238|34601|108.66.223.18|25)

(server.b-hiveindustries.com ESMTP Postfix)

Diagnostic-code: smtp;554 5.7.1 <alan@b-hiveindustries.com>: Relay access denied

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Answer 3

Alan Rowe1 Author

Level 1

11 points

Apr 26, 2012 3:45 PM in response to Alan Rowe1

The problem was a wrong IP address in my DNS settings. Once that was corrected the DNS Hostname checked out and after rebuilding my Open Directory, everything seems to be working. Thank you MrHoffman.

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