[Techtalk] Can't send mail from emacs

[David Sumbler]

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004, Mary wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 21, 2004, David Sumbler wrote:
> > The original message was received at Wed, 21 Jan 2004 21:00:25 GMT
> > from localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]
> >
> >    ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
> > <david at aeolia.co.uk>
> >     (reason: 553 5.1.8 <david at ceres.staly.plus.com> ... Domain of sender address david at ceres.staly.plus.com does not exist)
> >
> >    ----- Transcript of session follows -----
> > ... while talking to mail-relay-2.fastweb.co.uk.:
> > > >> MAIL From:<david at ceres.staly.plus.com> SIZE=344
> > <<< 553 5.1.8 <david at ceres.staly.plus.com> ... Domain of sender address david at ceres.staly.plus.com does not exist
> > 501 5.6.0 Data format error
> >
> > Yet when I send myself messages from pine (which is what I normally
> > use) the sender is still shown as david at ceres.staly.plus.com, but the
> > mail is processed OK.
> >
> > What is causing this?
>
> The most likely thing is that they're using different mail relays. It
> looks very much like emacs is using localhost, what is pine using? (You
> can check somewhere in the config.)

Pine tells me that the smtp server is relay.plus.net.  Is that what
I'm looking for?

> You have three options:
>
>  - configure emacs to use the relay pine uses;
>  - reconfigure localhost's mail server to accept mail with an invalid
>    sender; or
>  - fix your sender address (either in emacs or by getting localhost to
>    rewrite it).
>
> If you need help with the second or third option, find out which mail
> server it is (telnet to localhost on port 25 and it will probably
> identify itself) and we can help you out. I can't help with fixing
> emacs, I've never used its MUA.

I tried telnet localhost, and it tells me "connection refused".

> It is probably worth fixing the sender address, for two reasons: first
> is that your own localhost mail server is by no means the only server
> that will reject mail from a non-existent sender domain, the second is
> that you will receive bounces for mails that don't get through (other
> hosts rejecting your mail because of the invalid sender aren't sending
> bounces to you -- because of the invalid sender!)

So - what should I change it to, and where do I need to change it?  My
actual email address is david at staly.plus.com (although the address I
give to people is david at aeolia.co.uk, since I prefer to use my own
domain name in case I change my ISP).  Ceres is the particualar
computer that I am using on a very small LAN.

David

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