Topic: MX timeout problem?

[djhomeless]

Hi Everyone,
I'm no DNS expert by any means, but I have managed fairly well over the last few years on my own. However, I have a problem with my mail server timing out and I am clueless what the issue could be.

I'm running SME v6 with SA and Clam from Knuddi, and generally the recommended contribs from the upgrade scripts.

Sometime around two months ago, I started getting complaints that my mail server was timing out and mails were getting rejected. Sure enough, after checking DNS Report, I could see it as well:

http://www.dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=idiotabroad.com

Now, I have tried to go fairly methodically. I've run an external port scan and I can confirm that ports 25 and 110 are open and accepting connections. I've also removed all the rules in my firewall which also acts as my DSL modem (Netgear DG834G). In addition to, all the settings I made in the proxy pass and port forwarding contrib have been removed, just in case.

Still, the problem persists. And last but not least, I disabled the RBL's I setup in the SA contrib, though that surely is not why the DNSReport test was failing.

Stranger still, in my smtpfront-qmail log, I can clearly see the DNSReport test should be succeeding:

Code: [Select]


2005-05-13 22:52:30.702434500 tcpserver: pid 32318 from 69.2.200.182
2005-05-13 22:52:30.712584500 tcpserver: ok 32317 0:192.168.0.10:25 test.dnsstuff.com:69.2.200.182::3986
2005-05-13 22:52:30.719839500 tcpserver: ok 32318 0:192.168.0.10:25 test.dnsstuff.com:69.2.200.182::3987

To be fair, I've also run tests from twisted4life.com and it fails there as well.

Anyone run across this before?

Thanks,

Geoffrey

[djhomeless]

Sorry for the blatant bump. Does anyone have any advice how i can research this? I'm getting more complaints of bounced mail from clients every day.

Sorry,

Geoffrey

[mophilly]

I haven't had the precise problem you descibe and, like you, I am not an expert or authority of any strip with DNS.

However, I have had some delivery issues that appear to have been the problem of my ISP. While no formal acknowledgement was given, after I phoned the office and discussed the various tests I had run with the tech support rep, the problem went away.

I assume that, since I had changed nothing, the problem and its resolution was with the ISP servers.

Sorry I can't offer a more technical description.

[epte]

I seem to be having the same issue.  Here's a relevant portion of /var/log/smtpfront-qmail:

2005-05-17 13:04:25.762196500 tcpserver: status: 1/40
2005-05-17 13:04:25.762429500 tcpserver: pid 5855 from 192.168.0.223
2005-05-17 13:04:25.763135500 tcpserver: ok 5855 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00223.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.223::2620
2005-05-17 13:08:25.197043500 tcpserver: status: 2/40
2005-05-17 13:08:25.197253500 tcpserver: pid 5862 from 192.168.0.223
2005-05-17 13:08:25.197738500 tcpserver: ok 5862 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00223.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.223::2641
2005-05-17 13:12:30.418228500 tcpserver: status: 3/40
2005-05-17 13:12:30.418507500 tcpserver: pid 5865 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:12:30.419089500 tcpserver: ok 5865 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2737
2005-05-17 13:14:53.498895500 tcpserver: status: 4/40
2005-05-17 13:14:53.499105500 tcpserver: pid 5878 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:14:53.499604500 tcpserver: ok 5878 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2739
2005-05-17 13:16:21.067822500 tcpserver: status: 5/40
2005-05-17 13:16:21.067997500 tcpserver: pid 5880 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:16:21.068476500 tcpserver: ok 5880 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2741
2005-05-17 13:17:38.808401500 tcpserver: status: 6/40
2005-05-17 13:17:38.808668500 tcpserver: pid 5881 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:17:38.809214500 tcpserver: ok 5881 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2743
2005-05-17 13:19:08.817015500 tcpserver: status: 7/40
2005-05-17 13:19:08.817235500 tcpserver: pid 5966 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:19:08.817678500 tcpserver: ok 5966 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2747
2005-05-17 13:21:05.057967500 tcpserver: status: 8/40
2005-05-17 13:21:05.058187500 tcpserver: pid 5970 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:21:05.058664500 tcpserver: ok 5970 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2749
2005-05-17 13:21:33.346891500 tcpserver: status: 9/40
2005-05-17 13:21:33.347165500 tcpserver: pid 5971 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:21:33.347758500 tcpserver: ok 5971 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2751
2005-05-17 13:23:05.223543500 tcpserver: status: 10/40
2005-05-17 13:23:05.223719500 tcpserver: pid 6025 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:23:05.224173500 tcpserver: ok 6025 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2768
2005-05-17 13:24:25.557929500 smtpfront-qmail[5855]: bytes in: 0 bytes out: 50

This, I think, is the timed-out message given back to try #1.

2005-05-17 13:24:25.558155500 tcpserver: end 5855 status 0
2005-05-17 13:24:25.558156500 tcpserver: status: 9/40
2005-05-17 13:25:01.266577500 tcpserver: status: 10/40
2005-05-17 13:25:01.266777500 tcpserver: pid 6052 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:25:01.267277500 tcpserver: ok 6052 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2770
2005-05-17 13:25:05.398055500 tcpserver: status: 11/40
2005-05-17 13:25:05.398248500 tcpserver: pid 6054 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:25:05.398674500 tcpserver: ok 6054 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2772
2005-05-17 13:27:05.562809500 tcpserver: status: 12/40
2005-05-17 13:27:05.562993500 tcpserver: pid 6073 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:27:05.563505500 tcpserver: ok 6073 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2774
2005-05-17 13:27:07.695132500 tcpserver: status: 13/40
2005-05-17 13:27:07.695419500 tcpserver: pid 6074 from 192.168.0.146
2005-05-17 13:27:07.695886500 tcpserver: ok 6074 0:192.168.0.4:25 pc-00146.theexecutivecenter.com:192.168.0.146::2776
2005-05-17 13:28:24.995674500 smtpfront-qmail[5862]: bytes in: 0 bytes out: 50

And another timed-out message to try #2.  And so on...


So, I have several questions at this point that we may be able to work through together:
1) What does smtpfront-qmail do?  What's it's job?
2) Is there any way to bump up the logging level of smtpfront-qmail?
3) What port are smtpfront-qmail negotiations an?  (I'm assuming 25...)
4) Where does smtpfront-qmail fall in the qmail scheme of things?  (see "The BIG Qmail Picture")
5) Is smtpfront-qmail, as I suspect, an e-smith-specific package?
6) Could you send a tcpdump -X -s 4096 port 25 of an email trying to get through but failing?  (We had one but accidentally deleted it.)
7) Are there SMTP or ESMTP commands that smtpfront-qmail doesn't recognize?

Erich
Ruffdogs.com

[epte]

And this just started for us yesterday.  Have you been having this problem for only a short amount of time also?

If so, what would be auto-updated or externally referenced on an e-smith box?

Erich Enke
Ruffdogs.com