okay here's an example of one of the zone files:

;
; Zone file for toptipper.com
;
$TTL 3D
@       IN      SOA     ns0.kirkyonline.com. webmaster.toptipper.com. (
                        2008020103
                        8H
                        2H
                        4W
                        1D )
;
                NS      ns0.kirkyonline.com. ; Inet Address of name server
                NS      ns1.kirkyonline.com. ; Inet Address of name server
                MX      10 mail.toptipper.com. ; Primary Mail Exchanger
;
;toptipper.com. IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:207.228.252.8 ip4:207.228.252.47 ip4:207.228.252.194 ip4:66.36.238.10 ip4:66.36.238.69 include:iinet.net.au include:bigpond.com ~all"
localhost       A       207.228.252.47
ns0             A       207.228.252.47
ns1             A       207.228.252.194
www             A       207.228.252.47
mail            A       207.228.252.47

Does that give you any more info?

regards

If it helps, here's my named.conf file.  I think the only changes I was making was with the "recursion yes;" which I think might be back to the way they were when the configuration was working (yes i've restarted named and yes i know i should have backed up the file before making changes)

[root@kirkyonline danielk]# cat /etc/named.conf

//
// named.caching-nameserver.conf
//
// Provided by Red Hat caching-nameserver package to configure the
// ISC BIND named(8) DNS server as a caching only nameserver
// (as a localhost DNS resolver only).
//
// See /usr/share/doc/bind*/sample/ for example named configuration files.
//
// DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - use system-config-bind or an editor
// to create named.conf - edits to this file will be lost on
// caching-nameserver package upgrade.
//
options {
        listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1; };
        listen-on-v6 port 53 { ::1; };
        directory       "/var/named";
        dump-file       "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";
        statistics-file "/var/named/data/named_stats.txt";
        memstatistics-file "/var/named/data/named_mem_stats.txt";
        recursion yes;
        query-source    port 53;
        query-source-v6 port 53;
        allow-query     { localhost; };
};
logging {
        channel default_debug {
                file "data/named.run";
                severity dynamic;
        };
};
view localhost_resolver {
        match-clients      { localhost; };
        match-destinations { localhost; };
        recursion yes;
        include "/etc/named.rfc1912.zones";
};

no i can't telnet to mail.toptipper.com smtp from anywhere - even from the same server (where I can send mail via the mail command as shown above) I get a connection refused message.  I've got a feeling we're going off the beaten track here, I think the server is configured not to allow any form of telnet and there have been no changes to the firewall recently so its unlikely this is the source of the problem (but of course I could be wrong).  

named.conf includes  /etc/named.rfc1912.zones....

here are some commands i've run:

[root@kirkyonline mqueue]# pgrep -fl sendmail
8669 sendmail: Queue runner@01:00:00 for /var/spool/clientmqueue
8693 sendmail: accepting connections
8694 sendmail: ./m111axX4031904 couldletter.com.: user open

[root@kirkyonline mqueue]# netstat -nlp|grep sendmail
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:25                0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN      8693/sendmail: acce

[root@kirkyonline mqueue]# /etc/init.d/iptables stop
Flushing firewall rules:                                   [  OK  ]
Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter                    [  OK  ]
Unloading iptables modules:                                [  OK  ]


[danielk@toptipper-new ~]$ telnet mail.toptipper.com smtp
Trying 207.228.252.47...
telnet: connect to address 207.228.252.47: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
[danielk@toptipper-new ~]$ echo hello | mail editor@sportspunter.com

mail is not delivered, and nothing shows in sendmail log on mail server
(that's from another server)

[root@kirkyonline mqueue]# telnet mail.toptipper.com smtp
Trying 207.228.252.47...
telnet: connect to address 207.228.252.47: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

[root@kirkyonline mqueue]# echo hello | mail editor@toptipper.com
The email gets through
(thats' from the same server sendmail is running on)

The mail log shows:
Feb  1 05:51:33 kirkyonline sendmail[9080]: m115pXdI009080: from=root, size=32, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200802010551.m115pXdI009080@kirkyonline.kirkyonline.com>, relay=root@localhost
Feb  1 05:51:33 kirkyonline sendmail[9081]: m115pX6F009081: from=<root@kirkyonline.kirkyonline.com>, size=344, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200802010551.m115pXdI009080@kirkyonline.kirkyonline.com>, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]
Feb  1 05:51:33 kirkyonline sendmail[9080]: m115pXdI009080: to=editor@toptipper.com, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=30032, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (m115pX6F009081 Message accepted for delivery)
Feb  1 05:51:36 kirkyonline sendmail[9082]: m115pX6F009081: to=dkirk@iinet.net.au, ctladdr=<root@kirkyonline.kirkyonline.com> (0/0), delay=00:00:03, xdelay=00:00:03, mailer=esmtp, pri=30585, relay=as-av.iinet.net.au. [203.0.178.180], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (ok:  Message 275706519 accepted)

perhaps i shoudl have read your comment from the bottom up.

I removed DaemonPortOptions to not have "Addr=127.0.0.1"

and it is working again

Can you just explain what that command does and why it now works?

thanks