Eircom BB probs? - send/receive email

misterq

Hi Gang

Here's a strange one for you.
A company I know has an Eircom BB connection (Clondalkin Exchange, fixed IP in 82.141.193.xxx range).

Up until last week they were going along fine.
Then towards the end of the week, they were unable to send mail out as the SMTP server was timing out, but it was definitely not down. Using IP address had no effect. they could telnet to it though.

Their IT guy checked everything out over the weekend and could only send out mails < 1k, but everything else was OK.

Today, sending and receiving mail times out 99% of the time (after 2 hours of hitting send/receive every chance he got, one guy managed to send an email out!).

This really sound like a DSL fault, but as they can browse the net fine, what chances do they have convincing Eircom of this, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks

Ronan

misterq

Bubbles - they aren't using Eircom for their email so that rules it out!
We've tried both the eircom.net SMTP server and their proper third party smtp server with no luck.

Thanks all the same!

liamo

What is the email server? Does it have logs? Are there any specific errors?

Today, sending and receiving mail times out 99% of the time

Do you mean that the email client is timing out? If so, that's a local issue and has nothing to do with the DSL.

Have they tried Telneting to the server and issuing SMTP and/or POP commands at the command line?

Without ruling it out entirely, it doesn't sound like a DSL problem and they'd be better off concentrating on eliminating the server and clients and settings as the problem before assuming it to be an Eircom problem. If they complain to Eircom, they're likely to be told that if they can browse the 'net then the problem is at their end (which is very likely the case).

The answers to the following questions will go a long way to pinpointing the problem.
1) Can they send/receive from the client to the local server?
2) Can they Telnet to ports 25 and 110 of the local server (and issue SMTP/POP commands)?
3) Can they Telnet to port 25 of the destination server and manually send an email?


Regards,

Liam


[Edit] Oops. I made the assumption that they have their own mail server in-house. Upon re-reading the original post, this may not actually be the case. Can you give a little more information about their server?[/Edit]

misterq

The email client is timing out when trying to connect to the pop/smtp servers.
The mail server isn't logging anything from them - they aren't reaching it, but other users in a different location are fine.

Just to clarify, it's not a local mail server - its a mail server hosted elsewhere.

We have been able to telnet to and send text mails, but anything via outlook (eg > 1k in size), doesn't send.

It doesn't really make sense either way really.
I don't reallly think there is any point in changing client settings - there are 4 email clients and all stopped working at the same time so it most be something central, and the telnetting rules out a firewall.


I do agree with you that Eircom are unlikely to be very helpful "if you can browse the net...". I'm doing a bit googling for similar issues, but nothing so far.

maybe everything just needs a good kick....

liamo

The fact that all 4 PCs started experiencing problems at the same time points to a common fault alright. Your ability to Telnet to the server would seem to indicate that the connection is fine. So, let's get our hands a little dirty....

Download and install Ethereal on one of the PCs. This is a packet sniffer and if you run it while doing a send/receive it will tell you exactly what traffic is being generated and where the process is breaking down.

If you're not getting any responses from the remote server, put that PC on a hub (not a switch) and monitor the network activity from another PC on the hub to see if the packets are actually leaving the PC.

Additionally, if you want, I can set you up with a temporary account on my mail server and you can test against that. If that works then I would suspect a problem on the server. PM me if you want to try it.

Regards,

Liam

misterq

Cheers Liam

Ethereal sound like a good idea.
I've tried another mail server - no joy.
I even allowed relaying from that IP, and still no joy.

I suppose a bit of packet sniffing is whats called for!

Will let you know how I get on.