Hi, I'm trying to install postfix on my machine. The server starts up, and I can "telnet localhost 25" from my own linode and send email. But, if I try to "telnet myhostname 25" from my linode or my home machine, I get refused (Could not open connection to the host, on port 25, Connect failed). I know it is not my firewall because I can set up an echo server on port 25, and it will listen.

Any ideas? I can't receive email on my machine as it is.

Thanks in advance,

Michael

First, check the interfaces that postfix is listening on:

$ netstat  -ltn | grep ":25"
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:25            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      
tcp        0      0 <your_ip_here>:25          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN  

If you are only listening on localhost, more than likely your inet_interfaces variable in /etc/postfix/main.cf is the culprit.

inet_interfaces = $myhostname, localhost

Of course, make sure that myhostname is defined correctly somewhere above that.

Bingo - my inet_interfaces variable was exactly what was wrong.

Many thanks,

Michael