On Sat, 7 Jun 1997, Ken Nakata wrote:

> On Sat, 07 Jun 1997 15:15:31 CDT,
> Rick Hawkins <rhawkins@iastate.edu> wrote:
> > 
> > I think so.  I can send mail within the machine, and to the outside with
> > no problem.  It's a fulltime connection, though the machine is running
> > macos some of the time.
> 
> Do you get any error mail bounced back at you?  If so, what does it
> say?
> 
> As for sending mail within the machine, that can be done without local
> sendmail process involved.  Likewise when you are sending to the
> outside.  So, being able to send mail within or to outside doesn't
> mean your sendmail is working properly.
> 
> I'd guess that the most common problem would be sendmail not running
> on your host.  If that's the case, the scenario is like this:
> 
> 1) Your MTA outside will look for MX record for your host.
> 2) It fails (because it doesn't have a MX), so MTA then tries to
> connect to your host itself.
> 3) If sendmail is not running on your host, attempt to open a SMTP
> connection will fail, so the mail will be bounced.

Actually, I _think_ it will look for an MX record for the next-level-up
domain in step 1.5  :)  Only if no MX is found will it then try to use 
the host directly.  (I could be wrong on this...)

> Do you think it's what's happening?

One easy way to find out if sendmail is running is to telnet to to your 
local machine's port 25.  If sendmail (or something else) is listening,
you'll get its welcome message.

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