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I am trying to set up and configure a mail server in which I can receive email however I am not having any luck with Postfix or Exim4. I currently have Exim4 configured and it sends mail fine, however it can't receive. When trying to send mail from my other account (gmail) to an account on my server, I get this reply:

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:


Technical details of permanent failure: 

How can I fix this? Is it an MX record problem or Exim4 configuration error?

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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Normally you can get your Exim4 on a workable state just using the automatic configuration:

# dpk-reconfigure exim4-config

The most important answers are the ones where you set the type of delivery you want (you want the first one, messages delivered/received directly) and the domain configuration. The domain configuration is a series of questions that asks what domains the server will consider for local delivery and etc. Answering correctly those questions will get your server working.

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Got it to work by having the mail go to /var/mail/<user> instead! Thanks! –  wlawl Apr 3 '11 at 5:10
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You can test weather it's a DNS error or exim issue by telnetting directly to the mail server. Then type the SMTP commands manually

telnet youmailserver.net 25
helo server
mail from:test@test.com
rcpt to:test@yourdomin.com

The above is not strictly valid SMTP but should be enough for you to test with.

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