One Client Cannot Send Mail

[damienf]

One of my clients (the Country Gourmet restaurant) is having trouble sending email through Outlook when using my ServePath dedicated server as the mail server. This is very bizarre because I have 3 other clients using the same server (virtual hosting) and this is the only one that is having problems. All of the computers on the Country Gourmet office network are able to receive mail from mail.country-gourmet.net, but none are able to send email on mail.country-gourmet.net. If I set up a test email account on my laptop and try to send mail from another network connection, it works fine. But as soon as I connect my laptop through their office network (which consists of a Linksys router and an SBC DSL modem) I am no longer able to send mail on the same account that worked before. I initially thought this was some kind of firewall problem, so I disabled all firewall software on the computers and on the router, but this changed nothing. I would simply write the problem off to their own network issues, but the really weird part is that if I use a different mail server from another web host (Aplus.net) all of the computers on the aforementioned troubled network are able to send mail just fine. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the Aplus.net mail server that works is using port 587 for the outgoing mail while my new ServePath server is using port 25. I am at a loss and could really use some help.

 

[thedaver]

What happens when you do
"telnet mail.country-gourmet.net 25"

You should see the SMTP banner. Otherwise SBC is blocking outbound port 25, which is a possibility.

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[damienf]

Thanks, thedaver. I think that SBC (and other ISP's as well) is blocking port 25, so I decided to try and get qmail to use another port for smtp.

I did the following:

1) I edited /etc/services to read:
smtp 26/tcp mail
smtp 26/udp mail

2) then I restarted qmail be using the following comands:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/qmail stop
/etc/rc.d/init.d/qmail start

This totally backfired on me. Not only does the server not accept outgoing mail on port 26, but now it accepts mail from *ANYONE* on port 25.

I tried restoring the /etc/services file to its original state and restarting qmail, but this didn't help. I then rebooted to no avail. Can someone set me straight here?

fyi - I'm running RH9 with a Plesk control panel.

 

[thedaver]

You should restore to the defaults and speak to your ISP. Typically they are able to allow your DSL/Cable to go out port 25 with prior arrangement.

You could also implement a VPN or SSH tunnel to move traffic to the remote port 25.



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[damienf]

I understand about talking to the ISP, and I have already successfully had SBC remove blocking on port 25. FOr anyone reading this having he same problem, just go to:

http://help.sbcglobal.net/servabuse.php

The problem now is that I have restored the qmail defaults to the best of my knowledge, yet my server is still accepting emails from ANYONE who tries to send mail through it. This thread is a qmail configuration issue now. I have no idea how to get qmail to start verifying the senders of these emails again.

 

[thedaver]

OK let's start again, then.

Have you verified that SBC's change took effect? Was there a 24 hour time to take effect?

Have you tried to telnet to the mail server's port 25 from the affected machines?

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[damienf]

Dave,

I appreciate your efforts, but you are not understanding me. Let's forget about the Port 25 blocking by SBC for now.

I have a much more pressing issue dealing with getting qmail to function properly on RH9 using Plesk. I opened a trouble ticket with my dedicated server hosting company (ServePath) who originally configured the server. Now I think they are doing things to try and fix qmail and now all of my clients are unable to send and receive email.

I think it's beyond your ability to help at this point and it's definitely beyond my knowledge how to get the qmail back to normal. If you have any insight, let me know.

 

[thedaver]

Please start a new thread with fresh information when you are ready to talk again. I don't do anything in support of Plesk so you're going to have to rely on your vendor to get the default qmail working again.

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[plshlpme]

the easiest way is to tell your clients to use an alternative port for smtp.. ie 9999
and then using iptables or whatever you use for firewall
dnat 9999 back to 25...

this will get around the isps blocking smtp traffic.