SMTP question. Sendmail, RH 7.3

[Larry Cook]

Hi Jason,

I'd like to ask some questions to clarify the situation and make it easier for 
the experts on this list to help you.  My knowledge is limited to getting my 
RH 8 sendmail configured to send email via my local ISP's SMTP server.  It 
seems there is more and more checking being added to SMTP configurations.

> I have a client in MN who uses qwest as his isp. I host his site and email
> and until yesterday at 3 pm he was able to send and receive just fine.

Can he still get email, but just not send it?  Does his email client get an 
error?  Does sendmail log any errors?

> In
> his calls to qwest he is getting the usual runaround "you can't just use our
> smtp server, you have to have a qwest email account and send/receive from
> that account".

If they are his ISP, I would think he has at least one email account.  That 
should qualify him to use their SMTP server, even if he doesn't use their POP 
server.  Although he should still check his qwest POP account so he knows 
about any maintenance downtime or system changes.  Who knows, maybe they 
emailed him about changes to their SMTP servers! ;-)

> What has changed?

Good questions.  Has anything changed on your client's system?  Maybe qwest 
has tighted up the checking done by their SMTP server.  I guess you first need 
to determine if the client's machine is connecting to the qwest SMTP server, 
and if it's accepting his email or giving an error.  All of this should be in 
the sendmail log file on his system.

> Sorry if this is OT, running RH 7 with sendmail.

Hopefully you meant the customer is running RH 7.  Is that correct?

Larry