Qmail fails with 553 sorry, that domain isn't in my list

Years ago I installed Qmail following the Qmailrocks guide. Of course, when I was done (after a few farts and sputters) it all worked - but I really did not have the faintest idea what was going on. Since then I've done some studying and recently tried to upgrade my mail server using a new patch from John Simpson and adding the validrcppto and onchange features. My logs indicate that these features are working...but, when I try to send mail it get the "553 sorry, that domain isn't in my list of allowed rcpthosts (#5.7.1)" error. I didn't install SSL nor even qmail-scanner - I wanted to get the basics down and continue from there. I'm testing it on a Slackware box using Thunderbird. It's not Thunderbird because I get the same error from the command line. Honestly, I still do not completely understand the /var/qmail/control/rcpthosts file - apparently. I mean - that should be the domains on my server, I think - which it is... I actually bought an 89 cent domain and documented every step. If someone could possibly even suggest what might be wrong I would really appreciate it... I'm 58, tired as hell, and really need this to work..

And, by the way, there were no errors when I patched qmail.....

Here's the page with the steps I took, the patch number, a copy of my smtpd_run file - everything:

http://qmailquestions.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=55

I'd let someone go into the thing with ssh and tinker - it's simply a test, at this point.....

Thanks for any suggestions...

Guy Merritt
Flint, MI

In your qmail installation there is a file named rcpthosts (somewhere), and you may need to add your target domain in that file. This file identifies email addresses that are considered 'local' to qmail, i.e., that will accept delivery of emails.

Thanks Doug - but at this point, I'm completely aware of the location and nature of rcpthosts. It's in my system at /var/qmail/control/rcpthosts and it contains the name of the local domain from which I am trying to send mail. When I do /home/vpopmail/./vadddomain the domains get added, appear in that file, and I still get this error. And, by target domain, I don't assume that you mean if I'm trying to send mail to someone@yahoo.com I should add "yahoo.com"..? That's not the point/function of that file - if that's what you were suggesting. I don't presume you mean the latter - and, as I've said...the file exists and contains the name of local domains.

And here's something else that's really odd - at least I've never seen it before. My /etc/hosts file is pretty standard; the box IP is 10.1.10.58 and it has an entry, like, 10.1.10.58 mymailserver.com and 10.1.10.58 localhost (it wouldn't work at all without the latter - and I've never had to use that sort of entry, before). And, when I try to telnet to port 25 I get this (connection refused, then it connects via the mail server's name):


telnet localhost 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: connect to address 127.0.0.1: Connection refused
Trying 10.1.10.58...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.myserver.com ESMTP

Well - after a lot of net surfing I literally found one, single page which gave me a clue. Basically, I went to John Simpson' site, he said "here's my smtp run script that works with this patch" and I presumed it would work on Slackware (or any Unix/Linux). The problem is that, while his patches work fine, the syntax for the run script, on Slackware, is significantly different. It almost works - which is what threw me (that and the fact that I'm not a Linux wizard).

Anyway - sorry to be a bother...but that's the problem. I almost had it all working this morning.....