Re: OT: Email
- From: leeb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Lee Blevins)
- Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:06:10 -0400
Peggy <peggy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm a designer, and conduct almost all of business by email. It usually goes
quite smoothly. But yesterday ... oy. And even last week, things were
delayed. I received an email this morning (Tuesday) that was sent last
Thursday; another client received an email this morning that I sent
yesterday morning.
We're using a variety of ISPs, and gmail.
Anybody else? Is it local to the American west?
Peggy
Email basics:
SMTP - This is a server that runs on your ISP's computer is what does
the heavy lifting of mail transferring. The SMTP server is what sends
and receives the mail. When you send an email it is sent to this server.
The SMTP server does the work of sending the email to the SMTP server at
the destination. The SMTP at the destination receives the mail and
stores it in a users mailbox file.
POP - Post Office Protocol is a server that runs on a computer,
sometimes the same one as the SMTP sometimes not - This software is what
your mail client (Eudora, Outllook, etc.) connects to. It reads the
mailbox file that the SMTP made and presents the mail to you (and your
mail client) as an organized list of mail to be read. Another protocol,
IMAP is becoming more popular than POP for some technical reasons about
reading mail from different computers. Today, most ISPs run both POP and
IMAP.
If you are not getting mail, the problem is almost certainly a failure
to communicate ;)
That failure would probably be between the two SMTP servers.
When I have to debug the situation you are in I have the client send the
email and I watch the processor status while logged into the computer
that runs the SMTP server. I can see a process as the mail is being
received. More often than not, I don't see the process as they say they
are sending the mail. That indicates their SMTP for some reason is not
sending the mail. As you have experienced I might get it the next day or
hours later.
Here's a ps line that shows me the mail server is running:
129 ?? Ss 1:35.18 sendmail: accepting connections (sendmail)
Here's a line that shows me it is currently receiving mail:
45255 ?? I 0:00.01 sendmail: server [85.185.59.196] child wait
(sendmail)
45257 ?? I 0:00.01 sendmail: server [85.185.59.196] cmd read
(sendmail)
A "whois" on that ip will show you that it's spam from Iran.
Yup, no kidding, Iran.
The reasons the SMTP might not send the mail out immediately are many. A
common one is a DNS failure. For some reason the sending SMTP cannot
resolve the host name of the target. This could be for many reasons. The
sending SMTP will try again as it is programmed to do and it will either
eventually resolve the host and send or return a non-deliverable error
to the originator.
It usually isn't a failure of the POP server. You would know right away
if that was the case because you wouldn't be able to check the mail.
Your client would error out with being unable to find the mail host.
These problems are usually the result of ISP installing new software on
the mail server and messing up when they do it.
It is customary it seems for ISP's to lie through their teeth and deny
it has anything to do with them.
Many times I have caught ISP telling fibs that it's not their problem
and I have to remind them that I'm sitting at a unix terminal and I can
query their mail server and see that it is offline.
Another reason for mail failures is poorly informed sys admins who use
Microsoft products for mail servers. Why anyone would pay for software
for a mail server is beyond me. If you are going to pay for heavens sake
get something better than Microsoft products.
.
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