Topic: SOLVED Incoming emails, local & remotely hosted, failing, sends OK, etc....

[joshAU]

Hi all.

I cannot receive ANY emails from two locally hosted and one ISP hosted email account.
I can, however, send emails successfully from any of these accounts.

When I try to receive emails, outlook express eventually returns this error:

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'user@some.com', Server: 'mail.some.com', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10060, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

This issue is occurring regardless of which PC inside the LAN I try to access emails from, using either Outlook or Outlook Express.

I can log into each account via webmail OK.

I'm running SME 8.0 in server + gateway mode using an ADSL connection.

This issue is occurring on PCs that are on the LAN side of the SME server.
I haven't tested it externally.

No changes have been made to any PC, email client, or the server.

My ISP, westnet, went down last friday night for several hours.
I ended up rebooting the server - which was the first time in ages, and the modem.
When the internet came back online, no email account receives emails, but I can send emails from each account no worries.

What I find strange is that both the locally hosted AND ISP email is not working.

If anyone can provide any advice, such as which log files,etc I should be examining, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thanks

ADDITIONAL INFO:

In the server-manager "mail retrieval" window I have the following settings:
Fetchmail disabled
Workstations in LAN can access POP/IMAP servers
Workstations in LAN can access ext. SMTP servers
Workstations in LAN have direct access to ext SMTP sservers.

in the server-manager "Configuration" then "E-mail" window, I have the following settings:
POP & IMAP allow access only from local.
Webmail allow HTTPS
Virus scanning enabled
exe content blocking disabled
email retrieval mode standard
SMTP authentication both SMTP and SSMTP
Email to unknown users reject.

[pcdoc]

Hi Josh (Fellow Aussie?). Having a break so thought I would peruse the boards.

See if you can run the following on the server.

>db configuration show qpsmtpd

If the result shows
          RelayRequiresAuth=enabled
     and
          TlsBeforeAuth=1

You may have the mail clients set to low security.

The error message showing Secure(SSL): No gives me the hint this may be a factor.

Rather than go around and fix all the email clients, if you run the following

>config setprop qpsmtpd TlsBeforeAuth 0
>config setprop qpsmtpd RelayRequiresAuth disabled
>signal-event email-update

You will set mail security on the server back to SME 7.4 levels.

BE AWARE - This WILL lower your internal email security levels....... !!!!!!!

If your situation is similar to 90% of my clients, lower away

You should find your error disappears.

Cheers from North Queensland.

[CharlieBrady]

Rather than go around and fix all the email clients, if you run the following ...

I'd encourage OP not to change anything until properly diagnosing the problem. I would suggest using a different email client which provides a better diagnostic message than "Error Number: 0x800CCC0E".

Once you understand what the problem is then fixing it reliably becomes much easier.

[joshAU]

Thanks for the replies.
The ISP based emails are now working, on two different computers.
The other two hosted on the local server, are not. hmm...

I'll have a better look at it tomorrow

@pcdoc
G'day, and yep.
I'll have a look into the security settings and logs and see if any thing is up.
Thanks for the suggestions.

@ CharlieBrady
Fair point.
Well, Outlook does at least provide a different diagnostic message - 0x80042108
lol, no better...

The only similarity between the two PCs is that they both have avg free 2013 on them.
Haven't had any issues with avg to date, but it could be the case.
In case some recent updates done something, I tried temporarily disabling real time protection on one of the PCs but it didn't make a difference.
I'll try uninstalling it completely, and run the removal tool as well, and see if that's the issue.
I'm pretty sure all windows updates are disabled, so I don't think that could be a factor.

Thanks again for your suggestions and advice.

[pcdoc]

Josh, have a look at wiki article Setting Up Email Clients for SME 8 http://wiki.contribs.org/Email_-_Setting_up_E-mail_clients_for_SME_8.0 and make sure one of the clients is setup according to the article.

This will help you in diagnosing your issue.

If it works, either change all the clients the same way, or make modifications as per my earlier post. BE AWARE your security will be lowered by this.

[janet]

joshAU

Install Thunderbird as an email client & you may get a better report on the errors.

[joshAU]

Hmm... this is embarrassing.
I rebooted the server, again, and now all accounts are working.
Something I should have checked.
I had initially rebooted the server, but I was confused by the fact that the ISP based email wasnt working either, and that then it started working again of its own accord.
 
I am thinking of the line from "The IT Crowd".
"Have you tried turning it off and on again"


Thanks again pcdoc for your suggestions.
As all of the email clients had been working for years, I couldnt understand why they had stopped on all pcs.
As the server was receiving them, as I could view them via webmail, it must have just been a glitch after that reboot.

And yes Janet... I should ween myself of MS products... bad habits die slowly I guess.

So, in summary...
Sorry all, and thanks.
Thanks for providing all the suggestions and advice.
I so appreciate it.

[CharlieBrady]

Your problem isn't necessarily solved - it just isn't evident at the moment. Since you don't know what the problem was, you don't know if or when it will re-appear.