# Unable to send/receive email externally to the server

**URL:** <https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/unable-to-send-receive-email-externally-to-the-server/200>\
**Category:** Help with Setup/Upgrade\
**Created:** [December 4, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/unable-to-send-receive-email-externally-to-the-server/200 "2014-12-04T12:58:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![danny\_wasp](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@danny\_wasp](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/danny_wasp)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/unable-to-send-receive-email-externally-to-the-server/200/1 "2014-12-04T12:58:20Z")

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Hi there,

I was using MailInABox very nicely for the past month, I restarted the server and i’m now unable to send mail.

Dec 4 07:39:52 mailinabox postfix/qmgr[864]: C332E147F7384: from=[my@domain.com](mailto:my@domain.com), size=535, nrcpt=1 (queue active)  
Dec 4 07:39:52 mailinabox postfix/smtp[6580]: initializing the client-side TLS engine  
Dec 4 07:39:52 mailinabox postfix/smtp[6580]: C332E147F7384: to=[anytest@emailaddress.com](mailto:anytest@emailaddress.com), relay=none, delay=552, delays=552/0.02/0/0, dsn=4.4.3, status=deferred (Host or domain name not found. Name service error for [name=gmail.com](http://name=gmail.com) type=MX: Host not found, try again)

This happens with any email address I try to send to, unless it’s to myself then it’s delivered instantly, although this is presumably because it’s all internal.

Incidentally any email sent to any address that my mailinabox instance is hosting is failing without bounce back.

Please help!

Note : I’m using Cloudflare for my DNS currently.

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**Author:** ![danny\_wasp](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@danny\_wasp](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/danny_wasp)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/unable-to-send-receive-email-externally-to-the-server/200/2 "2014-12-04T13:26:48Z")

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Upon further investigation it looks like that DNS is broken on my mailinabox instance, I can’t resolve any addresses, however IPs are pingable.

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**Author:** ![JoshData](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/user_avatar/discourse.mailinabox.email/joshdata/32/2153_2.png) [@JoshData](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/JoshData)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/unable-to-send-receive-email-externally-to-the-server/200/3 "2014-12-04T14:53:41Z")

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Can you see if anything in this thread helps?

> [@Local DNS is not working \[was: Unable to check system status\]](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/unable-to-check-system-status/165):
>
> Just did a fresh install and when I use the Check System Status or Backup Status I get the error "Error Something went wrong, sorry." What does this mean? I am able to send and receive email, I just cannot view the status at all.

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**Author:** ![danny\_wasp](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@danny\_wasp](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/danny_wasp)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/unable-to-send-receive-email-externally-to-the-server/200/4 "2014-12-04T15:30:26Z")

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Hey Josh,

Thanks for the reply, that page did indeed help (also helped solve the back up errors i was getting).

After editing /etc/resolv.conf and adding Google’s DNS servers I was able to ping things, so modified /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head for the changes to become permanent.

After a reboot my server sprang back in to life.

Thanks for the assist!

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**Author:** ![dofl](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@dofl](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/dofl)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:20am UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/unable-to-send-receive-email-externally-to-the-server/200/5 "2014-12-05T10:20:18Z")

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Had to do the same thing. Leaving the server to handle DNS breaks all connectivity. Using Google’s DNS servers as you suggested worked fine.

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**Author:** ![JoshData](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/user_avatar/discourse.mailinabox.email/joshdata/32/2153_2.png) [@JoshData](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/JoshData)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/unable-to-send-receive-email-externally-to-the-server/200/6 "2014-12-05T17:19:05Z")

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It’ll make the box work, but it’s not a correct way to fix the box. This could cause trouble if you update your box down the line and I’ve changed things. You really need to find out why the `bind9` service isn’t running. Then we can fix this problem for everyone.