Can't connect to mail server

[sullo]

I'm unable to send mail (IMAP) through the server... this happened about a week ago I guess, but I'm not sure exactly when. All I get is connection refused from Thunderbird.

The maillog is empty for some reason.

I've stopped the firewall so I know that's not. I cannot connect to port 25 (qmail) remotely (only from localhost), but can connect to IMPA (courier, 143) remotely.

I'm not sure how to troubleshoot from here... where to look in logs... etc. Help is appreciated.

 

[breun]

IMAP is not a protocol for sending e-mail, you use SMTP for sending e-mail. If you try to connect to your SMTP server on port 25, but cannot connect, then that's the problem. I know a lot of ISP's only allow port 25 outbound to their own SMTP servers these days to combat spam. If this is the case with your ISP then you have two options:

- Tick Server > Mail > Enable message submission and configure your mail client to use port 587 for SMTP
- Use your ISP's SMTP server to send e-mail

 

[dvashishtha]

If you are using hostname in your mail client then please make sure that it is pointing to correct IP address.
Try to do telnet test if your ISP is blocking 25 port.
Also please post error/bounce message if you are getting any.

Hope it helps

 

[sullo]

Thanks for the replies. I am unable to connect to work's mail server on port 25 either, so I'm thinking it's Comcast being a pain the a$$. I *am* able to connect via port 587 to my mail server (and send mail), so I'm relatively confident it's the ISP.

Thanks folks... I was looking everywhere on the server but not even thinking about the ISP.

As an aside, can anyone tell me why /var/log/maillog is empty, and how I can turn logging on? I've had some spam issues lately (which may be backscatter) so I'd like to have that log handy.

Thanks again.

 

[breun]

I don't know what OS you're running but with Plesk on RHEL/CentOS/Fedora it's /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog.

 

[sullo]

I don't know what OS you're running but with Plesk on RHEL/CentOS/Fedora it's /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog.

CentOS, and that log is fully of goodies. Thanks breun, and everyone else!