Sendmail and DNS

[Ionut Grigorescu_2]

Hi all,

I couldn't find the answer to my problem by searching this topic. I have a HP-UX11.i machine and sendmail. The box is a MMS server (multimedia messaging). Whenever it sends a mail the machine performs a DNS query, even if the target is listed in /etc/hosts and /etc/nsswitch is correctly configured - i.e. hosts : files [NOTFOUND=continue UNAVAIL=continue] dns and
sendmailvars: files dns
If I ping the same target host, it solves the name from /etc/hosts (no DNS query on the Ethereal trace)

any idea?

[Keith Bryson]

I believe this is due to the fact that sendmail is looking-up the MX record for the domain, not the host record. This information is not in /etc/hosts.

Keith

[T G Manikandan]

Do you have a properly configured /etc/resolv.conf file

[Ionut Grigorescu_2]

Hi,

resolv.conf has 2 lines:
nameserver
mameserver

all the namelookups are succesfully.

[Keith Bryson]

You should have a 'domain' or 'search' record at the top of resolv.conf. Maybe your sendmail set-up is confused about it's domain allocation. Check for the DJ entry in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf and whether you have a host AND host.domainname entry (for your server name) in /etc/hosts.

KB

[Ionut Grigorescu_2]

Hi,

what is DJ?? there is an entry in /etc/hosts with IP address - hostname - aliases.
Why should I have this search line in resolv.conf? DNS queries are OK.

[Steven E. Protter]

DJ is a directive in the sendmail.cf file that allows you to override the domain name of the server.

If DJ is not set, the hostname of the server will be the sending domain. That is stored in /etc/rc.config.d/netconf

Assuming the domain name is less than 8 characters server.domain.com is a valid hostname that can be used.

Its important to have a valid domain name on your email that resolves on the public Internet.

If not, many mail systems, like aol, earthlink and my own won't accept you mail.

To set the Dj directive, edit sendmail.cf

change

DJ

to DJhostname.domain.com

or

DJdomain.com

If the domain resolves on the public Internet your mail will go through to almost any mail server.

Then:

/sbin/init.d/sendmail stop
/sbin/init.d/sendmail start

You should be set now.

To send mail interactively to test your setup:

sendmail -v -d8.99 -d38.99 someone@domain.com

type some text

.


You will get a weath of diagnostic information.

SEP
Coffee Shop @
Corner of Emek Rafaim & Rachel Immanu
Jerusalem

Isn't wireless great?

[Ionut Grigorescu_2]

Hi, I have to check that, but thank you anyway