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marcoferraioli
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marcoferraioli

I can not send emails with postfix

July 20, 2014 12.2k views

I installed postfix by setting it to a website, such as mail name localhost.
I modified the php.ini file to allow it to use postfix. but when i try to use mail () does not send any email.

Jul 20 11:12:18 overflow postfix/pickup[20232]: A0E0F415CC: uid=33 from=<www-data> 
Jul 20 11:12:18 overflow postfix/cleanup[20249]: A0E0F415CC: message-id=<20140720151218.A0E0F415CC@overflow.system> 
Jul 20 11:12:18 overflow postfix/qmgr[20233]: A0E0F415CC: from=<www-data@overflow.system>, size=422, nrcpt=1 (queue active) 
Jul 20 11:12:18 overflow postfix/pickup[20232]: A38B8415CD: uid=33 from=<webmaster@example.com> 
Jul 20 11:12:18 overflow postfix/cleanup[20249]: A38B8415CD: message-id=<20140720151218.A38B8415CD@overflow.system> 
Jul 20 11:12:18 overflow postfix/qmgr[20233]: A38B8415CD: from=<webmaster@example.com>, size=368, nrcpt=1 (queue active) 
Jul 20 11:12:18 overflow postfix/smtp[20254]: A0E0F415CC: host mx01.gmx.com[74.208.5.27] refused to talk to me: 554-gmx.net (mxgmxus003) Nemesis ESMTP Service not available 554-No SMTP service 554 invalid DNS PTR resource record 
Jul 20 11:12:19 overflow postfix/smtp[20255]: A38B8415CD: host mx01.gmx.com[74.208.5.27] refused to talk to me: 554-gmx.net (mxgmxus002) Nemesis ESMTP Service not available 554-No SMTP service 554 invalid DNS PTR resource record 
Jul 20 11:12:19 overflow postfix/smtp[20254]: A0E0F415CC: to=<marcoferraioli@programmer.net>, relay=mx00.gmx.com[74.208.5.4]:25, delay=0.55, delays=0/0/0.55/0, dsn=4.0.0, status=deferred (host mx00.gmx.com[74.208.5.4] refused to talk to me: 554-gmx.net (mxgmxus002) Nemesis ESMTP Service not available 554-No SMTP service 554 invalid DNS PTR resource record) 
Jul 20 11:12:19 overflow postfix/smtp[20255]: A38B8415CD: to=<marcoferraioli@programmer.net>, relay=mx00.gmx.com[74.208.5.4]:25, delay=0.67, delays=0/0/0.66/0, dsn=4.0.0, status=deferred (host mx00.gmx.com[74.208.5.4] refused to talk to me: 554-gmx.net (mxgmxus001) Nemesis ESMTP Service not available 554-No SMTP service 554 invalid DNS PTR resource record)

this is what comes out from the logs. I can not understand the error shown.

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2 Answers
DanielBull February 23, 2015

The reason for the "554-No SMTP service 554 invalid DNS PTR resource record" error is reverse DNS is not working for your Digital Ocean droplet, so the mailserver receiving the email cannot validate who you are.

Usually the cause of this is your droplet is not named after the FQDN (fully qualified domain name) of your host. Eg mail.mydomain.com or myserver.mydomain.com

To resolve this please do the following:

  1. Log into digital ocean account
  2. Click droplets
  3. Click the droplet with the problem
  4. Click settings
  5. Click rename
  6. Enter your FQDN
  7. Click rename

You may need to allow some time for DNS to propagate but once thats done your email should be OK.

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  • biggasoftware November 24, 2015

    thank you so much, your answer working for me as I spend 2-3 days for this issue

  • web January 8, 2016

    Thanks for this @DanielBull it would have taken an age to figure that out!
    Just to confirm it solved the issue I was having.

  • DanielBull February 23, 2017

    As an update to this, you can no longer click settings followed by rename (steps 4 and 5). To rename a droplet you now have to click on its name at the top of the page. Its slightly unintuitive as there's no indication its editable but thats how you do it.

info292414 July 21, 2014

What the error is saying is that it's actually trying to send the mail but that the recipient's mailserver is refusing to accept it. You also get an explanation as to why it happens:

invalid DNS PTR resource record.

In order to resolve this issue, you need to add an MX record to example.com which points to your server. In case you don't own example.com, then change it to webmaster@your-real-domain.tld while still adding an MX record that points to your server.

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