Receiving mail issues

[beckophonic]

Just installed Zimbra Open Source Edition on Debian Etch. Everything is working *except* receiving mail.

For testing purposes, I'm using hostname.domain as email stem. I'm just using the machine name and LAN domain name, instead of a publicly pingable domain name.

I am able to send messages from my zimbra accounts to email addresses both inside and outside my firewall, but I cannot recieve messages in any of my zimbra accounts.

I get the error message:
Jun 12 12:39:14 hostname postfix/smtp[15823]: CD559D4992: to=, relay=none, delay=0.07, delays=0.03/0.04/0.01/0, dsn=5.4.6, status=bounced (mail for hostname.domain.lan loops back to myself)

I've seen other posts in this forum about this issue and they all refer to making postfix config changes, but I read in the manual that the postfix config files shouldn't be directly edited, because the admin console writes to them.

What should the MTA settings for my server be? This seems to be the setting that is responsible. I've tried hostname.domain.lan in the "Web mail MTA Hostname:" field, I've also tried 127.0.0.1 (which gives a different error):
Jun 12 11:52:28 hostname postfix/local[27852]: D8617D498A: to=, relay=local, delay=0.17, delays=0.02/0.11/0/0.03, dsn=5.1.1, status=bounced (unknown user: "user").



Any ideas? TIA

[phoenix]

If you're behind a NAT router then you'll need a Split DNS setup, have you done that? You'll also need a correct /etc/hosts file, check the Quick Start Installation Guide for the format.

[beckophonic]

Thanks for the quick reply, Bill.

I tried the Split DNS instructions you linked to, but there were no instructions for Debian, only Ubuntu. I thought they might work, since Ubuntu is Debian based, but some of the files the instructions refers to do not exist. Are there Debian specific instructions somewhere?

Thanks.

Christopher

[phoenix]

There aren't any specific Debian instructions and I'm afraid I don't use it so I don't know where the files would be located.

I've just found this how-to, it should point you n the right direction: How-To: Setting up a DNS zone with Bind9 | Debian/Ubuntu Tips & Tricks

When you've done that post the output of the following commands:

cat /etc/hosts
cat /etc/resolv.conf
dig yourdomain.com mx
dig yourdomain.com any
host `hostname`  <-- type that command exactly (don't put your hostname in it) and use backticks not single quotes

The output will confirm if your settings are correct.

[beckophonic]

Before I go ahead with this, let me make sure I understand what the problem is.

Split DNS is only required because hostname.domain.lan is behind a firewall. If this domain name was exposed to the outside world, split DNS is not required.

If so, maybe I should just set up a test domain that IS available to the outside world, because I won't need split DNS on the production server.

Do I understand the issue correctly?

Thanks for your time, Bill