[Exim] server timeout but up and runing...

Hi,



I have set up a mail server using Exim 4.0. It's suposed to be an upgrade of former mail server, wich was actually an open relay. Here is what it is suposed to do:

-Consider mail from a certain list of domains local : working

-Allow relaying upon auth. only : working

-Forward messages for some clients (they use various ISP and want their mail adressed at their domain to be directed in their isp's mailbox) : working

The problem I have is quite disapointing. Mailer from aol / yahoo / caramail etc... and other ISP are unable to reach my machine if adressed at user@a_client.com . A misconfigured domain (DNS entry hadnt change for years) forced me to do an IP alias. From there user@a_client.com started to recieve some of the mail he was sent, but those from aol and such havent been delivered yet. Mailer daemon from these answered "name server timeout". If I log with one of this various ISP and do a telnet a_client.com smtp my server answer.

I have sent several mail from various free mailbox to a_client.com , none are working. I repluged the old server (yes, the dirty open relay) and it worked. These are similar machine with same debian system. The only thing that change (beside the general conf files, I had to fix some glitch) is a network thing that my net admin claim to be a simple wire between 2 switchs that he unplug at night to prevent the workstation to be left on the internet. However it remained plugged when we were doing the test I mentioned above.
The both machine also have a DNS installed on it with very similar config (I just removed some entries that were obsolete).


The fact that the old machine work make me think I did a mistake here but my server answering telnet on smtp port from random IP through random route is just stuning.

I have allways found answers on the mailing list by browsing archive but here I'm stuck.

Any help would be apreciated

Best regards,

Gabriel