Hi Alan,

i think, i need some more details about your setup. 

The DNS entrys doenst need to change. 

Your Citadel installation is on premise / selfhosted inside your own network?

If the new server have a different IP Address, maybe it wouldnt work. Do you checked your Firewall ports and port routing ? 

If you Citadel is inside your network, can you telnet from a different computer to your Citadel Server ?

For more details about your setup you can mail me if you want. Maybe there  informations not for everyones eyes, but the solution is good for all. 

Greetings 

Mike

michael@g00r00.com

Di Mär 31 2026 09:09:38 UTC von alanlau Betreff: Re: New Citadel Installation not receiving mail nor response to external SMTP check

Hi Mike,

My server is running on VMs.  Since my new server is not working last week, I had reinstate the old server VM back to use the original Domain and IP, and I had the new server VM continue running but use another IP.

If running on another IP, it response to MXTOOLBOX mail server test.

If put the new server back to my original IP, it doesn't.

Had used your command to check the common ports  (24/456/587 etc) are all listening by Citadel only.

Will it be any relations to DNS setting that binded to the original old server? Such as MAC address binding?  

 

Mon Mar 30 2026 06:37:27 AM UTC from Motobike Subject: Re: New Citadel Installation not receiving mail nor response to external SMTP check

Hi Alan,

please try to figure out, whats going on.

 

Check Services on Ports:

ss -tulpn

Also you can swtich port inside Citadel to antoher MTA Port and check, if you can Telnet it. Do you import Setting from an old Citadel installation ? 

I checked lates Debian and Ubuntu Version with Citadel and had no problems. 

 

Thanks Mike for help.

1. DNS - noted

2. Installation -- inside our own premise on VMWare host.  Host with 2 LAN card, one for LAN and another for WAN.  WAN adapter had external IP independent from LAN.

3. Since new server not working on existing Domain name and IP, it is now running simulatenously together with current server but with different LAN and WAN IP for troubleshooting

4. Telnet -- already test within own LAN as well as externally (from my home and at another office) -- both can successfully telnet port 25 of new server, on both WAN IP (24 & 28 when trying to switch).

Existing server setup: Citadel on Ubuntu 18.04 VM on VMWare, WAN IP xxx.xxx.xxx.28.  Server had been running since 2018 and having maintenence issue therefore prepared to be replaced.

New server now prepared: Citadel on Debian 13 VM on VMWare, WAN IP xxx.xxx.xxx.24.  Completely new install and not migration.  Both server on SAME vmware host with same network adapter, both LAN and WAN.

Problem: after shutdown existing server, and replace the new server to IP ending with 28, it does not receive external mail nor passing MXTOOLBOX server test.  However when placing back to IP ending with 24, MXTOOLBOX test (using IP) works.  Returning the existing server back online will have everything working fine.

Tue Mar 31 2026 10:04:57 AM UTC from Motobike Subject: Re: New Citadel Installation not receiving mail nor response to external SMTP check

Hi Alan,

 

i think, i need some more details about your setup. 

The DNS entrys doenst need to change. 

Your Citadel installation is on premise / selfhosted inside your own network?

If the new server have a different IP Address, maybe it wouldnt work. Do you checked your Firewall ports and port routing ? 

If you Citadel is inside your network, can you telnet from a different computer to your Citadel Server ?

 

For more details about your setup you can mail me if you want. Maybe there  informations not for everyones eyes, but the solution is good for all. 

 

Greetings 

Mike

michael@g00r00.com

 

 

Forget to mention both Ubutnu and Debian had no Firewall enabled.  

External IPs also running without Firewall equipment/UTM until everything had solved.

Hi Alan,

first, happy easter to you and your family. 

Is there any MAC boundary to the old Maschine inside ESx ? 

If telnet works on internal lan and not from outside, so must be a routing fail from the firewall or antoher service. Also check for persisten custom routes. 

You also can do a traceroute from inside and from outside. Maybe this gives you some more informations. 

Greetings

Mike

Mi Apr 01 2026 02:09:39 UTC von alanlau Betreff: Re: New Citadel Installation not receiving mail nor response to external SMTP check

Thanks Mike for help.

1. DNS - noted

2. Installation -- inside our own premise on VMWare host.  Host with 2 LAN card, one for LAN and another for WAN.  WAN adapter had external IP independent from LAN.

3. Since new server not working on existing Domain name and IP, it is now running simulatenously together with current server but with different LAN and WAN IP for troubleshooting

4. Telnet -- already test within own LAN as well as externally (from my home and at another office) -- both can successfully telnet port 25 of new server, on both WAN IP (24 & 28 when trying to switch).

 

Existing server setup: Citadel on Ubuntu 18.04 VM on VMWare, WAN IP xxx.xxx.xxx.28.  Server had been running since 2018 and having maintenence issue therefore prepared to be replaced.

New server now prepared: Citadel on Debian 13 VM on VMWare, WAN IP xxx.xxx.xxx.24.  Completely new install and not migration.  Both server on SAME vmware host with same network adapter, both LAN and WAN.

 

Problem: after shutdown existing server, and replace the new server to IP ending with 28, it does not receive external mail nor passing MXTOOLBOX server test.  However when placing back to IP ending with 24, MXTOOLBOX test (using IP) works.  Returning the existing server back online will have everything working fine.

 

Tue Mar 31 2026 10:04:57 AM UTC from Motobike Subject: Re: New Citadel Installation not receiving mail nor response to external SMTP check

Hi Alan,

 

i think, i need some more details about your setup. 

The DNS entrys doenst need to change. 

Your Citadel installation is on premise / selfhosted inside your own network?

If the new server have a different IP Address, maybe it wouldnt work. Do you checked your Firewall ports and port routing ? 

If you Citadel is inside your network, can you telnet from a different computer to your Citadel Server ?

 

For more details about your setup you can mail me if you want. Maybe there  informations not for everyones eyes, but the solution is good for all. 

 

Greetings 

Mike

michael@g00r00.com

 

 

Hi Mike,

Happy Easter holiday to you too!

Because of holiday, the troubleshooting process had been paused and shall resume again.

The ESXi host had no mac binding arrangements -- I had other VMs running both adapters which can successfully use DHCP and static external IP separately

May try traceroute approach later.

Sun Apr 05 2026 07:26:39 AM UTC from Motobike Subject: Re: New Citadel Installation not receiving mail nor response to external SMTP check

Hi Alan,

first, happy easter to you and your family. 

Is there any MAC boundary to the old Maschine inside ESx ? 

If telnet works on internal lan and not from outside, so must be a routing fail from the firewall or antoher service. Also check for persisten custom routes. 

You also can do a traceroute from inside and from outside. Maybe this gives you some more informations. 

 

Greetings

Mike

 

 

Good evening!   I work as a volunteer for a non profit, under privileged youth organization in southwestern Pennsylvania.   We have a camp coming up and we're planning on using Citadel as a much needed method of collaboration.   Installed Citadel in Debian 13 via the easy install script.  Everything went fine, no errors.   Created users and realized no matter what I type for a phone number or primary email address in contacts nothing saves.  It stays blank.  I Googled possible problems and AI said the install must be corrupted so manually remove the install and rerun setup, which I did!  Still the same issue.   I have to add email in the alias field in contacts for it to show up in the address book.  Still phone numbers don't save.  BUT that's ok!  I just put phone numbers in PO Box field instead and the data is there. Saves fine in that field.   Next, finally got the users setup and the group address book able show email addresses to send emails to instead of just the username which would not send the email.   The issue now is I want to set up a mailing list with the sender being the room so people can reply right to the room.   The option is in the drop-down menu.  I select it and click set, it automatically returns to none.  It won't save!  Ugggghhhh!   I Googled again and said to check directory permissions.   I changed all the  files in the /usr/local/citadel to 660 and the directories to 770 with the user CITADEL and group ROOT as instructed by AI.   Rebooted the server and still the same issue.  Also the data directory reset its permissions to citadel:root 600.   Then Google AI said to dump the database, make the changes manually and import the database again.   I dumped the DB and opened the dump file.   I couldn't make any sense out of the columns and rows.   So, couldn't use that method.    What else could cause the problem.   I know Citadel will be perfect for us, but I need it to at least be able to allow reply to room for the collaboration to work. 😕 I'm all ears!   Can this be fixed, do U just have to find a work around, or, do I have to blow it away and try install yet again???   Thank you for your time!  -Joshua

One more thing!  AI said to telnet to port 504 and edit the database that way.  I was able to login and quit.  I was able to GOTO room.   'But any .Admin command returned 503 not recognized despite the fact I was literally signed in as Admin.  

Some good news here!  I was able to install the Linux citadel-client and able to use the .Admin command set.  Didn't fix any of the other issues but at least this aspect is basically working.

Nothing is being done with Internet mail.   Our Citadel install is all within Citadel itself.  The email addresses are being used as an isolated intranet setup.   The issue with contacts is the fact the data entered in the fields of the phone numbers is not saved after clicking save.  The fields stay blank which means WebCit is not interacting correctly with the database.  'And, I want to know how that can be fixed to work appropriately.   The same with the internal Citadel email with server fully qualified domain name.   The field stays blank no matter what is entered.

Dear Suporters,

Try to send to this email (it does not exists. It is distorted from a real one). Use all (name+email)

Albertí Quintá, Xavier <xalberti@indla.fr>

It will returned but see the Contacts folder. It appears 2 new contacts. One wrong and one good. But with the original email (not distorted) appear only the wrong one.

Let me please know if it is a bug or if it is only in my server.  

Thank you,

Luís Gonçalves.

It was sent with Thunderbird.

Mon Apr 20 2026 20:44:34 UTC from luisgo Subject: Possible bug.

Dear Suporters,

Try to send to this email (it does not exists. It is distorted from a real one). Use all (name+email)

Albertí Quintá, Xavier <xalberti@indla.fr>

It will returned but see the Contacts folder. It appears 2 new contacts. One wrong and one good. But with the original email (not distorted) appear only the wrong one.

Let me please know if it is a bug or if it is only in my server.  

Thank you,

Luís Gonçalves.