I was looking at a similar question, but all that I gather is that it could be a problem with the OS and not James precisely:
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$ bin/james start
Starting Apache James Server App...
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$ telnet localhost 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$ telnet 127.0.0.1 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$ cat log/james-server.log
INFO 02:23:21,406 | org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext | Refreshing org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext@3ee0b7: startup date [Wed Aug 15 02:23:21 PDT 2012]; root of context hierarchy
INFO 03:33:22,785 | org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext | Refreshing org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext@13336f: startup date [Wed Aug 15 03:33:22 PDT 2012]; root of context hierarchy
INFO 11:26:26,082 | org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext | Refreshing org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext@3ee0b7: startup date [Wed Aug 15 11:26:26 PDT 2012]; root of context hierarchy
INFO 11:40:31,812 | org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext | Refreshing org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext@d51c6c: startup date [Wed Aug 15 11:40:31 PDT 2012]; root of context hierarchy
INFO 13:00:10,698 | org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext | Refreshing org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext@3ee0b7: startup date [Wed Aug 15 13:00:10 PDT 2012]; root of context hierarchy
INFO 13:59:51,478 | org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext | Refreshing org.apache.james.container.spring.context.JamesServerApplicationContext@13d1929: startup date [Wed Aug 15 13:59:51 PDT 2012]; root of context hierarchy
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$
The quick start specifies:
Step 7: Test
############
$ telnet 127.0.0.1 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 172.16.1.131 SMTP Server (JAMES SMTP Server 3.0-beta4) ready Sat, 6 Nov 2010 17:31:33 +0100 (CET)
ehlo test
However, it's not showing in netstat:
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$ bin/james start
Starting Apache James Server App...
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$ netstat -l --numeric-ports | grep james
thufir@dur:~/apache-james-3.0-beta4$
So, bingo, that's the key, I think. why doesn't James show in netstat if it's indeed running?