# Sending external mail in 8.2



## mpassmore (Aug 22, 2011)

Up until now, a simple install of FreeBSD included a working sendmail that could send and receive external messages. 
I've just installed 8.2 but cannot send mail to the outside world, and cannot telnet into it on port 25. Is there some new default restriction that I need to change?


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## SirDice (Aug 22, 2011)

Not sure about sending stuff out but by default sendmail only listens on 127.0.0.1.


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## mpassmore (Aug 22, 2011)

I can send mail to a local user by using 'mail charlie' but if I mail to an external email address 'mail charlie@someplace.com' I can enter the message just the same but nothing gets sent.
I can ping external domains ok, so DNS is working. I'm stuck here, and I'm sure it is something I haven't done or have misunderstood, so help/guidance will be much appreciated.


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## SirDice (Aug 22, 2011)

It's possible the receiving domain blocks the email transfer when it can't recognize the sender's domain.


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## mpassmore (Aug 22, 2011)

Sorted - although DNS lookups resolve via the gateway's internal ip address when pinging, fetching ports etc, sendmail seems to need the true external IP of the DNS server.
When I changed the DNS server from 192.168.1.2 to my ISP's DNS server IP address, mail began being sent.
The answer was in /var/log/maillog all the time....
Thanks for the help.


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