Sendmail expects a lot from DNS and a "localhost" entry in a DNS zone is one of them. Suggestion add to zone "domain name" a host record pointing to loop back IP address. BIND example: localhost IN A 127.0.0.1 If that's not possible then edit /etc/hosts file. Change line: 127.0.0.1 localhost to read: 127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.domain.name Have fun.