PHP mail() Linux server - SMTP response 550 No reverse name (PTR)
Hi all,
We have an Ubuntu server install with sendmail, apache and php running.
The server is internal to our network and is not accessible outside of our network.
The intranet sends emails to clients and does this usually without issue however for one client I am receiving a bounceback as follows:
"The message reached the recipient's e-mail system, but delivery was refused. Attempt to resend the message. If it still fails, contact your system administrator.
< intranet.mycompany.local #5.2.1 SMTP; 550 5.2.1 Mailbox unavailable. No reverse name (PTR) for your sender IP ()"
I'm not sure exactly where the issue lies, is it because it cannot resolve intranet.mycompany.local to the IP in brackets or is it that the IP in brackets does not resolve to an address?
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. If you need anymore information please don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks,
We have an Ubuntu server install with sendmail, apache and php running.
The server is internal to our network and is not accessible outside of our network.
The intranet sends emails to clients and does this usually without issue however for one client I am receiving a bounceback as follows:
"The message reached the recipient's e-mail system, but delivery was refused. Attempt to resend the message. If it still fails, contact your system administrator.
< intranet.mycompany.local #5.2.1 SMTP; 550 5.2.1 Mailbox unavailable. No reverse name (PTR) for your sender IP ()"
I'm not sure exactly where the issue lies, is it because it cannot resolve intranet.mycompany.local to the IP in brackets or is it that the IP in brackets does not resolve to an address?
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. If you need anymore information please don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks,
ASKER
Hi flubbard
The intranet is internal to our network and not visible from outside.
Do I essentially need to open up the firewall and allow traffic to pass back through to the Sendmail server? if so do you know what ports would need to be opened?
The intranet is mailing to other domains on email servers external to our network.
What would the ISP set the pointer of the IP to be? would it be to intranet.mycompany.local? Not sure I understand how that would work? could you explain more.
The intranet is internal to our network and not visible from outside.
Do I essentially need to open up the firewall and allow traffic to pass back through to the Sendmail server? if so do you know what ports would need to be opened?
The intranet is mailing to other domains on email servers external to our network.
What would the ISP set the pointer of the IP to be? would it be to intranet.mycompany.local? Not sure I understand how that would work? could you explain more.
You mentioned that you are getting a returned message bouce. Is that from one of your servers too, or is that from a server outside?
- flub
- flub
ASKER
The bounceback is from an external mail server. Our employees login to the intranet, fill out a form entering who the email is to, the message and subject and click send. The php script then sends the email.
from the message, it's not firewall issue; no ports need to be open. "SMTP response 550 No reverse name" means the remote smtp server can not reverse DNS your smtp server ip address. Normally this means the remote server is concerned with security and has strong anti-spam rules.
In order to get a reverse DNS, you have to contact your ISP; say you get a ip address from them as 123.11.22.33, when your mail server send out email, it will be shown as sending from 123.11.22.33 ( doesn't matter if your mail server is 192.168.44.55 internally). You need to ask your ISP to create a reverse DNS record, to link 123.11.22.33 to yourmailserver.yourdomain.
In order to get a reverse DNS, you have to contact your ISP; say you get a ip address from them as 123.11.22.33, when your mail server send out email, it will be shown as sending from 123.11.22.33 ( doesn't matter if your mail server is 192.168.44.55 internally). You need to ask your ISP to create a reverse DNS record, to link 123.11.22.33 to yourmailserver.yourdomain.
I just realized this question only rewards 20 points, that doesn't show much appreciation.
ASKER
Does it matter if I get the ISP to set the domain to an address such as intranet.mycompany.local or does the host name need to be Internet visible, such as google.com?
The domain should match the name of the server - in my experience, or else you still may run into trouble. You may try naming your server mail.mydomain.com.
- flub
- flub
ASKER
Hi Jackiechen, Apologies, I have now raised the points.
So I'm clear on this:
The remote server is trying to confirm that the domain of the sending address me@mycompany.co.uk is the reverse lookup of the sending IP 20.20.20.20 or is it trying to confirm that 20.20.20.20 resolves to intranet.mycompany.local?
When you say resolve, are you meaning that the remote server can directly speak with the sending mail server or simply that there is an A record in the DNS for "domain name (google.com)" set to 20.20.20.20?
if I get my ISP to set the reverse lookup to be "mycompany.co.uk" even though the sending mail servers FQDN is intranet.mycompany.local will this stop the issue?
Or do I need to make it so that the sending mail server has a domain name of "mycompany.co.uk"?
Thanks again
So I'm clear on this:
The remote server is trying to confirm that the domain of the sending address me@mycompany.co.uk is the reverse lookup of the sending IP 20.20.20.20 or is it trying to confirm that 20.20.20.20 resolves to intranet.mycompany.local?
When you say resolve, are you meaning that the remote server can directly speak with the sending mail server or simply that there is an A record in the DNS for "domain name (google.com)" set to 20.20.20.20?
if I get my ISP to set the reverse lookup to be "mycompany.co.uk" even though the sending mail servers FQDN is intranet.mycompany.local will this stop the issue?
Or do I need to make it so that the sending mail server has a domain name of "mycompany.co.uk"?
Thanks again
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
The answers given helped confirm my understanding of how this specific mail server security measure is working.
To resolve the issue, I altered my sendmail configuration to relay via a smarthost that was already being used to relay our corporate (MS Exchange) email from the same IP.
The appropriate DNS records were already configured for this smarthost and hence resolved the issue.
Thank you for responding so quickly!
To resolve the issue, I altered my sendmail configuration to relay via a smarthost that was already being used to relay our corporate (MS Exchange) email from the same IP.
The appropriate DNS records were already configured for this smarthost and hence resolved the issue.
Thank you for responding so quickly!
HTH - Flub