+Alan Hicks+ wrote:
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> On 2007-10-09, H.K. Kingston-Smith <HKK-S@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> I seem to have sorted it out but, unfortunately, I am not sure
>>how :-( I monkeyed a bit with sendmail.cnf and after restarting sendmail
>>the diagnostic line above becomes:
>
>
> That's the absolute worst feeling in the world: "It works now, but I
> have no idea why." It's almost as if this was an Exchange server!

"Monkeying" with the configs instead of systematic working _can_
contiribute to such a feeling. :-)

The second log line in the original posting showed that sendmail
tried to use the "relay" mailer te deliver the message. For local
delivery the "local" mailer should have been used. This indicates
that sendmail didn't recongnize it's own name as a local distination.
A second issue was that sendmail could not reach its ounw IP
address.

Mode details were not supplied and even these few details
(host name an IP number) were obfuscated.
A little more details about configuration and network environment
would have been helpfull to diagnos the problem.
Of course there should be a logical explaination. Sendmail is not
Exchange after all!

I'll make a wild guess. That might make the "absolute worst feeling
in the world" a little better.
Combineing the "not recognised own name" and the "unreachable
own IP number" I start directly thinking about a local
network using a private IP range and located behind a
masquerading/NAT-ing firewall. The host name and IP number are
the official/external name and number. At startup sendmail
tries to determine its name, and the name(s) of its network
interface(s) via the resolver library (reverse dns lookups,
/etc/hosts file). Of course a reverse lookup of a local
(masqueraded) IP number will not resolve to the external
host name. The unreachable external IP number could have
been a firewall issue.
Specifying the host name as a local detination would solve
both problems. The easy way to do this is putting the
name in /etc/mail/local-host-names. The hard way is putting
it in sendmail.mc and generating a new sendmail.cf.
Of course this won't change the firewall rules but sendmail
doesn't need to contact the external IP number anymore
once the name is recognized as a local destination.

As I said it's a wild guess, but it's the best I can do with
as little information as the OP supplied. I'm curious if it
makes any sense.


Regards,

Kees.

--
Kees Theunissen.