sendmail.cf config help needed

[awingnut]

I am connecting my machine to an ISP via DSL. I am trying to set up my sendmail.cf to use my ISP's SMTP server to relay mail. I thought I had this set correctly but I am getting errors and bounced mail that I do not understand. My mail log shows an error when sendmail tries to connect to the mail relay which says; DSN: Data format error. The mail is then bounced and the bounced mail has the error:

reason: 553 dap002.dap.localnet does not exist

Obviously it does not exist as I don't have my own domain, this is a DSL connection. I don't understand why that matters but since it obviously does, how do I fix it? Thanks.

 

[hisham]

Did you generate a new sendmail.cf file? using :
make -C /path_to_mail_dir

 

[awingnut]

No but I don't think that is necessary. I'm running Mandrake 9.2 and it reads and compiles the sendmail.cf file each time it is started.

I have tried several settings which I can tell are being used by sendmail but I don't really understand the errors I'm seeing so I cannot figure out what to do to fix it.

 

[hisham]

as you said it is not necessary, of course you can directly config sendmail.cf file but believe me you will never make it work, look for sendmail.mc in /etc/mail config it then use m4 to turn it into sendmail.cf or use make -C /....

 

[awingnut]

I'm from the old days when sendmail.cf was all there was. I was able to get things to work then, even writing rules. Unfortunately that was too long ago so a lot of that knowledge is lost. I can try your suggestion but I still don't know what I am looking to "fix" which is the crux of my problem?

 

[awingnut]

This is beginning to appear to me to be an /etc/hosts issue rather then a sendmail.cf. If I put a legitimate host name (albeit not mine) in /etc/hosts for this machine, the email is accepted. However, I cannot legitimately use that as a solution. Why is it necessary to provide a legitimate FQDN? Unless I am not really using my ISP's relay for sending mail. I cannot find anything that confirms that either way (probably don't know where to look or what to look for).