Zimbra SMTP settings for Internal Mail

[nikhilthecool]

Hi,

First of all, I wanna say is, I installed Zimbra and man.. its jus rocks.. I was really amazed looking at the whole app.

Well now, all I'm trying to achieve is, setup zimbra as a mail server for sending mails internally, i.e. within an internal network. Everything works jus perfect. I can send mails from one id to other id within and across mail domains. But, my network has a few applications like discussion boards (phpBB) where I want to use my Zimbra Mail Server for sending email alerts, etc. So inside phpBB, I provide the SMTP details: Server IP address, emailid, password I think thats all I need. But I am not able to send mails. phpBB doesnt send it.

So later on, I tried to send mails using some smtp mail sender programs. I was still not able to send mails from them. Then again I drilled down to test the smtp mailsend using telnet.

I logged in into the linux machine where I have installed Zimbra and I used

telnet localhost 25
...
...etc..
etc..

I was able to send mails using telnet on localhost. But when I tried the same command from my another linux machine,

telnet <IP address> 25

it refuses the connection.

I am using RHEL 5, No firewall, SELinux Disabled. Can somebody figure out what is the problem?? Is there any setting I need to configure in the admin panel to allow/disallow SMTP or something?

[jholder]

Take a look at the /var/log/zimbra.log and see if the phpbb is logging in to send.

Thanks! We like to hear that. Great stuff to come!

[nikhilthecool]

Well it doesnt log in. Like I said, the mail server simply refuses the requests from other IP addresses expect from localhost. I tried sending mails with phpBB, Mambo, etc. they don't login, the mail server jus refuses their requests.

Not even telnet worked from other machine. Ne clue??

[jholder]

iptables?

Also, do you have your hosts file/dns set up correctly? IT will only bind to the address/interface that hosts/dns resolves to.

[nikhilthecool]

iptables is off.
Seriously even I have a feeling that the mail server is binding itself to only localhost. What do I do to undo this behaviour?

Well as far as DNS is concerned, I dont have DNS setup. I've set this all up in a small internal network and I refer machines using only IP addresses, no hostnames (although I've assigned hostnames to all machines)

Abt the hosts, do u mean, I have to make an entry of each of my internal machines in the /etc/hosts of the zimbra machine?

I also have a doubt abt the initial installation steps.. Zimbra CS asks me to have a couple of entries (A and MX) in the DNS server. I'm doubt if thats required when I'm setting it up internally, I dont want to send mails to the outside network. So is there a way I can skip this step? Or is it the root cause of the whole issue that I cant send mails thru phpBB, Mambo??

As of now, I gave my zimbra server a static IP and I have provided it with the primary, sec DNS the one my ISP gave me.

[jholder]

Originally Posted by nikhilthecool

iptables is off.
Seriously even I have a feeling that the mail server is binding itself to only localhost. What do I do to undo this behaviour?

By default, zimbra binds to all interfaces via the hosts file. . .so yes, localhost will be in there along with your interfaces

If you don't have DNS, then you must use localhost only.

Originally Posted by nikhilthecool

i
Well as far as DNS is concerned, I dont have DNS setup. I've set this all up in a small internal network and I refer machines using only IP addresses, no hostnames (although I've assigned hostnames to all machines)

Abt the hosts, do u mean, I have to make an entry of each of my internal machines in the /etc/hosts of the zimbra machine?

Yes. Otherwise, how are you going to bind to other interfaces?

[jholder]

CLARIFICATION:
Sorry, misread your post. You don't need an entry for your OTHER machines, but you need one for your interfaces.

For example, if zmlocalconfig reveals your hostname is mail.domain.com then you host file is gonna be

10.0.3.3     mail.domain.com mail

Obviously 10.0.3.3 is the interface you want Zimbra to bind to.

[nikhilthecool]

Great. Thanks. I'm gonna try that soon when I resume work after the weekend. I'll come back on this monday surely. Thanks so much so far..!!

[nikhilthecool]

Hey,

I did a fresh install on Fedora Core 4, turned off firewall, selinux and iptables. Provided DNS as localhost (zimbra server hostname).
Added the entry of Mambo server in zimbra server's /etc/hosts
Went to the admin panel and unchecked the "Enable DNS lookup" checkbox.
Thats it.. Mambo started sending mails at the speed of a rocket..!!
Thanks for your inputs @jholder.

[komeng2008]

Hi,
i am new to this zimbra thing..i ve done all the installation process (on rhel5), with no problem

i created new 2 users, admin and my own account in zimbra admin UI.
but the problem is when i send email from admin to me, and the otherway

admin and me never have the emails in our inbox
i checked tools>mail queue> my mails are there, but never go to my inbox

any idea what;s going on?
thank you very much, been trying to google it up but still cudnt find any good info