From: "John N. Alegre" <info@...>
Date: 2006-03-10T03:38:42+09:00
Subject: Can't get net/smtp to send outside of LAN?

I am trying to use net/smtp to send a mail message.  What I am finding is
that I can send a email message on the LAN but it never gets out to the
world.  What am I missing?

Here is my test code:
####################################################################
require('net/smtp')

class Email
  def Email.send(date, body, server = 'localhost', port = 25)
    Net::SMTP.start(server, port) { |mailer|
      text = 
      "From: info\n" << 
      "To: usr@domain\n"       <<
      "Date: #{date}\n"          <<
      "Subject: New entry in Database\n"        <<
      "Importance: High\n"           <<
      "MIME-Version: 1.0\n"          <<
      "Sender: #{self.class.name}\n" <<
      "\n\n\n"                       <<
      body

      mailer.send_message(text, "info", "usr@domain")
      }
  end

end

Email.send("#{Time.now}", "New entry in database at #{ Time.now}\n")
puts "end of code"
####################################################################
on the LAN SMTP server with 'localhost' and usr@domain being a user on the
same machine WORKS OK ... with 'localhost' replaced with 'machine' where
machine is the machine on the LAN that sends SMTP mail and usr@domain is a
user on that same machine and the code is run anywhere on the LAN it WORKS
OK to a user on 'machine' ...

HOWEVER ...

if usr@domain is outside the LAN the mail never gets sent either if the code
is run on 'localhost' or on a machine on the LAN with 'machine' replaced by
the IP of the SMTP server.  I know 'machine' will serve as a SMTP host for
mailers such as evolution or Mac OX X mailer because I use it for that all
the time.

What am I missing.

I know I could go to a better Ruby package such as TMail or RubyMail or
bring out the cannons and use ActionMailer but if I don't understand what
is happening at this basic level that might not help either.

All comments welcome
john