How to Check for Rejected Mail Hosts
Electronic mail relies on Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs) to relay a message from its source to its destination, one step at a time. MTAs typically are software processes running on general-purpose computers connected to the Internet. A given MTA can be co-located with the originator of the message, be an intermediate relayer along the message's route, or be co-located with the ultimate destination. Emails typically travel over several of these hops in their route between source and destination computers. System administrators in charge of MTAs often see "Checking for rejected mail hosts" entries in their SMTP logs, followed by a list of fully qualified computer names.
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Instructions
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Invoke a text editor. The specific way to do this depends on your operating system. For example, in Windows, click "Start" and "Run." Enter "notepad" and press "Enter."
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Open the SMTP log file on the text editor. The location of this file depends on your operating system. For example, on the default Windows configuration, the SMTP log file is located at "\Software\Microsoft\Internet Mail and News\Mail."
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The lines starting with "Checking for rejected mail hosts" correspond to hosts determined by SMTP to be rejected. The reason is that each one of those host names is either unresolvable (i.e., your Internet Protocol stack cannot find a route to it) or corresponds to failed attempts to use your MTA as a relay---a practice common among spammers.
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Use the "Mail relay testing" free service (see Resources) to determine if your MTA is correctly configured as a relay. Enter the address to test (the only really important parameter) to have this test performed. If you pass, your MTA is correctly configured to act as a relay. If you do not pass, the "Mail relay testing" will provide suggestions on how to fix your configuration.
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References
Resources
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