How to solve relaying denied on server autoforward
tgp...@webwitchcraft.com
the dovecot (IMAP and pop3) server, SMTPAuth, TLS together with
squirrelmail as my web mail client and SpamAssassin as my spam filter.
I basically followed Falko's tutorial when setting up the server (with
a couple of exceptions). This stuff all works fine. None of those apps
seem to have any direct bearing on my current issue EXCEPT possibly
SMTPAUTH.
I own this server and am the server admin wih full root access. It's
SUPPOSED (in theory at least) to be my "obedient servant"... EXCEPT
where mail forwarding is concerned.
Here's the problem I'm having...
SMTPAUTH is enabled on the server and it works great. It refuses to
let anyone who SMTP has not authenticated send mail through the server
and that's exactly what it's SUPPOSED to do. However, when I as the
server admin knowingly set up an auto forward ( .forward ) email file
in a specific local user's account designed to forward all incoming
email to their off-server private ISP account, I DON'T expect my own
darn server to flatly refuse to do that with a 550 error. That's not
obedience... that's DEFIANCE!
When I send emails to a local inbox on the server, without forwarding
it arrives just fine. It can be downloaded and read with a mail client
or accessed and read online using squirrelmail (our web mail client).
However, if I instruct that very same inbox to autoforward all mail it
receives to another location on the net using the sendmail/postfix
“.forward” file (i.e. the final target email address is not ON my
server but is the user’s private email inbox at their own ISP), I get
the message I sent bounced back to me with the following error:
geo...@hissite.com
SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO::
host mail.hissite.com [208.18.180.68]:
554 5.7.1 : Relay access denied
This is a VERY common and popular mail-handling scenario for many (if
not MOST) of my hosting clients. They use an email inbox address on
the server where their web site is located with their site name
attached but then they want the incoming mail received in that box to
be forwarded to their inbox at their local ISP. It's a simple and
perfectly legitimate mail forwarding request that I've used
successfully for years.
Yet, now it It appears SMTPAuth is blocking this because it deems it
to be a mail relay. Yet, that’s exactly how auto forward is supposed
to work and it's configured in a root owned and controlled file right
there on my own server for gosh sakes. There are no nefarious tricks
here. This is NOT some insidious spamming or anonymous email trick.
It's just the perfectly legitimate forwarding of the emails from one
or more sites to a single client inbox. Surely there must be some way
around this "relay access denied" issue. This looks to me like a
situation where SMTP has simply gotten a bit overzealous.
Can someone please advise me how to work around this problem? Before I
take the jawbone of an ass and start beating my own server with it?
Thanks!
tgp...@webwitchcraft.com
refuses to forward inbound mail because of what it sees as an
ownership or permissions issue on the .forward file? For instance does
the autoforward file involved possibly need to be owned by a very
specific user or have very explicit permissions set for it?
Does ANYONE out there know?
Cydrome Leader
> server but is the user?s private email inbox at their own ISP), I get
> the message I sent bounced back to me with the following error:
>
> geo...@hissite.com
> SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO::
> host mail.hissite.com [208.18.180.68]:
> 554 5.7.1 : Relay access denied
Talk to whoever runs that machine rejecting the mail, that's the problem
isn't it?
tgp...@webwitchcraft.com
> Talk to whoever runs that machine rejecting the mail, that's the problem
All of this activity is happening on a single machine... It's my own
*new* dedicated web server. It will soon replace my *old* dedicated
web server which presently hosts about 3 dozen sites.
I found and fixed the cause of this problem this afternoon. The
problem I was having arose as a result of an error I made when I
started migrating existing domains to the new server.
After I posted this same question on another site, someone asked:
Can you post your /etc/postfix/main.cf?
When I did that, I looked close at the file again and realized main.cf
contains this line:
mydestination = myhost.com, exx015503, localhost.localdomain,
localhost, onedomain.com, anotherdomain.com, thirddomain.com,
When I looked close at that line, I realized it was not complete. It
lacked the names of the newest domains I had began moving to the new
server over this past weekend. When I realized in the context of the
problem I was having, it dawned on me that the domains where I was
seeing this forwarding problem (and another one which involved inbound
mails not being delivered) were all ones I had moved to the new server
in the last few days. In other words, I had overlooked the need to add
the new domains I was migrating from the old server to postfix's
main.cf file!
So, I did that and then I restarted the server. As soon as the restart
was complete, both the problem with some mail not getting delivered to
the recipient's inbox and the problem with Postfix and SMTPAUTH
refusing to forward emails instantly vanished.
I assume now that since I had neglected to tell postfix about the new
domains, it was refusing to let me forward email from those domaine
either.
But regardless WHAT the deep underlying cause was, the problem seems
to be solved now.
Thanks for the followup question and the suggestion, Cydrome Leader!
Ralf Hildebrandt
> Can someone please advise me how to work around this problem? Before I
> take the jawbone of an ass and start beating my own server with it?
Show "postconf -n" output...
And logs...
--
Ralf Hildebrandt (i.A. des IT-Zentrums) Ralf.Hil...@charite.de
Charite - Universitätsmedizin Berlin Tel. +49 (0)30-450 570-155
Gemeinsame Einrichtung von FU- und HU-Berlin Fax. +49 (0)30-450 570-962
IT-Zentrum Standort CBF I'm looking for a job!
Ralf Hildebrandt
> refuses to forward inbound mail because of what it sees as an
> ownership or permissions issue on the .forward file?
No.