Koozali.org: home of the SME Server

Can VPN in and receive email, but not send or ping internet sites

Offline brianr

  • *
  • 990
  • +2/-0
I've a server where after a power cut, I'd lost one of the raid pair.  At that point "everything" was working after the reboot (I got the raid failure emails from admin), except the lost HD.

I re-added the drive using mdadm, but I guess the other drive has a hardware failure and seems to have failed to survive the re-sync.

So now the server  will accept email and a VPN, but is not sending emails (45 up the spout according to qmail qstats) and cannot ping anything on the internet by name or IP.  I've tried a post-upgrade and reboot, but still no luck. 

Plenty of disc space, no obvious message in the dmesg log or in /var/log/messages, /var/log/qmail shows

CNAME_lookup_failed_temporarily._(#4.4.3)/

In Gateway Server mode, I can ping the router, but no further.

Anyone any idea what might be broken (and how to mend it)?
« Last Edit: August 08, 2009, 01:09:17 PM by brianr »
Brian j Read
(retired, for a second time, still got 2 installations though)
The instrument I am playing is my favourite Melodeon.
.........

Offline David Harper

  • *
  • 653
  • +0/-0
  • Watch this space
    • Workgroup Technology Solutions
Re: Can VPN in and receive email, but not send or ping internet sites
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2009, 05:41:33 AM »
From the log piece it sounds like a DNS issue.

Can you ping beyond the router by IP, e.g. Google's main server - 66.102.11.104?

Offline brianr

  • *
  • 990
  • +2/-0
Re: Can VPN in and receive email, but not send or ping internet sites
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2009, 06:45:50 PM »
From the log piece it sounds like a DNS issue.

Can you ping beyond the router by IP, e.g. Google's main server - 66.102.11.104?

that's initially what i thought, but I cannot ping an IP either
Brian j Read
(retired, for a second time, still got 2 installations though)
The instrument I am playing is my favourite Melodeon.
.........

Offline paradigm

  • *
  • 96
  • +0/-0
Re: Can VPN in and receive email, but not send or ping internet sites
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2009, 08:37:53 PM »
Sounds to me like a bad router or a bad dns server in your isp ,

please run the following tests :

1.connect a pc (maybe a laptop) directly to your router bypassing sme server
and try to ping google.

2.if you have a modem connected to the router try to connect it directly
to your laptop or pc used above and try pinging google.

both test will show if the problam is your router sme server , if you faill

both i would recommend giving your isp a call and asking why you cant ping

google

please post your results

Offline brianr

  • *
  • 990
  • +2/-0
Re: Can VPN in and receive email, but not send or ping internet sites
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2009, 08:55:21 PM »
Sounds to me like a bad router or a bad dns server in your isp ,

please run the following tests :

1.connect a pc (maybe a laptop) directly to your router bypassing sme server
and try to ping google.

2.if you have a modem connected to the router try to connect it directly
to your laptop or pc used above and try pinging google.

both test will show if the problam is your router sme server , if you faill

both i would recommend giving your isp a call and asking why you cant ping

google

please post your results

i am remote from the system as the moment, but I'll see if I can get to it tomorrow, at the moment the inability to ping is from putty when i am VPN'd into it.

I didn't think that the ISP DNS was used, it was the one in the SMEServer that resolves  things.

More likely the router is damaged (perhaps from the power failure), I'll investigate tomorrow, thanks for the suggestions.
Brian j Read
(retired, for a second time, still got 2 installations though)
The instrument I am playing is my favourite Melodeon.
.........

Offline paradigm

  • *
  • 96
  • +0/-0
Re: Can VPN in and receive email, but not send or ping internet sites
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2009, 09:06:32 PM »
Dns works in your network like this :

client pc --- sme dns server -- if not inside local network then --- 

router dns server -- if not inside the router's local network --- isp dns servers

so if the client pc (or you with putty inside the network) pings google it will

go through all dns servers above , a problam with any of the above can give

the symptoms you posted about.

Offline CharlieBrady

  • *
  • 6,918
  • +3/-0
Re: Can VPN in and receive email, but not send or ping internet sites
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2009, 09:49:25 PM »
In Gateway Server mode, I can ping the router, but no further.

That's likely an incorrectly set default gateway, or something broken in the router or beyond.

Offline CharlieBrady

  • *
  • 6,918
  • +3/-0
Re: Can VPN in and receive email, but not send or ping internet sites
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2009, 09:51:08 PM »
So now the server  will accept email and a VPN...

Will accept email and VPN from where? From LAN, or from Internet? If from Internet, then you don't have a default gateway problem.

Offline brianr

  • *
  • 990
  • +2/-0
Re: Can VPN in and receive email, but not send or ping internet sites
« Reply #8 on: August 09, 2009, 11:03:34 PM »
Will accept email and VPN from where? From LAN, or from Internet? If from Internet, then you don't have a default gateway problem.

Yes, VPN from internet works fine, also it is receiving email from outside ok. (just not sending it).
Brian j Read
(retired, for a second time, still got 2 installations though)
The instrument I am playing is my favourite Melodeon.
.........